Friendship

Friendship is a major theme in the novel The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd. Friendship includes feelings of platonic love, compassion, concern, loyalty, and emotional, spiritual, and even physical support between two or more individuals. In the novel, friendship occurs primarily between Sarah and Handful. Despite the marked and serious difference between the two, the two are able to remain friends through their lives.

Handful is a slave of the Grimke family who is given to Sarah on Sarah’s eleventh birthday as a gift. Sarah rejects receiving another human being as a gift, saying she doesn’t want a slave, but she ends up with no choice in the matter. Sarah decides that she will become friends with Handful, and the two quickly do become friends. Sarah even goes so far as to teach Handful to read out of respect for her, and...