Flight

The motif of flight pervades the novel and is the activity wherein Marian experiences freedom. When she is not flying, Marian must deal with the limits people place on her with their expectations for her to behave as they imagine a woman should. This limitation is epitomized by her marriage to Barclay, but throughout the entirety of her plot, Marian does not experience anything that surpasses her joy of flight. The reader should consider any moment in the novel that features flight as a moment in which Marian feels free, even if the narration does not explicitly reveal her thoughts.

Soon after marrying Barclay, Marian finds that “she hadn’t anticipated how much of her behavior after marriage would be motivated by a wish not to argue” (270). She clearly is not content. Additionally, Barclay forbids her to fly at times and forces her to stay within...