Feathers

“And then, just before the lunch bell rang, he walked into our classroom. Stepped through that door white and softly as the snow. The class got quiet and the boy reached into his pocket and pulled something out. A note for you, Ms. Johnson, the boy said. And the way his voice sounded, all new and soft in the room, made most of the class laugh out loud. But Ms. Johnson gave us a look and the class got quiet.”

The simile likening the new student to snow operates on multiple levels. The comparison conveys his classmates’ assumption that he is white based on his appearance, and it also expresses his quiet, gentle nature. Woodson’s diction further emphasizes this gentleness with words like “soft” and “softly.” The scene’s hushed atmosphere, broken only by a brief burst of laughter, shows the students’ surprise and confusion upon first seeing the Jesus Boy.

“The boy was pale and his hair was long—almost to his back. And curly—like my own brother’s hair but Mama would never let Sean’s hair grow that long. And he was skinny too. Tall and skinny with white, white hands hanging down below his coat sleeves. Skinny white neck showing above his collar.”

The repetition of the word “white” reflects Frannie’s belief that the new student is Caucasian and her astonishment at seeing a student who appears white in her otherwise all-Black school. The repetition of the word “skinny” offers a clue about the boy’s low socioeconomic status.

“I could smell burgers and French fries in the cafeteria. Mr. Hungry was hollering loud in my stomach, so I didn’t think anything else about the boy until he showed up on the lunch line in front of me.”

Mr. Hungry embodies Frannie’s hunger and is an example of personification, a type of figurative language in which human features or attributes are attributed to something that isn’t human. Although the narrator is beginning to grow up and examine mature questions about faith, hope, and racial divisions, moments like this show that the 11-year-old retains a youthful playfulness. Frannie’s creative way of describing her appetite reflects her fascination with metaphors and love of literature in general.

“After a few minutes, he lifted his head a little bit and stared calmly past everything and everybody—his lips pressed together, his hair lifting up in the wind. I tried to see all the things he was seeing. But all I saw was the highway out past the school yard. A tiny dot of an airplane. The sun slipping back behind some clouds. And miles and miles of wet, gray sky.”

This passage conveys Frannie’s fascination with her new classmate. Her description of the way that he gazes “calmly past everything and everybody” gives him a striking and mystical aura. The fragments at the end of the passage provide distinct, concrete descriptions of Frannie’s surroundings. Frannie’s desire “to see all the things he [i]s seeing” foreshadows the way that her interactions with the Jesus Boy lead her to develop more hope and empathy.

“We were sitting together on the window seat, staring out at the wet snow, the gray sky and the cars moving along the highway—tiny and slow in the distance. I was thinking about the Jesus Boy. There weren’t white people on this side of the highway. You didn’t notice until one appeared. And then you saw all the brown and light brown everywhere.”

Woodson gives the scene a subdued mood through tactile imagery like the “wet snow” and visual imagery like the movement of the “tiny and slow [cars] in the distance.” The visual imagery of the “gray sky” helps the author transition into discussing color in terms of the city’s racial divides. The highway mentioned in this passage serves as a symbol of societal divides throughout the novel because it separates the white and affluent side of the city from the predominantly Black side.

“In the summertime, Trevor’s skin turned the prettiest copper brown. Once, when he was standing next to me at the park, I saw his bare arms up close, just hanging all quiet along his sides—and the skin, the way it looked all golden somehow, stopped me. I stared at his arms and saw the Trevor that was maybe inside of the Evil Trevor—just a regular boy with beautiful skin. I saw that, even though he was mean all the time, the sun still stopped and colored him and warmed him—like it did to everybody else.”

This passage showcases the lyrical language for which Woodson’s writing is celebrated. The repetition of the word “skin” adds to the excerpt’s poetic quality and reflects the prominent role that skin color plays in the characters’ perceptions of one another. Frannie’s observations that Trevor’s skin is “beautiful” and that the sun warms him “like it d[oes] to everybody else” illustrate her conviction that his interracial identity shouldn’t leave him othered or ashamed. The narrator’s reflections advance the theme of The Impact of Perceived Racial Differences on Community Dynamics by pointing to the possibility of a more inclusive community. In addition, Frannie’s belief that there might be “a regular boy” hidden “inside of the Evil Trevor” foreshadows Trevor’s vulnerability later in the novel.

“That day, the room was completely quiet. It was like we were all glued to our seats. It was like somebody had come into the room and gently lifted our tongues right on out of our mouths.”

Woodson uses similes to describe the students’ silence and stillness by saying that it is “like [they] [a]re glued to [their] seats” and like someone had “lifted [their] tongues right on out of [their] mouths.” The repetition of “It was like” at the start of the second and third sentences is an example of anaphora. This literary device and the similes add emphasis to the class’s pensive quiet after the Jesus Boy leaves in tears. This passage advances the theme of faith by showing how the Jesus Boy leads his fellow students to contemplate theological questions, such as what it means to believe in God and whether Jesus Christ would come to their neighborhood if he returned to the world.

“Mama said she watched the light and the light had so many things in it—color and dust, hard and soft patches of sun. She said she sat there and leaned into that light and it warmed her and helped her understand.”

The repetition of “and” in the last sentence is an example of polysyndeton, the stylistic addition of coordinating conjunctions where none are grammatically necessary. Polysyndeton adds to the passage’s poetic flow. This excerpt develops the role of faith and hope in challenging environments by showing how going to church helps Frannie’s mother process Lila’s death.

“‘In the Bible, he just showed up and then miracles started happening—people started rising up from the dead and eating bread that was his body and drinking wine that was his blood and—’ ‘Yuck!’ I said, covering my ears. ‘Yuck on the blood-wine. Yuck on the body-bread. Yuck on the dead walking back into the world after we went and had a whole expensive funeral for them.’”

The repetition of the interjection “Yuck” adds humor to the narrative tone and underlines the contrast between Samatha’s devotion and Frannie’s irreverence. Highlighting the humorous differences in the friends’ personalities adds some levity to the characters’ weighty dialogue about the world’s problems in this chapter.

“But standing there in the cold and the wind, the word felt big and important to me—like it was trying to wrap itself around me—like it was tapping itself on my head, trying to get in.”

Woodson employs metaphorical language in Frannie’s description of the feeling that the world is “tapping itself on [her] head.” This sensation that she is on the cusp of a “big and important” understanding signifies that the protagonist is making progress toward the convictions about faith and hope that she gains by the end of the story.

“I’d want to know how do you have hope when there’s always a Trevor somewhere kicking at somebody. When there’s always a mama somewhere who maybe wasn’t thriving. And maybe he would look at me and smile the way Sean smiled—all patient and sorry for me. Maybe he’d have that calm look like the Jesus Boy. Maybe he’d have an answer.”

The repetition of the phrase “when there’s always” underlines the reasons why Frannie struggles to have hope, and the repetition of the word “maybe” emphasizes her longing for answers. The italics on “thriving” call attention to a word charged with deeply negative connotations for Frannie. Because a doctor once told Mama that one of the infants who died wasn’t thriving during the pregnancy, the word choice underscores Frannie’s fears for her mother’s physical and mental health. This passage emphasizes The Role of Faith and Hope in Facing Challenges by depicting the young protagonist’s hunger for hope and her awareness of the suffering in the world and her own family.

“I opened Mama’s door slowly and kneeled down beside her bed. It was almost dark now and the light coming into her room was silvery and soft. Everything was so quiet, I could hear my own breath and hers too, coming slowly. Her mouth was slightly open and she looked real peaceful with her eyes closed and that little bit of silver light coming in on her dark face.”

The author provides visual imagery, such as the “silvery and soft” light, and auditory imagery, such as the “quiet” sounds of Frannie’s and Mama’s breaths. This literary device helps Woodson give the scene a peaceful mood and express how seeing her mother sleeping peacefully soothes some of Frannie’s worries.

“I wasn’t afraid of dying because dying had always been somewhere in our house, somewhere so close, we could feel the wind of it on our cheeks. Lila had died. The other babies had died. And now Mama was pregnant again and maybe this one would make it and maybe it wouldn’t. But if it didn’t, it would hurt for a while and then we’d figure out how to move on.”

The metaphor comparing death to the “wind” emphasizes the unseen force’s power and proximity to Frannie and her family. The switch from the long, flowing first sentence to the short, simple structure of the second and third sentences creates a matter-of-fact tone, reinforcing the passage’s point that Frannie is used to the idea of mortality because of the deaths of her infant siblings. This stoic perspective is echoed in her certainty that the family will “figure out how to move on” if her mother’s current pregnancy ends in another loss.

“I guess the writer was thinking about how light feathers are and they can just float everywhere. And I guess that’s how hope is too—all light and everywhere like that. There’s hope in this house. And at your church. And at OnePeople. At our school. Across the highway and on this side too. Everywhere.”

The novel makes several allusions to the poem “‘Hope’ Is the Thing With Feathers.” In the original poem, Emily Dickinson uses metaphorical language to compare hope to a bird. In this passage, Frannie sees feathers as a metaphor for hope because they “can just float everywhere,” just as hope can be found anywhere. Woodson’s stylistic use of fragments adds to the lyrical nature of Frannie’s dialogue. The italics on the word “and” emphasize that those with privilege and affluence do not have a monopoly on hope.

“I went to Trevor. The minute I saw him falling, I went toward him. It was automatic. Something inside me just said, ‘Go!’ And I did. Because Trevor was falling and then he was in the snow. And in the snow he looked smaller and weaker and more human than any of us.”

The repetition of the verb “went” emphasizes that Frannie’s empathetic response to Tyler is automatic. The repetition of the coordinating conjunction “and” in the phrase “smaller and weaker and more human” is an example of polysyndeton that emphasizes Trevor’s traits during this rare moment of vulnerability, elucidating the reasons why Frannie intervened to help the bully.

“Hope is the thing with feathers. After Ms. Johnson had read us that poem, she asked us why we thought the poet wrote that. Trevor was the one who had said, Maybe because she wanted to fly. Like a feathered bird, he’d said. And then he went back to staring out the window. Or maybe, I’d said, because, like those yucky pigeons, hope is always all around us.”

The similes that Trevor and Frannie offer in their interpretations of Dickinson’s poem provide insights into their characterization. Trevor suggests that the poet wanted to fly “[l]ike a feathered bird,” offering a rare insight into something deeper under the bully’s surface and suggesting that he desires to leave his current surroundings behind. Frannie says that hope is ubiquitous “like those yucky pigeons” in New York City, reflecting her determination to look for the bright side of things.

“Jesus had seen something other kids hadn’t seen. Not because they couldn’t. Because their hearts were kinder. But the Jesus Boy had gone right to the soft hurting spot in Trevor. And he’d peeled the skin of that hurting back to show us all the scar that was there. Jesus hurt somebody. And the hurting proved to all of us that the Jesus Boy was just a boy. A white-black boy. A human boy all complicated and crazy as the rest of us.”

The repetition of the word “hurting” emphasizes not only Trevor’s pain but also the way that the Jesus Boy’s classmates view him differently after he hurts Trevor. The metaphorical language describing how the Jesus Boy peels “the skin of that hurting back to show [them] all the scar” underscores Trevor’s uncharacteristic vulnerability and the deliberateness of the Jesus Boy’s actions. The repetition of the word “boy” at the end of the passage emphasizes the students’ realization that their new classmate is just as “human” and therefore as “complicated and crazy” as they are.

“The heat was blasting when I opened the front door of our apartment and I rushed inside. I could smell something good cooking and ran into the kitchen without even taking my shoes off. Mama was standing at the stove, chicken grease popping loud and heating up the kitchen.”

This excerpt uses imagery that appeals to the readers’ sense of touch with the “blasting” heat and sense of smell with the aroma of “something good cooking.” The onomatopoeia of “popping” adds another sound effect to capture the moment. The sensory details in this passage foster a cheery mood and offer indications that Frannie’s mother is feeling better.

“‘It frees him,’ he said. ‘All that stuff that makes him mad and mean and ugly leaves him when he does stuff to other people.’ ‘Until the next time,’ I said. ‘Then it all just comes right back.’ The sun went behind some clouds and the wind picked up. I shivered. ‘But maybe the next time, it’ll be a little bit less and a little bit less and a little bit less until it’s finally all gone.’”

The polysyndeton in the phrase “mad and mean and ugly” emphasizes the negative traits that arise from Trevor’s inner pain. Later in the passage, Woodson employs polysyndeton and repetition in the phrase “a little bit less and a little bit less and a little bit less” to convey the Jesus Boy’s hope that Trevor might heal over time. This passage advances the Jesus Boy’s characterization by explaining why he endures Trevor’s bullying for so long.

“Maybe he is. Maybe there’s a little bit of Jesus inside of all of us. Maybe Jesus is just that something good or something sad or something…something that stays with us and makes us do stuff like help Trevor up even though he’s busy cursing us out. Or maybe…maybe Jesus is just that thing you had when the Jesus Boy first got here, Samantha. Maybe Jesus is the hope that you were feeling.”

The repetition of the word “Maybe” at the beginning of the sentences is an example of anaphora that gives Frannie’s dialogue a poetic quality. The passage marks a key moment for the theme of hope and faith, and Frannie realizes her belief that “there’s a little bit of Jesus inside” of everyone as she voices her thoughts aloud.

“There were a million days in my head, all of them marching all over each other. All of them coming from my heart and feeling like my heart-truth. I didn’t have the slightest idea where to begin. There were all kinds of thoughts swirling around in my head and it felt like the whole class dropped away and disappeared and all that was left was me and my pen and my paper and the whole wide world spinning around me. I felt dizzy with all those thoughts, had to put my head down on the desk.”

The fourth sentence in the passage is a run-on that rolls on and on to reflect how Frannie’s “swirling” thoughts feel out of her control. The comma usage in the last sentence doesn’t follow conventional grammar rules, adding to the sensation of the narrator’s dizziness.

“Ms. Johnson says each day holds its own memory—its own moments that we can write about later. She says we should always look for the moments and some of them might be perfect, filled with light and hope and laughter. Moments that stay with us forever and ever. Amen. On the stereo, a man with a beautiful high voice is singing about a bridge over troubled water. When darkness comes, he sings, and pain is all around. I will comfort you.”

This passage contains an allusion to the 1970 Simon & Garfunkel song “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” The lyrics about offering “comfort” in the midst of “darkness” support the resolution’s peaceful mood and reflect how Frannie’s family members show love and resilience in the face of challenges.

“Maybe later, I’ll tag along with Sean to the rec center. Maybe I’ll watch him play and think of evil things to say to the hearing girls. Maybe I’ll stand in the hall and find some new graffiti on the posters. Maybe I’ll beat the Jesus Boy at pinball and be the pinball champion of the world.”

The novel contains multiple passages that create anaphora through the repetition of the word “Maybe.” In the final chapter, this literary technique fosters a sense of possibility and hope that fits the resolution’s optimistic mood. The reference to Frannie’s friendship with the Jesus Boy in the final sentence highlights The Search for Belonging by underscoring how the characters’ bond offers the new student a vital source of acceptance.