Bonanza Jellybean tells Sissy that when she was a little girl each year her parents bought her a cowgirl suit from the Sears catalog until one year they explained that there were no cowgirl suits that would fit her. She had become too grown up to be a cowgirl any more. In this important scene, Robbins presents one of the most important issues of his novel: how individuals lose freedom in a society that limits the range of acceptable behaviors. Discussion groups may find it useful to question how society has limited their freedom of choice in their own lives. In addition to creating a range of characters who are free spirits in conflict with civilized individuals, Robbins has duplicated the pattern in the animal world, with wild whooping cranes and domesticated animals. Discussion groups may have fun identifying the contrasts between the free and wild...