Feathers

In class, Frannie is assigned a poem by Emily Dickinson in which hope is described as a "thing with feathers." At first, Frannie is a bit stumped by all this symbolic language:

So maybe the seventies is the thing with feathers. Maybe it was about hope and moving forward and not looking behind you. Some days, I tried to understand all that grown-up stuff. But a lot of it still didn't make any sense to me. (1.16)

But as the story progresses, Frannie comes to see that the people around her carry a lot of hope for the future, even when the present or the past isn't all that great. When her mama gets pregnant, Frannie doesn't understand why her family isn't terrified; after all, Mama's had some miscarriages in the past. But her daddy explains to her that you can't go through life always afraid and jaded—you have to have hope despite what's happened to you in the past. He tells her:

"You don't need to worry about what happened before. All you need to look at is what's happening now." He nudged my chin up so I would look at him. "And be happy about it. And if it means you only get to be happy for a month or two months or three months, so what. A month or two months or three months is a good long time." (9.15)

And by the end, Frannie realizes that her dad's right—you do have to stop and enjoy the beautiful moments that life is made up of. You have to live in the moment and be filled with hope for better days, because otherwise, you'll become miserable. She even recognizes that she has to have hope for the future of the world beyond her little family unit:

Then I put my head on Mama's shoulder and close my eyes, the sun warm against my face, the man's voice on the record getting softer and higher. Then fading away.

Each moment, I am thinking, is a thing with feathers. (22.20-21)

Frannie recognizes that things may not be perfect right now, but that she has to keep hoping for a better future… and working to make it happen. She has to be happy that her mama is pregnant with a new sibling, and she has to think about a future in which black kids and white kids can hang out with each other without it being a big deal. Her hope has to stay strong and soar above in the face of adversity. And for someone who's so prone to worrying, this is a hard—but super important—lesson to learn.