by Mehul Bhagat
It is no secret that we inherit the attributes of those we look up to: our mothers, fathers, siblings, relatives, and even friends. We inherit all that they are and all that they leave for us, though as much as these inheritances can be blessings, often there is little distinguishing them from burdens. Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House is a series of connected stories that centre on how a person’s self can be influenced by this weight of inheritance, along with the relationships they have with whom they inherit from. This theme surrounds the narrating protagonist of Vanessa, and how her life and sense of self are shaped by her connections to those around her. More prominent than all connections, however, is her difficult and complex relationship with her maternal grandfather, the stubborn and prideful character of Timothy Connors. Within Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House, Vanessa’s independent sense of self is shown to be inherited from her controlling grandfather, which ironically explains the resentment she holds towards him. This can be derived by seeing how the desire for control that permeated within her grandfather is also shown in Vanessa, how themes of captivity are intrinsically tied to him, and how, due to these points, the complex emotions that Vanessa holds towards her grandfather are on account of the captivity she believes him to represent.
Vanessa’s grandfather Timothy Connor, simply called ‘Grandfather Connor’ by her, is the most influential character to Vanessa throughout the collection of short stories. The book itself begins and ends with a focus on the man. It opens with Vanessa mentioning how “when [her] grandfather built [the Brick House] … it was the first of its kind”, and ends with Vanessa paying respects to her now deceased grandfather via this house, what she considers as “his monument” (1, 193). Through this undeniable precedence that he takes throughout the stories, his most defining quality is easily the desire he has to be in control. He takes pride in the patriarchal command he has over his family, and exists purely as a voice of rude or even rage-filled disdain when anything goes remotely against his wishes. A vivid example of this is when, upon the death of Vanessa’s father, Grandfather Connor is too prideful to have another family’s heirlooms within his home. He states to Vanessa’s mother, “I don’t know why you’re unpacking all that stuff, Beth … it’ll just have to go in the back in again” (164). His control is further shown by how he does not face any resistance. Vanessa’s mother states, following this demand by her father, how resistance against him is “like batting your head against a brick wall … [he gets] his way in the end … he always does” (165). Grandfather Connor acts this way and faces the same lack of resistance throughout the entire book, such as his interactions with his wife, Vanessa’s cousin Chris, and many of Edna’s boyfriends, but to describe these instances in detail would require an essay in and of itself. Most important, however, is how Vanessa is acutely aware of this control he has. She states that she is constantly “holding back with a terrible strained force of fear of letting go and speaking [against her grandfather] and having the known world unimaginably fall to pieces” (123). By stating that an act on him as equivalent to an act against the world, she insinuates him to be the basis upon which her world rests, showing the immense amount of influence that Vanessa believes him to have. This, combined with the precedence Vanessa’s grandfather has throughout the stories, makes it clear why his desire for control would be impactful to Vanessa’s life.
The effect of this impact is shown through how Vanessa manifests similar traits throughout the stories. Not only does Vanessa’s family remark about the connections between her and her grandfather, but his traits are vividly seen in certain ways that Vanessa acts and thinks. An example of this is how, after he insinuates that Vanessa’s boyfriend could be married, she “shouted at him, as though if I sounded all my trumpets loudly enough, his walls would quake and crumble”, then proceeded to run “upstairs to [her] room and lock the door” (187). While the rage that Vanessa has here can be connected to the rage prevalent to her grandfather, what is striking is her reaction when she loses control. The act of her running upstairs is similar to how, when faced with a situation he fears to be out of his control, her grandfather would “descend the basement steps to the rocking chair” (57). As an example, this habit of his often occurs when the women of the house try to do anything with their boyfriends, such as when Edna’s past boyfriend Wes asks her to “like to go to Winnipeg” for a day, or even when Vanessa was “doing the dishes” with her boyfriend (170, 185). In all of these instances, Vanessa’s grandfather goes to the chair to regain some sense of control when he believes he has lost it. The desire for control that her grandfather has is inherited by Vanessa, proven by how such a unique attribute is displayed by her.
Another aspect of this inheritance can be seen in how Vanessa’s grandfather’s desire for control is what causes her to strive for freedom and independence. As shown in the previous example, Vanessa is somebody who values the ability to have control over her surroundings, and further, she values the ability to not be burdened by being controlled. A powerful example of this through one of the main ways that Vanessa chooses to express herself, her stories. All of them involve a sense of ‘freedom’ to some extent, and reflect these desires that exist within her character. For example, her first story mentioned in the book, “Pillars of the Nation”, is described by Vanessa to be “about pioneers”, a group of people practically synonymous with the idea of having no geographical constraints (20). A similar thing can be found within a story she titles “The Silver Sphinx”, and how it centres on a heroine “very [much] like the [queen] in The Song of Solomon”, and someone madly in love (62, 59). Unlike the pioneer story, this story additionally focuses on the freedom of being able to be in love, something that, as described, is a freedom she constantly sees being oppressed by her grandfather. Even outside of her stories, the desire for freedom is prevalent. In conversation with her cousin Chris, Vanessa states that “it would be keen [to be a traveller]”, and that “that’s what [she is] going to do someday” (129). The reason she wants to be a traveller is for the same reasons as shown in her stories, she desires the ability to control that which she is unable to. Vanessa constantly sees how her grandfather desires and can do as he pleases without any repercussions, and she inherits these attributes in her desire for independence.
With the understanding of how the attributes of her grandfather shape Vanessa’s self, the reasons for her dislike of him, and why she often “hated [her] grandfather” are made clear (189). Overall, the idea of captivity is prevalent within Vanessa’s family, such as how her father Ewen has familial obligations to be a doctor, and how Chris is forced to work on his family farms despite his dreams of being a civil engineer. Within Vanessa’s grandfather, this theme could not be felt any deeper. As stated, he takes pride in his ability to have control over his family, and it is made quite clear how this makes them feel quite captive to him. This is seen vividly through his children, Vanessa’s Aunt Edna and her mother, Beth. In a conversation in which Beth is trying to get Edna to go out with Wes, her past boyfriend, Vanessa overhears:
“Oh [Edna], I didn’t mean it to sound [propagandizing]. Honestly, I didn’t. It’s just that you’ve been keeping house for Father all this time, and you’ve had so little life of your own. It’s just that it would be wonderful if you could get out” “What about you?” Aunt Edna said. “How are you going to get out?” it’s different for me,” [Beth] replied in a low voice. “I’ve had those years with Ewen. I have Vanessa and Roddie. Maybe I can’t get out. But they will.” (174)
This example demonstrates how Vanessa sees the people she cares about as not able to have freedom, all because of her grandfather. Although his captivity of Edna is more apparent in this quotation, it still exists with Beth. If the situation were somewhere where she had freedom, she would not equate leaving Grandfather Connor as being able to “get out” while wishing deeply for her kids’ escape as well.
It makes more than enough sense for Vanessa then, as someone who desires freedom, to see how her grandfather prevents the freedom of others and harbour a deep hatred for him. What is interestingly ironic about this hatred however, is how it is fuelled by Vanessa’s inheritance of his attributes. This polarizing emotion that Vanessa holds is especially apparent within the closing moments of the last story, “Jericho’s Brick Battlements”. Here, Vanessa returns to Manawaka as an adult, but after paying respects to her mother’s grave, she refuses to do so with her grandfather. Instead, she decides to go to The Brick House, what she considers to be “his monument” (194). She states:
I parked the car beside the Brick House. The caragana hedge was unruly. No one had trimmed it properly that summer. The house had been lived in by strangers for a long time. I had not thought it would hurt me to see it in other hands, but it did. I wanted to tell them to trim the hedges, to repaint the windowframes, to pay heed to repairs. I had feared the old man, yet he proclaimed himself in my views. But it was their house now, whoever they were, not ours, not mine. (194)
As one of the most striking moments within the book, it is apparent here how Vanessa has gained freedom because of her grandfather while still having complex resentments regarding him. The freedom comes with how, to the relief of Vanessa’s mother, she manages to escape the Brick House. She is no longer tied to the building, and as a result, she is physically free from her controlling grandfather. Despite this, the way that she describes how “[she] had feared the old man, yet he proclaimed himself in [her] veins”, implies that his presence within him, the same reason that she still cares for the Brick House’s quality, is something that she is resentful towards. Vanessa’s grandfather technically provided her freedom, he even paid for her university by “selling some bonds which [he had] been hanging onto”, yet Vanessa cannot bring herself to respect his blood within her veins (190). This is due, in line with the reasons mentioned prior, to how similar she is to him.
Lastly, the few moments where Vanessa doesn’t hold a hatred towards her grandfather push the same arguments that her freedom is shaped by him. During her time when she would hide and write in her grandfather’s loft, coincidentally exercising the same ‘self-isolation’ which was described previously, she describes how she “remembered something [she] didn’t know [she] knew … riding in the MacLaughlin Buick with my grandfather” (167). During this memory, she describes how he was “gazing with love and glory at my giant grandfather as he drove his valiant chariot through all the streets of this world” (167). The significance and fondness of this moment is due to how this is one of the first instances where she sees her grandfather not being controlling. Instead, she sees him allowing himself to have a sense of pure freedom and, due to this, sees her freedom-desiring self within him. A similar thing occurs during her grandfather’s funeral. Earlier in the book, whenever Vanessa’s grandfather tries to tell her about his time as a pioneer, she states, “To me there was nothing at all remarkable in the fact that he had come out west by stern wheeling and had walked the hundred-odd miles from Winnipeg to Manawaka” (7). During the funeral service, however, Vanessa states that the “minister’s recounting of these familiar facts struck [her] as though [she] had never heard any of it before” (191). She then follows this moment by stating that “[she] wondered what the car might have meant to him, to the boy who walked the hundred miles from Winnipeg to Manawaka with hardly a cent in his pockets” (191, 192-193). Just like within her story: Pillars of the Nation, Vanessa sees and admires the freedom that her grandfather must have felt as a pioneer. In this moment, she doesn’t see and hate the controlling man he was to her and her family, but as a person like her who revels in their ability to be in control of their life.
Margaret Laurence’s A Bird in the House is a brilliant collection of stories about a normal girl living in an uneventful town, and the role that inheritance has in shaping who she becomes. It is endearing to see how her independent and freedom-seeking self is inherited from her controlling grandfather, and how their relationship with each other is defined by the subtle similarities which they hold. It manages to tell a beautiful message about how we are shaped by those we look up to, regardless of the feelings we may have towards them. Despite the simplicity of each story’s overall plot and setting within A Bird in the House, the intricacy of the characters and their relationships with one another create an unforgettable overarching story about the humanity that arises within the character of Vanessa. It beautifully speaks on the impact that inheritance has in making someone their own, brilliant self.
Works Cited
Laurence, Margaret. A Bird in the House. Penguin Modern Canadian Classics, Toronto, Canada, 2017.