The Birdcage

As we far too often forget, there are perspectives outside of our own. Unless you happen to be a solipsist. In which case, these outside perspectives must be manifestations of your own subconscious and are therefore your perspectives after all.

However, for the rest of us who are more or less certain of the nature of our own realities, discussion can be a valuable tool to deepen our understanding. Indeed, as I was in "class" at "school" discussing with "other students" our opinions on Lawrence Hill's "The Book of Negroes", many interesting insights came up. Perhaps the one I never would have considered on my own was Fanta's intentions in her bird murder (or birder, if you will).

For those unfamiliar with the novel, Fanta is a woman who comes from the same village as the protagonist, Aminata. They are both captured and taken on board the slave ship and while traveling, Fanta delivers the baby that she's been carrying since before they were taken.

Shortly after Aminata helps Fanta give birth, the new mother, seemingly out of the blue, murders a parrot that was being kept as a pet by the doctor of the ship (Tom, the medicine man, or whatever you'd like to call him). She then goes on to kill her own child and another woman's during the slave's revolt.

It is easy to chalk this up to mental instability brought on by unthinkable conditions, but to do so would be to miss a great piece of symbolism that Hill placed in the book.

The parrot is an animal foreign to the toubabu (white men). It can speak English, but does not understand it. And it is undeniably captive to its owner.

So it can be imagined that Fanta saw herself and her own predicament in the bird.

This revelation that Fanta's attack may have a deeper meaning than pregnancy-and-captivity-induced instability changes my interpretation of her character significantly. She can seem a bit unhinged to the casual reader - insisting that they'll all be eaten, refusing to let Aminata talk to her captors, killing two babies and one bird. However, when one reconsiders her motives for killing the bird, probably one of her strangest outbursts, it can shift the entire perspective on her character: perhaps she also killed the two children in an act of misguided heroism. She thought it was worse for them to live in captivity than to not live at all, and indeed saved them from a life of slavery.

She becomes a much more sympathetic character, especially if one cares to recall the fact that she refused to be inspected until Aminata told her that the toubabu would hurt Aminata if Fanta did not co-operate. In essence, she is a protector to Aminata, the babies, and maybe even the bird. In her tortured state, killing the three creatures could seem very much like an act of mercy. As well, it is a bit of a rebellion against her captors who would profit from their cargo reaching America alive.

So perhaps Fanta is not a lunatic. Perhaps she is a motherly figure, driven to cruel heroism by horrible circumstances.

And perhaps, she saw herself in that birdcage.