Max and her friends in Maximum Ride: The Angel Experiment aren't the kind of birds (or avian-human hybrids, to be more precise) who are content sitting around in a gilded cage—especially when that cage is designed for a dog and involves scientists poking and prodding them with needles all day. Their primary objective for much of the book is staying away from the School. Angel gets caught by the Erasers and brought in for experimentation at one point, but the flock comes to the rescue because they simply can't leave one of their own to languish in captivity.
Questions About Freedom and Confinement
- Why does the School allow Jeb to take the flock members away for several years?
- Why don't the Erasers run away from the School, too? Give evidence from the text.
- What do you think the scientists wanted to do when they kidnapped Angel? Why?
Chew on This
The flock members are never really free growing up, even when they live in the house away from the School together because they still have to watch their every move and can't leave without fear of being found out. That's not freedom—it's just self-inflicted confinement.
Even though Max trusts Ella and her mother, she still feels a bit boxed in when she's staying with them because she fears that she won't be able to leave. Her inability to fully get comfortable in one place is a result of her upbringing—well, and the fact that she's fought so hard for the ability to come and go as she pleases.