If You Become A Bird

"'If you become a bird and fly away from me,'

said his mother, 'I will be a tree that you come home to.'" 

- Margaret Wise Brown from The Runaway Bunny

     My monthly installment of literary critiques and close readings continues. For this month, I'm looking at this beautiful passage from one of my favorite books. Note, I said one of my favorites. I've been pushing this one hard on both of my kids. Though they'll both quietly listen while I read and anticipate the colored illustrations that appear on every other page, they are not yet as moved by the words as I. They probably won't be until (and if) they become parents themselves one day. 

     There's much to appreciate here. Let's start with the premise of the passage (and the whole story, really). A little bunny wants to run away. We don't know why. We don't know if this is the first time he's threatened to do so, but he wants to run away and his mother wants him to know that she will run after him. The little bunny threatens to metamorphose into a fish, a rock, a crocus, and at this point in the story: a bird. He will become a bird and he will fly away from his mother. He won't just fly away; he will fly away from his mother. That's a key point there. As a mother of small children who both seem to want to be with me all of the time, it's hard to imagine this moment. Of course, we've all had glimpses of this - when a close friend comes by, or a favorite relative or babysitter, and you're given the cold shoulder - pushed aside as your child tests the waters of independence. But this moment represents something different. To fly away from home suggests the moment our children leave for good. Of course they all come back - especially these days, but it's not the same. We can become a tree that they come home to, for rest or motivation or whatever they'll need, but it's not the same as when you were their mother who caught them in your arms and hugged them.

     Up until this point, the little bunny's mother assures her child that she will become what she needs to become in order to keep him safe. But when little bunny asserts that he will become a bird, her answer is somewhat different. How do you chase a bird? If a bird flies away from you, and you don't have wings, what are you left with? The wise mother in this story will become a tree that her child comes home to. Note that she says "a" tree as opposed to "the" tree. There's a distinct difference there. Of course, little bunny may stop to rest or eat at many trees throughout his journey. He will have many homes over the years, but his mother maintains that she will become one of these trees, and in doing so, she represents his ultimate home. 

    In the end, this passage - like all the others in this story -  is just a glimpse. The little bunny ultimately decides that he will stay home and be a little bunny who is still looked after by his mother. Perhaps those other experiences await him in his future or not, but regardless (or irregardless as Tony Soprano would say) we know that little bunny's mother will do whatever she needs to do to protect him.