The Invention of Wings: Part 1 Summary & Analysis

Hetty Handful Grimké. The novel begins with Handful’s “Mauma” (Charlotte), a slave, telling Handful (the narrator) that in Africa people used to be able to fly, but they lost their wings when they came to America. Handful knows this isn’t true, but loves the story anyway. It is only when she grows older, she says, that she understands what her mother meant by telling her that she had wings.

Handful is often in trouble with Missus, the mother of the Grimké family (the white masters of Handful and her mother), because she has a bit of a sassy mouth. Thought the Grimkés call her “Hetty,” her true name Handful comes from her mother because she was so small at birth that she only filled one handful. Handful’s mother Charlotte is the seamstress for the Grimkés, and desperately wants to work outside the house for actual pay – something that Missus won’t allow.

Instead, Charlotte spends her rare spare time sewing quilts with black triangles that stand for wings. Handful helps Charlotte by finding feathers and other things in the yard to stuff the quilts, loving any chance she gets to wear her small thimble, which her mother gave her, when she helps sew.

When Handful works in the yard, she has to be as quiet as possible in order to avoid offending Missus. Noise is on the list of slave sins, under stealing, disobedience, and laziness. Handful gleefully indulges each of these sins whenever she gets a chance. Handful takes a few moments for herself to go watch the sea. But her time is interrupted when Missus calls for “Hetty.” Handful goes inside, expecting a beating for some perceived mistake.

Sarah Grimké. Sarah, now narrating, turns eleven and is given her own room for the first time. She is somewhat nervous to leave the nursery, though she is happy to get her own space in a family of ten children. Sarah is the lone bright redhead of the children, and Father’s favorite, according to everyone. Sarah idolizes her father, a judge in the South Carolina court and a member of the elite South Carolina planter class. Sarah is more wary of her mother, a woman who rules the house, slaves, and children with a strict hand.

Sarah’s earliest memory is of her brother Thomas teaching her to read simple words out in the yard, until the afternoon was interrupted by the whipping of a slave named Rosetta. Sarah is so distraught that she runs away all the way to the ship’s wharf. Though Sarah is unhurt, she is left with a stutter that continues to afflict her now. Yet on her eleventh birthday, the stutter has been away for a couple months and Sarah dares to hope she is cured.

Handful. Aunt-Sister, the cook, takes Handful into the kitchen as the house prepares for Sarah’s eleventh birthday party. Missus sweeps in and ties a lavender ribbon around Handful’s neck. Handful worries that she is going to be sold, but Missus leads a scared Handful into the drawing room and presents Handful to Sarah as a present.

Sarah stammers that she can’t accept Handful, making Missus so angry that she screams. Handful is so scared that she accidently pees on the drawing room rug. Handful expects a slap, wondering if she should fake an epileptic fit the way Rosetta does to avoid punishment, but Aunt-Sister just takes Handful back to the kitchen.

Handful’s Mauma comforts Handful as best she can, telling Handful the story of how their ancestors had wings. The next morning, Mauma gives Handful a quilt and tells Handful that she must now sleep outside Sarah’s door. Mauma warns Handful never to leave her quilt for any reason except Sarah’s bell at night, given how suspicious the Grimkés are of their house slaves.

Sarah. Sarah wants to give Hetty back to Mother, but Mother just tells Sarah to make peace with their way of life. Sarah feels incredible pity for Hetty, remembering the girl’s small size and scared face at the party. Sarah puts those thoughts aside to write apologies to all the guests for ruining the party by refusing her present. Though Sarah is not truly sorry, she writes the letters to try and remain in the good graces of society – already seeing how her unfeminine intellect and ambition marks her as an outcast in Charleston’s upper class.

Looking out her window to the slave quarters, Sarah gets an idea. She sneaks out of her bedroom and goes into Father’s library to get a piece of Father’s legal paper. The library reminds Sarah of how much she wishes she could have a real education, instead of the female education that Madame Ruffin gives her each day. On the legal paper, Sarah writes a certificate of freedom for Hetty. Sarah leaves the certificate on Father’s desk and goes to sleep dreaming of Hetty’s happiness and Father’s pride.

Sarah wakes the next morning with a burst of self-knowledge: she is going to become the first female jurist. Sarah cuts a beautiful silver fleur-de-lis patterned button off one of her dresses and puts the button in small box as a symbol of her commitment to this destiny, hoping that God will grant her this future. Yet Sarah’s spirits fall when she leaves her room and sees Hetty’s freedom certificate torn in two on the floor.

Handful. Handful is uncertain on her first day as Sarah’s maid, and becomes convinced that Sarah hates her. Handful tries to start a fire in Sarah’s fireplace but only succeeds in smoking out the house. Everyone runs out of the house, convinced it is on fire. Even neighbors come to try to ensure that the blaze won’t spread.

When Sarah finally manages to explain that there is no fire, Missus rages and strikes Handful with her cane. Handful falls to the ground. Missus raises her hand to slap Handful, but Handful has a moment of clarity outside of all the commotion in the yard. Handful hears a voice telling her not to stay down, but to get up and look Missus in the face. Handful does, and Missus drops her arm and backs away. The rest of the day is spent airing out the linens as everyone but Sarah looks at Handful with disgust.

Sarah. Sarah goes down to lunch after four days of taking meals in her room to protest owning Hetty. Mother asks cuttingly if Sarah found the ripped certificate of freedom. Sarah thinks of appealing to Father again, but gives up. She keeps her silver button as a reminder of what she will do some day.

Handful. Handful is still a terrible maid, but she enjoys the small freedoms she can sneak in the house, like staring from the window at the boats in the harbor. The blue water gives Handful a spiritual feeling and she sings verses to it at every chance. Handful misses sleeping and sewing with her mother and often wanders off to sleep with Charlotte in the slaves’ quarters, though Charlotte warns her that this will cause trouble.

Sarah. Four months after Sarah is given Handful, Handful does not come in to Sarah’s room in the morning. Sarah goes into the yard to look for “Hetty” and watches the slaves do their morning work. Sarah sees Charlotte gathering feathers and goes over to ask where Hetty is.

Before Sarah can stammer any words out, Charlotte shows Sarah a baby owl that Charlotte has been caring for. Sarah tells Charlotte that she tried to free Hetty but was not allowed. Charlotte tells Sarah that she just has to make it up to Hetty in the future. Sarah swears that she will free Hetty one day and goes back to her room. Hetty comes in ten minutes later, and Sarah reads aloud to her from The Adventures of Telemachus.

Sarah thinks obsessively about keeping her promise to free Hetty, and dreads seeing Charlotte again at her fitting for a new Easter dress. Charlotte asks if Sarah is going to keep her promise, but Sarah pretends that her stammer is too bad for her to give any answer.

Handful. The Grimké ladies go to White Point to enjoy the new spring weather, and the slaves at home get ready to give the house a thorough scrubbing. Handful cleans the majority of Sarah’s room, then takes a break and starts looking through Sarah’s things. She is enchanted with Sarah’s books and writing instruments, as well as Sarah’s fine dresses. In the back of Sarah’s wardrobe, Handful finds a box with a silver button inside. Glancing around to make sure no other slaves see her, Handful slips a spool of red thread into her pocket.

The Saturday before Easter, all the slaves are gathered in the dining room so that Tomfry, the butler, can investigate a recent theft. A bolt of green silk is gone, finery that Handful cannot even imagine. The slaves are all terrified of being sent to the Work House, a place of horrific punishments in town. Missus promises to be forgiving if the cloth is returned, but Handful is not so sure.

Handful sneaks to her mother’s room the night after the cloth is stolen. Charlotte is angry and marches Handful back to the house. Master Grimké catches Charlotte in the house at night, and demands an explanation. Handful, hiding on the stairs, prays for her mother to think of some lie, but Missus comes out of her room before Charlotte can speak. Missus accuses Charlotte of stealing the cloth (because she is returning to the scene of the crime) and orders her maid Cindie and Aunt-Sister to search Charlotte’s room.

Handful follows behind the search group, muttering curses no ten-year-old should know and gathering her courage to tell Missus that this was all her fault. Yet when Handful gets to her mother’s room, she sees the bolt of green silk on top of Charlotte’s quilt frame.

Handful stares enchanted at the beautiful silk while Missus lectures Charlotte about her theft. Missus tells Charlotte that the punishment will be at the house but delayed until after Easter, as Missus is compassionate. Missus leaves and Handful stays with her mother sobbing. Charlotte tells Handful that she isn’t mad at her, just mad she got caught. Handful realizes her mother doesn’t even want the cloth, she just had to take it to let out some of the pent up energy of living as a slave.

Sarah. On Easter, the Grimkés go to the Episcopal Church. Sarah stammers to Mother that she is looking forward to giving her first lesson at the “Colored Sunday School.” Mary Jr., Sarah’s older sister, mocks Sarah’s stutter but Sarah tries to ignore the teasing. Sarah watches the slaves in the street enjoying the time to chat as they walk to church. Even Snow, the Grimké’s carriage driver, has taken advantage of the Grimke’s time at church to joy ride in the carriage.

The Grimkés get to church and make their way to their pew in the front, as befits their status in Charleston. Sarah looks up to the slave balcony, where the slaves are causing a hubbub. A shoe drops on a lady, knocking her unconscious, and Sarah hears one of the guards beat a slave. Reverend Hall begins his sermon, admonishing the slaves to be obedient to their masters. Sarah is unsure what to think, but a glance at her father’s blank face clarifies nothing.

Sarah goes to a small classroom to give the Sunday School lesson, surprised to find the kids playing in complete anarchy. Her sister Mary Jr. tells Sarah to just let them play, but Sarah gathers the children and begins to teach them the alphabet so that they have a chance of reading the Bible for themselves. The kids joyously join the song and Sarah happily conducts, not noticing Reverend Hall at the door. Reverend Hall asks Sarah what she thinks she is doing, as teaching slaves to read is against the law. Sarah finds this shameful, and stares Reverend Hall in the face in an echo of Hetty’s defiance of Mother.

Handful. The Monday after Easter, Aunt-Sister tells Charlotte that her punishment will be to have one leg tied up for an hour. Tomfry reluctantly ties Charlotte up as Missus watches from the window and the slaves huddle together in the yard. Handful can’t bring herself to look away. Charlotte falls, splitting the skin on her head, then gets up. Handful prays that her mother won’t fall again. Charlotte makes it through the hour without so much as a whimper and Handful thinks that maybe the “colored God” heard her pleas.

At the end of the hour, Tomfry and Aunt-Sister help Charlotte to her bed. Handful gives her water and tries to feed her small bites of food, but Charlotte can’t eat. Handful explains that her mother’s legs eventually recovered, but Charlotte’s spirit was never the same. That day, Charlotte truly began to hate.

Sarah. Sarah spends the day after Easter writing an apology to Reverend Hall for her disastrous Sunday School lesson. There is an unease about the house, which only grows worse when Sarah meets her older brother Thomas for a lesson. Sarah normally loves these educational sessions, but she cannot concentrate today. Thomas misreads Sarah’s discomfort and thinks that Sarah has figured out that he doesn’t actually want to be a lawyer. Thomas sighs that Sarah should be the lawyer so he can become a minister. Sarah is elated, thinking she has finally found an ally within her family. She promises to do anything to help Thomas study theology, though Father will hear none of it.

Sarah still hasn’t seen Hetty all day, so Sarah goes to the kitchen to find her. Normally the kitchen is full of song, which Mother takes as evidence that the slaves are happy. Yet today, it is silent until the slaves begin to murmur about Charlotte’s poor state. Sarah flashes back to her memory of seeing a slave whipped and stumbles back through the house, frantically packing a basket with liniment oil, tea, and laudanum.

Mother stops Sarah in the corridor, but Sarah refuses to be stopped. Sarah pushes past her mother, ignoring the shrieks that she is forbidden to leave the house, and walks over to the slave’s quarters. Sarah tells Mother that she is going to see about Charlotte, the words coming easily to Sarah for once. Sarah knows that her stammer is gone and walks confidently over to the slave’s quarters.

Handful. That night Charlotte begins to have shaking fits, and then finally sleeps. Handful sleeps too, with strange dreams of flying and sleeping, then wakes to her mother’s voice. Charlotte begins to tell a story about Handful’s grandmother who first came to America from Africa. When Handful’s grandmother got here, she was separated from her family and the stars fell from the sky. Grandmother made quilts using the applique of the Fon people, with black triangles for blackbird wings.

Handful notices Sarah hiding outside the door, listening to the story too. Charlotte goes on, telling how Grandmother worked the fields and taught Charlotte everything she knew about quilts. Charlotte became the family’s seamstress and Grandmother started up a “spirit tree,” wrapping a tree with thread to give their souls a safe place to live. Grandmother told Charlotte to put leaves and twigs from the tree in a pouch at her neck so that she would always have a piece of her soul with her if she ever left this place.

Grandmother died when Charlotte was sixteen, and Charlotte was sold to Master Grimké. In the Grimké plantation house, Charlotte met Shanney and married him. Missus brought Charlotte to the Charleston house, refusing to bring Shanney too, but Charlotte was already pregnant with Handful. Shanney died before Handful was a year old. At that point, Charlotte ends her story and goes back to sleep.

The next day, Handful tells Sarah that they appreciated her basket. Sarah puts her book down and hugs Handful. Handful knows that the love between her and Sarah is complicated by guilt and jealousy, but lets herself enjoy what pure love she can.

Sarah. That summer, Sarah asks Thomas to expand their private lessons, but Thomas tells her they have to stop the lessons completely. Sarah refuses to give up on her dreams of practicing law, however, and studies their father’s law books by herself. In the mornings, Sarah reads to Hetty or plays string games with her or watches the ships at harbor. The two girls keep their growing friendship a secret.

Sarah reads Don Quixote to Hetty as Hetty, bored, scratches at mosquito bites. Hetty asks Sarah to tell her about specific words, so Sarah tries to read with more expression to draw Hetty’s interest again. Sarah then notices an owl outside the window and remembers her oath to help Hetty become free. Sarah decides to start working on that goal by teaching Hetty to read.

Sarah prepares lessons for Hetty, locking her door and screening the keyhole to avoid any discovery. Hetty picks up the skills quickly, eager to learn and asking about countless words. Hetty practices writing her words with a stick in the yard, but Sarah warns her not to let anyone see. Hetty, annoyed at Sarah’s tone, says that she always scrubs out the letters with her foot.

Sarah and Hetty celebrate Hetty’s 100th word with a tea on the roof of the Grimké’s house. Hetty drinks quickly from the China cup while Sarah watches the Bastille Day festivities in the distant town center. Hetty starts to gather feathers from the roof and Sarah begins to spill every secret she has ever had, including the whipping memory that caused her speech impediment. Hoping to restore a cheerful mood, Sarah also tells Hetty about her dream of becoming a jurist and the silver button that she uses to remind herself of that dream.

Hetty admits that she has seen the button, and that she knows all about symbols like Missus’ cane and her mother’s thimble. Hetty even starts to tell stories about her family stories from Africa, their applique and their spirit tree. Hetty even admits that she stole a spool of red thread and that her real name is Handful.

Handful. Charlotte starts walking with a limp in front of Missus after the one-legged punishment, though the other slaves grumble about this ploy for sympathy. Charlotte also cleverly tricks Missus into clearing the whole cellar room for a sewing room by pretending she can no longer climb stairs. Charlotte makes the cellar room her personal haven, decorating with any pretty thing she can find. After Charlotte gets the room to her liking, she shows off her riches to the other slaves, making the grumbling even worse.

Handful loves her mother’s new room because she can sneak to sleep with Charlotte without leaving the house. Yet Charlotte’s sleep is more restless than ever and she carefully locks her door every chance she gets. Handful learns how to sew and helps her mother sew a new quilt covered in black triangles. Charlotte rebels in small ways whenever she can, botching sleeves or mis-sewing buttons to cause Missus as much embarrassment as possible. Handful even catches Charlotte breaking china whenever she is in a room alone, or putting dirt in the teapots. Handful warns Sarah about the tea, but otherwise says nothing.

A hurricane threatens to hit Charleston and the slaves ready the house and stables for the storm. The rain hits that night, and Handful sings to herself to distract from the floodwater and the wind. The cellar room floods, ruining all the work Charlotte did on her room. After they finish cleaning up the mud, Handful takes a stick writes a few words and signs her name “Hetty” in the yard. She smears it over with her toe.

The yard dries out and Lucy, one of Mary’s maids, notices Handful’s writing in the yard. Lucy tells Mary and Handful knows that she has been caught. Her name is scored deep into the drying mud of the yard.

Sarah. Two days later, Father calls Sarah in to see him in the library. Sarah nervously walks in to the library, trying to follow the nursery maid, Binah’s advice to act brave. Father tells Sarah that she has gravely disappointed him by teaching her slave girl to write. Sarah is aghast that Handful was so careless, but even more upset that her father is so angry. Sarah’s stammer returns as she tries to explain her benign intentions, but Father simply lectures her on the dangers of giving slaves the tool they need to incite rebellion.

Father reveals that he is the one who tore up Sarah’s certificate of freedom for Handful, destroying all of Sarah’s ideas that her father appreciates her anti-slavery views. As punishment for all of these challenges to the Grimké way of life, Father forbids Sarah from setting foot in his library ever again. Sarah is absolutely crest-fallen, even worse when she returns to her room and finds all of the books removed. Binah brings Sarah breakfast and tells Sarah that Handful is getting her own punishment in the yard.

Sarah runs down the stairs to the yard, ignoring Binah’s justification that it is only one whip lash. Sarah sees Handful tied to the post with Tomfry waiting behind her, whip in hand. Sarah screams, “No,” and Tomfry turns to her hopefully. But Mother taps her cane on the upstairs window and Tomfry turns back to Handful and brings the lash down on Handful’s back.

Handful. Handful heals quickly enough from her lash wound, but notices that Sarah simply wastes away without her books. Handful keeps practicing her letters when she can and figures out new words though the lessons are over.

Charlotte makes a new baby gown for Missus, who is pregnant with yet another child. When Handful comes down to the cellar to help her, Charlotte brings out a stolen inkwell, quill, and paper, and asks Handful to write a travel pass. Handful is wary of adding to her mother’s dangerous rebellions, but writes the pass because she knows that Charlotte will leave without or without the relative safety of the pass.

From then on, Charlotte disappears a couple of days each week to hire herself out and sew for pay. Scared of the danger if Charlotte gets caught, Handful asks her mother to stop leaving the Grimké grounds. Charlotte just asks Handful to put a pail next to the gate if anyone ever notices her absence, so that Charlotte can be prepared when she comes back.

One day in January, Charlotte is found missing from her cellar sewing room. Missus asks Handful if she knows where Charlotte is, but Handful has no idea. As soon as she can, Handful puts the pail out to warn her mother. Charlotte creeps back after night fall, and pays Tomfry a half dollar to sneak her onto the roof and pretend she was there the whole time. Missus buys the story, simply lecturing Charlotte for the stupidity of going on the roof when there is sewing to be done. Charlotte takes the scolding but tells Handful that night that they should never bow and scrape to that woman.

Sarah. Sarah is not excited about another sibling, and sees how exhausted her mother is to be pregnant again. It makes Sarah shudder to think of her own future spent bearing babies. Still depressed from the lack of books, Sarah is diagnosed with severe melancholy and hysteria. Yet by the time Christmas rolls around, Sarah manages to pull herself out of the deep hole and refocus herself on the silver button and the dream it held.

The Grimkés throw Thomas a goodbye party before he goes off to college in New Haven. Sarah is finally enjoying herself again, until she hears murmured conversation about abolition by law in the Northern states. Sarah, emboldened by this talk, gives Thomas a goodbye speech that ends with her own wish to be a jurist, but her family laughs at her. Even Father refuses to consider Sarah’s dream. Sarah retreats to her room, heartbroken.

Mother goes to comfort Sarah but reaffirms how silly Sarah was to dream of studying law in the first place. Sarah notices an odd vulnerability about her mother, as Mother admits that she too once had ambitions as a girl but had those dreams knocked aside for her own good. Mother advises Sarah to stop fighting her fate. After Mother leaves, Sarah takes her silver button and drops it in the fire as Handful mournfully watches.

At the beginning of February, Mother takes to her bed to prepare for the new baby’s birth. Sarah visits her with a request to be named the godmother of the new baby. Mother resists, saying that the religious welfare of a child is too important to trust to a 12-year-old girl, but Sarah persists. Finally, Mother grants Sarah’s wish as a consolation for losing all her other ambitions.

Handful. Handful wraps red thread around a tree in the yard to make a spirit tree. Handful and Charlotte give their spirits to the tree as Handful strokes the silver button that she rescued from Sarah’s fire. Handful officially announces that she gives her spirit to the tree, following the footsteps of her mother and grandmother, then gathers leaves and twigs to keep in a pouch at her neck. Handful reflects on the events of the past year, Sarah’s friendship, and reading, and knows that she will have trouble accepting slavish obedience from here on out.