Boy, Snow, Bird

The second part of the novel includes both a change in narrator and a jump in time, as the narrator becomes a teenaged Bird. Bird, like her “aunt” Mia, wants to be a journalist. She compares Mia and Aunt Viv, determining that they’re both intelligent, but that Mia is more educational, whereas Vivian is “all curled up at the edges, like […] a piece of old bread” (154). Both Mia and Vivian are still single; Vivian had been engaged through Part 1, but her fiancé broke off the engagement when Bird was born, revealing Vivian’s ancestry.

Bird recognizes Olivia’s coldness toward her and believes that there’s more to Vivian’s story. Olivia frequently comments on the darkness of Bird’s skin and generally avoids talking to her or acknowledging her presence. Regardless, Bird doesn’t feel bad about revealing their heritage because she “accidentally brought truth to light, and bringing truth to light is the right thing to do” (156).

Bird, like her mother, has trouble with mirrors: she sometimes doesn’t appear in them. According to Agnes, this is because she has an enemy trying to get rid of her. She says that mirrors can’t find her, and that it typically happens when she’s alone, but sometimes with others there, and she believes that people are perhaps just too polite to mention that she has no reflection.