A Bird in The House is a collection of stories particularly relevant to study from the perspective of recent events in Canada due to the discovery of the 215 children mass grave. The post colonial reality is observed and narrated from the perspective of a young girl Vanessa. She comments on the events from her childish point of view however relates to them after all as an adult women reflexively coming back to the childhood of her memories.
One of the concepts highlighted in the stories is undoubtedly family values such as ”the McLeods do not tell lies” (48) which appear regularly and form a strong relationship between its members. The distinction between people to upright and downright is based on the belief that happiness comes from hard work. There is no doubt that the whole family is closely bonded and love each other dearly. Narrator, however, through child’s voice, sarcastically comments on clan’s mottos when Vanessa notices their pathos: “it did not seem to me that any of us were going to lead very interesting lives” (50). Vanessa describes her family with affection yet she remains objective and draws her own conclusions based on what she sees.
Each of the stories conveys a meaningful message in relation to family, friendship, war, and love simultaneously touching very difficult subjects such as racism and indifference. The white protagonists in the story would compare themselves to indigenous people with no understanding of genocide’s trauma. As they come from wealthy families, they most usually have a privileged position in comparison to less fortunate people. It seems that the only person who could try to put himself in Piquette’s position is Ewin. When Vanessa says: “Piquette might have been the only one, after all, who had heard the crying of the loons” (120),she realises the social inequalities which pushed a divorced and helpless Métis mother of two into addiction and poverty what results in tragic death. In this context, Margaret Laurence presents prejudice in forms of racism and how the settler’s mindset and ideology blurs the image of actual situation. Through the pompous slogans and dogmas, the community prevents themselves from feeling excessive emotions in their families but as well as avoids reflexions about people out of their circles.

Laurence, M. (1993). A Bird in The House. The University of Chicago Press.

A Bird in The House is a collection of stories particularly relevant to study from the perspective of recent events in Canada due to the discovery of the 215 children mass grave. The post colonial reality is observed and narrated from the perspective of a young girl Vanessa. She comments on the events from her childish point of view however relates to them after all as an...