Sixteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

In this paper, I will emphasize the duality of Macdonald’s purpose, one to forget through the activity of falconry and the other to replace her loneliness with a wild bird, which brings her to a deeper level of consciousness forcing her to stare into the abyss of mortality. It is not something she wants to do; thus, her displacement through the training of Mabel leads to a darker place from which she realizes she cannot escape without help. Ironically, it is in letting go of the bird, releasing it to fly free to hunt that brings her full circle to face her own need to let go of her grief, to bid a final farewell to her father. Without the bird and the hypnotizing words that pour from her pen, she might not have been able to do this. But the writing, detailing, describing step-by-step how she taught the bird to trust her, to even consider her a friend, becomes the same path she must travel in order to trust the world again, to free herself of fear, and to re-engage with life. Hers is a marvelous journey that all of must travel–one time or another–whether we want to or not.