Feathers

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death, pregnancy loss, racism, ableism, bullying, and mental illness.

Frannie is the novel’s narrator and protagonist. She is highly observant, considering herself “more of a listener than a talker” (8). This personality trait facilitates Frannie’s role as the narrator by giving her insight into her fellow characters’ motivations and struggles. Woodson also uses Frannie’s gift for observation to provide humor through her witty remarks, such as when she comments that one of the hearing girls who is rude to Sean “seems dumber than a broken stick” (82). Another of Frannie’s primary character traits is the deep empathy that leads her to care even about her class’s bully. While the other students laugh about Trevor breaking his arm, she feels concern: “[I]t was hard for me not to imagine Trevor falling through the air—how scared he must have been, reaching and grabbing at nothing” (20). Frannie’s insight, empathy, and wit help her fulfill her roles as the story’s main character and narrator.

Frannie’s choices and dynamic growth reinforce the novel’s themes. At first, the 11-year-old is dejected because she feels as though she is growing up too quickly for her liking, reflecting, “Some days, it felt like the times when I got to make handprints and flowers and stuff just slipped away from me before I even got a chance to figure out how much fun being a little kid was” (19).