A Bird in the House

1098 Words5 Pages
iA Bird In the House Venessa’s relationship with Family members and how they are impacted Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House, is a short story that narratives a young girl’s journey from the innocence of childhood to the experience of adulthood. The narrative style of the stories is important, since it is through Vanessa's own eyes that we learn of her family and life - yet the eyes belong to an older, wiser Vanessa, remembering her own childhood from a future point years later. A number of themes and sub themes are established in the novel, but perhaps the most prominent is the theme of lack of freedom. The title “a bird in the house” is full symbolism signifying a hidden soul of sorrow. In around eight interrelated written stories, Margaret Laurence recreates the world of Vanessa MacLeod a granddaughter of a tyrant woman who lived as perfectionist though under depression. Margaret Laurence’s symbolically titled A Bird in the House, follows the protagonist, Vanessa, through the retelling of her youth and the untimely death of her father, Ewen. Like the image of the sparrow “caught between the two layers of glass”(145), Vanessa and her father are caught in the rigid confines of the never “endearing” MacLeod household. The relationship between Vanessa and her father is unable to flourish due to the repressive nature of their environment, but it is in how they choose to accept this that they differ. Their sufferance of confinement and guilt, along with unorthodox religious views, Vanessa and Ewen are obliviously similar yet distinctively different in their attitudes. Their relationship illustrates how easily a parent child connection can be hindered when both parties are ignorant to clear communication. Vanessa grows in a homestead that offers her physical, social and emotional confinement. She was not around to meet her friends or engage herself
Open Document