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Chapter 14: The Line
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in H is for Hawk, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Living with the Wild
Fear, Grief, and Loss
Love, Trust, and Freedom
Time and History
Social Divisions
Summary
Analysis
Stuart and Macdonald attach a bell—which will help Macdonald to track Mabel in the field—to the bird’s tail. Mabel also has a modern transmitter chip implanted under her skin. But she’s not ready to be flown free yet. She’s still consistently overshooting Macdonald’s hand. Stuart wants Macdonald to thin the bird down more, and although she should know to do this herself, Macdonald feels relief at getting to play the role of novice under his guidance. She imagines White similarly balking at the idea of expertise. No one expects much of novices. And because White felt that he had to excel in order to be loved, the prospect of being considered a master but still failing was especially terrifying. Macdonald suspects that’s why he subtly began sabotaging his own efforts.
The bell carries several symbolic resonances for Macdonald. First, it connects her to falconry’s past, as it’s an ancient technology for tracking one’s bird, one that she chooses to employ even though she also has much more sophisticated equipment. Second, it provides another kind of tether linking her to Mabel, giving her an increased sense of holding on. Although she evokes the greater responsibility of being a master as the scary thing for her and White, it’s clear that for both, the really traumatic idea is the thought of losing a creature that they love. She accuses White of sabotaging himself so that he never really had to trust Gos. And although at this point she clearly thinks that she’s above doing the same, her ongoing struggles with Mabel’s calling-off training suggest otherwise.
Themes
One evening, Stuart and Macdonald take Mabel out to the hill above the city. Mabel overshoots her landings, and Stuart again says she needs to be “keener”—lighter—to fly free. As they’re leaving the field, the rays of the setting sun illuminate thousands of spider silk threads waving from the grass tips in the breeze. It’s beautiful, ephemeral, and strange.
In the previous chapter, Macdonald asserted that she didn’t know what kept Mabel from progressing, but Stuart knows immediately. He’s less emotionally involved with the bird and can see it more clearly as a wild animal with needs and drives of its own than Macdonald.
Themes
The next day, Macdonald goes into London to help her mother and brother plan the memorial service her father’s colleagues want to hold in his honor. The attention they pay to details like the design of the service booklet seems absurdly inappropriate given the weight of grief Macdonald still feels. On her way home, she remembers the beauty of the glowing, thread-filled field and wonders if the world is still beautiful but that she just can’t see it. Her anger drains away. And that evening, on the hill with Stuart, she wonders aloud if she’s depressed. Stuart encourages her to be gentle with herself.
Training Mabel has allowed Macdonald to ignore her feelings of grief, at least to a point. But the trip to London reminds her—and readers—that she still has a lot of important work to do in this area before she will begin to feel better. She has a flash of insight on the train when she realizes that the world itself hasn’t changed, just her ability to see and engage with it. And this, in turn, leads her to open up to a human friend about her struggles. Although it will take a while for this to bear fruit, it’s an important first step on her healing journey.
Themes
When Macdonald unhoods Mabel it’s immediately clear that she’s ready to fly. She comes to Macdonald’s hand each time she’s called, without hesitation. Although she knows it’s because the bird is keen, Macdonald can’t help but attribute some of the success to a sense that she feels a little lighter now. She thinks she must try to be happier for Mabel’s sake.
As the writer of her memoir—and as an expert bird trainer—Macdonald knows that Mabel’s success has nothing to do with her human emotions. Her desire to connect the two in the moment, however, shows how much of her emotional need she has given the bird—a wild animal with no concept of human emotions—to carry.
Themes
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