Thoughts on When Women Were Birds

There wasn't a prompt, so I'm just going to talk a little about the book.

What’s most fascinating about this story is the bond that the women in William’s family shared, as well as the role depicted by the author of the LDS church. One of my closest friends is Mormon, so it was very intriguing to hear a different viewpoint of the church and more specifically the feminist aspect of it.

Williams often related herself and the women in her story to birds, which wasn’t very surprising. Her grandmother, Mimi was a very important figure in her life who always encouraged Williams and her brothers to observe nature, and things in their natural habitat, Birds especially. Because of Mimi’s love of bird watching, the interests and all the things it entailed passed smoothly down to her granddaughter. This resulted in her open way of thinking, and a life as an environmentalist.

Birds are free, soaring, and living a life outdoors and this is what Williams most valued. She valued a life free from conventionality, although many of the people surrounding her were grounded in the orthodoxy. Her mother and father-in-law, for instance, are two people she respects, and loves and dearly, but her views are more liberal like that of Mimi. A good example of her determination to be free thinking is when she refused to encourage Brooke to come back to the church at her father-in-law's request. (This being the favor to get the meeting with a man in position to make real change for her environmentalist campaign.)

            Structurally, I really enjoyed the read. There was much repetition within the italicized parts that described her mother, with the slightest word change at the end of each sentence. There were poetry inserts and even letters from Williams’ mother to the author which were very quite beautiful. I thought they were symbols of her mother’s love, kindness, and respect she had for her daughter and proved to be thought out and well written. It was easy to believe the author’s theory of her mother’s defiance against customs of the faith and the gender norms that were expected of them as LDS members. However, I found the craft awesome. The craft/art of journal keeping and the passing down of so many accounts from generation to generation is nothing short of amazing.

Added note: I had an annoying ebook, so didn't bother in posting quotes, however the below stood out.

"Mormon women write. This is what we do, we write for posterity, noting the daily happenings of our lives. Keeping a journal is keeping a record. And I have hundreds of them, hundreds of journals filled with feathers, flowers, photographs, and words. Without locks, open on my shelves. I have more journals still with field notes from the Arctic to Africa, to days spent at the Prado, to time shared among prairie dogs. Daybooks with calendars, shopping lists, and accounting figures are strewn across our home. I cannot think without a pen in hand. If I don’t write it down, it doesn’t exist (91 ebook)."

This passage is very telling and makes a lot of sense as to why her mother had all of these journals and why it was so important for Williams to decode the absent words.  (Blank pages)

The author is filling her mother’s blank pages for her. All the things he mother couldn't, wouldn’t, or didn't know how to say, she wrote them for her. Filling the pages with her life as she (the narrator) knew it.

"My Mother's Journals are...." 

             I found it intriguing that at one point the narrator mentions the blank pages as being a reflection of her mother's defiance. Especially since her mother was so adamant about practicing Mormon faith and following it's rules. The scene that comes to mind is when Mimi is challenging protocol of the church, allowing women to speak and have certain roles in the church, etc., then the conversation ending in the narrator's mother requesting Mimi never to speak negatively about the church in her house and in front of her children. 

More notes in class.