The Invention of Wings: A Novel

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As for how I developed Handful and Sarah’s individual quests for freedom, I’m reminded of a certain looming moment in the story when Handful says to Sarah, “My body might be a slave, but not my mind. For you, it’s the other way round.” Handful is conveying a truth she knows only too well herself, that one’s mind can become a cage, too. Finding their freedom had to do with liberating themselves internally, discovering a sense of self, and the boldness to express that self. There’s a scene in which Handful willfully takes a bath in the Grimké’s majestic copper bathtub. I can’t tell you how much pleasure I derived from writing this scene. Handful’s bath is tinged with defiance, but it becomes a baptism into her own worth. Observing her in the aftermath of it, Sarah says, “She had the look of someone who’d declared herself.” Handful has begun to understand that even though her body is trapped in slavery, her mind is her own. The question then became how to emancipate herself physically. What needed to transpire inside of her to bring her to the crucial moment of risking everything? I felt that the moment occurs near the end of the story, when little missus disparages the story portrayed in her Charlotte’s quilt and Handful fears she may burn it. I saw this moment as a kind of watershed in which all the accumulated sorrows and deprivations of Handful’s life, and even of her mother’s life, come together, causing her to want freedom more than the next breath. “To leave or die trying.” A remarkable novel that heightened my sense of what it meant to be a woman – slave or free . . a conversation changer.”– Oprah Winfrey, O, The Oprah Magazine In their remarkable journey over the next 35 years, both strive for a life of their own, shaping each other's destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance and the final great act of courage, when Sara rescues Hetty and her sister Sara from Charleston and brings them to Philadelphia in the free north.

I first came upon the Grimké sisters in 2007 while visiting Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Their names were listed on the Heritage Panels, which honor 999 women who’ve made important contributions to western history. Later, I was astonished to discover they were from Charleston, South Carolina, the same city in which I was then living. Somehow I’d never heard of these two amazing women, but I immediately dove in, learning everything I could, and the more I learned, the more excited I became. I discovered that Sarah and Angelina were from a wealthy slave-holding family, at the top of the planter class, moving in the elite circles of society, and yet they broke with everything, their family, religion, homeland and traditions, and became the first female abolition agents in America and among the earliest feminist thinkers. They were, arguably, the most radical females to ever come out of the antebellum South. I fell in love with their story. I was especially drawn to Sarah. I was moved by how thoroughly life was arranged against her and what she overcame, by how deeply she yearned to have a voice in the world, by how utterly human she was, and how determinedly she invented her wings.

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The Invention of Wings Information Here (I suggest looking for the original non annotated version, not the Oprah annotated version) Meet the Author, Sue Monk Kidd Unmarried, unusually cultured and plain in appearance, Sarah had to overcome her own disregard and fight against her own prejudices and fears with all her might to meet her fate and defend equal justice and equal value for those who were not white, not native-born or not male. She'd immersed herself in forbidden privileges, yes, but mostly in the belief she was worthy of those privileges. What she'd done was not a revolt, it was a baptism. The books alternates between Sarah and Hetty's two voices. We learn about both of their lives, their hopes and their dreams, their fears, their anxieties, and their thoughts on one another. We learn about both of their intertwined lives over a 35 year span. I love the part in the book (and I am paraphrasing) where Hetty tells Sarah that her (Hetty's) body may not be free but her mind is her own and that Sarah's body is free but her mind (Sarah's) is not her own. I know some people did not are for the alternating voices but I loved it. I thought it was brilliant and really gave us a glimpse of both women. Each of their stories was important and needed to be told. Had you heard of the Denmark Vesey slave plot before reading this novel? Were you aware of the extent that slaves resisted? Why do you think the myth of the happy, compliant slave endured? What were some of the more inventive or cunning ways that Charlotte, Handful and other characters rebelled and subverted the system?

This is not the first novel which alludes to people once having had wings, now obsolete but their framework still existing. The function of shoulder blades is to provide the foundation for proper shoulder joint function and shoulder health. Handful's people believed that they are the nubs of their ancestor's wings, wings used to carry them freely across the skies. Hence, the title The Invention of Wings and in the book, the slaves most surely would have mourned the loss of their ability to fly. But I digress... Kidd portrays an array of male characters in the novel: Sarah’s father; Sarah’s brother Thomas; Theodore Weld; Denmark Vesey; Goodis Grimke, Israel Morris, Burke Williams. Some of them are men of their time, some are ahead of their time. Which of these male characters did you find most compelling? What positive and negative roles did they play in Sarah and Handful’s evolvement? SMK: Yes, and of course, it was so much worse for slave women—but even for American white women, it was an atrocious time that we don't fully appreciate. Everyday rebellions against injustice pattern the plot. "You do your rebellions anyway you can," observes Handful when her mother is punished for stealing bright green cloth from her owner, in a narrative threaded with an intricate textile motif. "I have knots in my years that I can't undo," laments Handful, but, stitch by stitch, a more hopeful future is woven. Sue Monk Kidd was raised in the small town of Sylvester, Georgia, a place that deeply influenced the writing of her first novel The Secret Life of Bees. An award-winning and international bestselling author, Kidd also authored The Invention of Wings and The Mermaid Chair, as well as several acclaimed memoirs, including Traveling with Pomegranates and The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. Her new novel, The Book of Longings was published on April 21, 2020.SMK: I was interested in how my characters could invent their own freedom, their own voices in the world—their wings. It was adapted as a 2006 Lifetime movie of the same name. [4] The movie starred Kim Bassinger and Bruce Greenwood. The Invention of Wings study guide contains a biography of Sue Monk Kidd, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.