The Good Lord Bird Sibonia Vs. Pie
by Maxwell Moscowitz
The Good Lord Bird by James McBride talks a lot about who is
really a free person. Are those that hold the whip the free ones, or are the
ones who don’t break from the whip the free ones? These questions come up all
the time in McBride’s book. It is seen especially well in the differences between
Pie and Sibonia. These two people both believe they are free. It can be said
that Pie is freer because she has everything she wants. However people argue
that Sibonia is freer because she has not given up hope and has not given in to
the tyranny of slavery. Sibonia is free for many reasons and will always be
freer than Pie can ever be. 
When
we first meet Pie, Onion has the impression that she is the best off African
American he has ever seen. However Pie in reality was less free then the slaves
in the pen. Onion sees Pie abusing white males and demanding “where is my money”
(McBride 144) as if she was in charge. What he did not see was the price she
paid for small privileges. Pie might have status and nice things but she is
trapped in the hotel. The world to Pie is the hotel and the cocks of the men
she sleeps with. She is afraid and is unable to do anything else but look
pretty and have sex for money. When Onion offers to help her leave Pikesville,
she tells him that she “can’t go 35 feet out of this hotel without papers” (McBride
155). The truth is she can’t leave. Instead she chose sell to her soul to the
white slave holder and live in bondage forever rather than take a small chance
at freedom. Onion gives Pie an opportunity to escape by offering to write her a
pass to leave. But instead of taking it Pie refuses and makes excuses to remain
a slave. Pie talks about how she can’t leave even though the opportunity is
right in front of her. Pie might have the favor of the masters, but she does
not belong anywhere. She is neither a friend of blacks or whites she is a mulatto
and is stuck in the middle on neither’s side similar to the color of her skin.
Pie’s
skin and beauty gives her a lot of privileges as if she was white herself.
However it does not hide the fact that she is a slave. Sibionia does not need
beauty or the favor of her white slave owners. She does not seek their favor
like Pie. She chooses to stick with her ideals and does not compromise them
even when threatened with death or whipping. Sibionia does not just want
freedom for herself. She goes further and wants for all the people in the pen
to be free as well. She is someone who even abused would not betray her fellow
man or her ideals. She is someone who holds true to herself and in reality that
is the greatest freedom of all. She has no privileges or special treatment. She
is not even that pretty, however all of the slaves respect her and she would
never abandon them. When she is discovered in plotting a slave rebellion she is
told by the white judge, they will “beat her, whip her, tar and feather her” (McBride
163). But she does not sell them out and tells them to go ahead and do it. Even
when faced with torture and death Sibonia sticks with her beliefs. She does not
care what the cost is for keeping them and stands by what she believes in. This
is one of the greatest freedoms a person can have. To stick with your beliefs
and not falter, is a freedom so few slaves in this time could keep for fear of
death. She is also really smart but her talents are not recognized because of
the color of her skin.
Sibonia
is clever because she acts like she is crazy. She does this it is in order to
protect herself from being discovered because if she is suspected the slave
owners will just ignore her because they think she is crazy. Sibonia is able to
“brush the madness off her face the way you would brush a fly away” (McBride
151). Sibonia’s “mask” allows her to go anywhere she wants within the pen
without any one questioning what she is up to. When she puts on that “mask” she
is free to do what she wants and talk to any of the slaves. When the white
masters get suspicious they choose to ignore her, because who would want to get
involved with a crazy person? By putting the mask of craziness on she is given
more freedom than anyone else in the pen. If she disappears people don’t think
twice about it, because “she is crazy” and they think it’s not worth their time
looking for a crazy person. Even when she starts talking about freedom and the
masters hear her they just ignore her because she is crazy and they think “she
is just rambling”. They don’t see what she is saying as a threat but more of a
joke. This mask of craziness she wears allows her the freedom to speak her mind
freely; when it comes to speaking her mind she is much freer then Pie.
Sibonia is
much freer then Pie in many different ways. Pie is someone who seeks favor from
her master and will do anything it takes to get it. She has turned her back on
her people, morals, her own identity, and her freedom to gain a better life
than the rest of her people. The things she sacrificed and gave up were what make
a person truly free. Sibonia is
different, she has chosen to not bend her knee to the whip, and she still holds
true to herself and does not want to sellout her own beliefs to the “white
masters”. She seeks her G-d given right to be free. However she does not only
seek her own freedom but the freedom of her people. She will not sell out her people
or go against her ideals for favors from her white master. She is truly free
not matter what, because she does not sell out her ideals and chooses to live
by them or die by them. The ultimate freedom that someone can have is when
you’re able to stand by your beliefs until the end. It is the one freedom no
one can take from you. This is why Sibonia is freer than Pie.
Works Citied
McBride, James. The
Good Lord Bird. New York: River Head books,2013. Print.
