![]() ![]() She is one stuck girl, and though the title doesn't clue us into it, as the book ends, she's finally breaking free. As a result, a major conflict in Chains is Isabel's bondage between the two sides of the war. So many of us believe our founding fathers were good people. In a time like today when we face the possible repression of our people, it behooves us to examine history. A National Book Award finalist this book deserves all its awards. Isabel's identity as a slave renders her powerless in the face of the Revolution-she's even expected to automatically assume her master's political convictions rather than develop her own. Laurie Halse Anderson did that in her trilogy beginning with Chains. After being rejected for her service by both the American and British armies, Isabel comes to one pretty hopeless conclusion: ![]() Ultimately, the title unites both of these types of chains to capture Isabel's unique experience as a slave at the time of the Revolution. There's also the figurative slavery of the Colonies to Great Britain, keeping them subordinate to the mother country in spite of a growing desire to seek their independence. ![]() There's the literal enslavement of black people by the colonists, which renders Isabel an object and a possession instead of a human being and allows her to be bought, sold, and beaten against her will. From there, though, it gets a little more complicated, because there's a ton of different kinds of slavery going on in this book. We'll start with the obvious: The title Chains refers to slavery. ![]()
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