Hummingbird

“I’m changing. Change is coming, and it’s me. I am going to Macklemore. I will find my future BFF, and I will prove to absolutely every soul in this place that

I’m more

than bones and wheels

and breakable parts.”

Olive’s declaration following her encounter with the woman who loudly prays for her to be “healed” sets the direction and tone of Olive’s character arc and initiates her emotional journey. Olive’s resolution in this quote captures the primary motivation that drives her throughout the novel.

“But in this world,

a girl needs bones made of concrete.

A heart made of steel.

I’m eleven years old,

but I already know that’s true.”

Although in this poem Olive describes her bones in whimsical language (“candy bones”), she considers them more of a curse than a blessing. They are the one thing in her life that she does not romanticize with a whimsical perspective, making her condition stand out from the other elements in the novel that are painted with a magical veneer to support the magical realism elements. The return to concrete language to describe her OI indicates the way that Olive wishes her condition to be perceived by the reader: as a harsh reality she must deal with without the ameliorating varnish of whimsicality. These lines additionally establish Olive at the beginning of her character arc, when she is fixated on purging all her fragility, establishing her motivation and thereby establishing the novel’s theme on Fragility, Vulnerability, and Strength.

“I didn’t pay much attention to how hard the trees were trembling. Or how loudly the birds were singing. I barely even noticed the storm rolling in, slow and steady, stretching over my mountains like a shadow. I didn’t listen to the wind whispering through the trees. If I had, I might have heard what all of nature was trying to tell me: Change was on the wind, and it was bigger than any of us knew.

Because the hummingbird was coming.”

Using imagery, Lloyd foreshadows the introduction of the novel’s most significant symbol, the hummingbird, and the imminent transformation it symbolizes for Olive. Change is a minor motif in the novel; Olive’s fierce belief that change is imminent drives her to seek out transformation for herself. Instances like this that evoke both change and the hummingbird foreshadow the profound effect Olive’s magical journey will have on her growth.

“In the seconds before they disappeared, [the feathers] were beautiful: sparkling and icy-white, delicate as butterfly bones on the glass.”

Lloyd juxtaposes the feathers falling with the moment that Olive’s parents allow her to attend Macklemore to create a hopeful, whimsical mood that creates excitement for Olive’s impending changes that are symbolically foreshadowed by the feathers falling. The simile “delicate as butterfly bones” recalls Olive’s own condition, but reframed in a positive way, as here it is associated with the magical feathers. This symbolically establishes the feathers as a strong parallel to Olive’s personal changes and important moments, a pattern that persists throughout the rest of the novel. In addition, this reframing and juxtaposition subtly evoke the paradoxical beauty in fragility, preparing the novel to develop its theme on Fragility, Vulnerability, and Strength.

“Real hummingbirds are tiny, adorable, and lightning fast. But the birds carved into the stone had wings taller than me, bent in front like they were holding the doors wide open with their strength. They looked mythical and wild.”

Although Olive doesn’t yet know the full significance of the hummingbird’s legend, the previous foreshadowing builds the audience’s knowledge of the hummingbird as a symbol, making the significance of their appearance here clear to the audience. Following Olive’s worries that she’ll be trapped by the label “fragile” at Macklemore too, the hummingbirds’ presence in the architecture of the school signals that Macklemore will be a safe, transformative, magical space for Olive. Their appearance here suggests the adventure and magic that Olive is about to embark upon.

“‘When bone-white feathers start to fall,

When the blue moon rises tall,

Where fear and wonder both collide,

That is where the creature hides.

[…]

The words you didn’t know were missing

Will drift across your broken heart.

Shout those words into the dark!

Reach for the bird in the blinding light,

Make a wish that’s brave and right.”

The words of the riddle Twig Moody gave the Everly Sisters serve as a guide for Grace and Olive’s attempts to find the hummingbird. The riddle is another facet of magical realism: Like many other fantasy/adventure novels wherein the protagonist receives some sort of prophecy/riddle, the hummingbird riddle here structures the action and steps of the quest. Lloyd utilizes a mostly AABB rhyme scheme with metered lines to simulate this, creating a mood that reinforces the magic and myth of the hummingbird.

“The feather-snow melted over a plaque inscribed with the words: FOSTER AUDITORIUM. […] I didn’t wait for Ms. Pigeon to come back. I unlocked my brakes and pushed toward the doors—toward that one mysterious melting feather. Toward the destiny that was mine.”

Lloyd uses the feathers motif to facilitate a pivotal moment for Olive. Theater and her experience in the play are partially a vehicle through which Olive confronts barriers and develops self-confidence, ultimately leading to the moment wherein she finds the hummingbird at the end of the novel; using the feather to guide Olive toward her “destiny” both reinforces the magical realism and suggests the importance of Olive’s decision to participate in the play.

“I fluttered my fingers and whispered

Mr. Watson’s words,

‘Magic in the bone.’

And the most dangerous what-if

of all lodged deep into my heart:

What if I found the bird?

What if I

made a wish?”

Lloyd returns to verse here to explore the internal experience of one of Olive’s most crucial character moments. Driven by her extreme disappointment over the lack of accessibility in the theater, Olive begins to entertain the idea that the hummingbird could fix her bones and resolve those issues for her. Previously, Olive mostly viewed her condition as neutral; being confronted with the lack of accessibility in theater is what first pushes her toward the idea that she can wish her fragility away.

“Mr. Watson said that our words are like a magic we carry inside us. I used my lucky purple pen and turned my words loose. I wrote the fiery truth burning bright inside me:

I wish for

bones like steel.

Bones that don’t break

when they dance,

or fall

or slide in the snow.

Maybe that’s selfish,

to hope for that.”

This is the moment wherein Olive first explicitly articulates her wish to herself. Lloyd once more shifts into verse for this moment to give readers a deeper connection to Olive’s internal experience in this moment. Lloyd uses the simile “bones like steel,” which was also used in Chapter 3, to recall the moment in Chapter 3 when Olive used the same phrase and the emotions surrounding it—the weariness of having others perceive her as fragile and the sense that she needs to be tough to exist in the world. This moment reinforces the theme of Fragility, Vulnerability, and Strength as instigates the conflicting dichotomy between strength and fragility. Presently, Olive perceives them as an exclusive binary; part of her character arc/development will be to accept her fragile places (and that everyone has them) and to realize that strength and success can co-exist with fragility.

“I’d never seen my body

like this,

like my bones were a cage holding the real me captive.

Suddenly, I could find

constellations of things I

didn’t like

about myself.”

Olive’s critical and disheartened tone here is a sharp contrast from her usual optimism with which she views herself, signaling a sharp decline in her self-perspective. The use of “constellations” as a metaphor now used negatively to describe all the things she doesn’t like about herself reinforces this. This moment is important because it shifts Olive’s priorities and goals and propels her toward using her hummingbird wish to change her bones.

“The clap of [mine and Grace’s] hands together wasn’t very loud, not with the sound of sneakers squeaking all over the gym. But it felt like a lightning bolt inside my soul. Like a perfectly wonderful summer storm.

Storms mean change is coming, Grandpa Goad always says. And this kind of change felt really nice.”

Lloyd uses the change motif to suggest how friendship transforms Olive’s life in support of the Friends and Family as the Most Important Magic theme. Using the simile of the lightning bolt and the storm, Lloyd suggests that Grace’s friendship is a radical, overpowering, all-encompassing transformation in Olive’s life.

“‘You don’t think [the hummingbird] matters to other people, too?’ Miss Snow asked gently. ‘I think everybody’s got a wish. A wish is hope with a little magic sprinkled on it, ya know? And when you hope for a thing for too long…it can hurt when it doesn’t happen.’”

Miss Snow’s words develop the Fragility, Vulnerability, and Strength theme. Her suggestion that everyone has a secret wish foreshadows revelations about others’ fragile places, and, more specifically, about Hatch’s. Her specific reference to wishes hurting if they go unfulfilled also foreshadows the pain that Olive discovers within Hatch, as Hatch has held onto his wish of seeing his dog again for so long that it has created a deep wound inside of him.

“I sat alone for a few minutes, in a long, dark row of books. And I realized:

If I’d had bones like steel…it wouldn’t have changed that moment.

Standing wouldn’t have made it better. Neither would running or walking without a limp. It was one day, in a lifetime of days, and I got to feel the full bliss of it in the body I had. This super sweet guy had just given me his tacky shark-tooth necklace. A moment like that is worth remembering.

Moments like that will surely be even sweeter, once I find the hummingbird.”

Olive’s revelation here foreshadows the conclusion to her internal conflict surrounding her body and the novel’s theme of Existing with Limitations. Although Olive believes that her OI holds her back, she begins to realize here that it will not keep her from the truly important things, the conclusion that she ultimately reaches with regard to this conflict. However, ending this passage with Olive’s thoughts returning to how the hummingbird will enhance these experiences by making her bones stronger indicates that she has not quite reached this conclusion and still has growth left to achieve.

“It’s funny how you can read people one way and be so sure—like so confident—you know all about them. When really, you don’t know anything. You can’t see anybody’s heart; you only see what they want you to see. Or what you want to see, which can be even worse.

That night, what I saw in Hatch Malone’s eyes was sheer sadness. I was sure of it. And when he tilted his head back down to read his comic book, I felt that sadness reach toward me.

I never thought I had anything in common with Hatch Malone.

But now I know I was wrong. We both have fragile places inside.

Everybody does.”

This is a crucial realization in developing the Fragility, Vulnerability, and Strength theme. At the beginning of the novel, Olive assumed that Hatch was the perfect son he professed to be; however, after observing him at school, Olive understands that his lies mask fragile places of his own. With this revelation, Lloyd adds a dimension to the fragility motif that informs the development of the Fragility, Vulnerability, and Strength theme—that of metaphysical fragility, that informs Olive’s understanding that hearts break just as easily as bones, and emotional wounds may even be harder to heal.

“‘Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul.’

Emily wrote that. It’s my favorite line she’s got.

See like Emily, I told my heart.

Soar like the birds today.”

Lloyd uses an allusion to one of Emily Dickinson’s most well-known poems, “Hope is the thing with feathers,” to connect the motif of birds with self-expression and growth. The allusion to Emily Dickinson in the novel reinforces the bird motif and the role that hope plays in Olive’s outlook. Here, the allusion and motifs work in tandem to evoke the strength they give Olive to take courageous actions like auditioning for the play, express herself, and remain hopeful in fearful circumstances.

“I offered the book to [Hatch]. He stepped into the room slowly, glancing around like I’d booby-trapped the place with glitter. He tucked it, carefully, back into his hoodie. He didn’t look upset, at least, which was nice. But what he said still shocked me a little.

‘What to watch a movie?’”

This moment represents a crucial stage of Hatch’s character development: the moment when he begins to open up to others. Hatch’s choice to share his insecurities, his anxieties, his loneliness, and his sorrow with Olive allows him to develop the social supports that he’d been lacking, reinforcing the narrative’s theme on the role confronting vulnerability plays in helping one unlock better things in their life.

“I heard the watery pop of my thigh bone,

which might be the same sound

my heart makes when it breaks.”

Lloyd utilizes verse to depict this critical, heart-rending moment for Olive: Just as she’s soaring high with her new friends and growing closer and closer to finding the hummingbird, the fragility of her bones sharply derails her. Lloyd builds breaks in other contexts as a motif in this chapter to build toward this moment, when the emotional and physical breakages collide. The fact that Olive equates the sound of her heart breaking to the sound of her bone breaking drives home the impact her condition has on her daily life, and that her disability wreaks an emotional toll as much as it does a physical one.

“I took [my friends’ roar]

and made it mine.

My friends were better than Narnia that day.

This isn’t a play we’re in. This is real life,

and it’s really hard.

Here’s how we survive:

Together, we roar.”

The way that Olive’s friends react in this moment of great vulnerability emphasizes Friends and Family as the Most Important Magic. Lloyd describes Olive’s cries of pain as a “roar,” turning her sounds of pain and suffering into a symbol of her strength and courage in these moments of pain. That her friends roar alongside her makes her pain a shared experience; Olive’s conclusion that one survives hardships by roaring together illustrates the power of friendship to ease life’s burdens and promote growth.

“Maybe that was the magic the hummingbird had wanted me to find all along: two new friends. Maybe they were the truest desire of my heart, my wish come true. And if so, that would have been more than enough.”

The hummingbird’s magic often seems to promote the importance of interpersonal relationships, as most of its wishes have to do with realizing the value of things and relationships right in front of the wisher. This moment indicates that Olive is approaching the end of her character arc—she has released her wish of having perfect bones, instead leaning into the valuable relationships she has cultivated throughout her quest. This readies her for her encounter with the hummingbird at the climax, when she accepts her limits but also that they don’t define her.

“‘Here’s what’s going to happen, kiddo: As you get older, your world will get bigger. And bigger. And you’ll realize, there’s way more that you can do than you can’t do. It just takes time for us to see it. Birds are born with wings. The rest of us have to find our wings as we go. And you will, Olive Miracle. You’ll find them, and you’ll fly.’”

Grandpa Goad’s words are a perfect encapsulation of the novel’s theme of Existing with Limitations. This revelation propels Olive toward the resolution of her internal conflicts and character arc at the novel’s climax.

“A feeling like fire roared up through my bones, my heart, my vocal chords. Words formed on my tongue as proud and strong as any truth I’d ever spoken.

‘My bones are fragile,’ I said. ‘But I am not.’”

This moment at the climax of the novel of Olive finding her “missing words” symbolizes the primary resolution of her internal conflicts and character arc. Olive realizes that she is more than just the limits imposed upon her by her condition; she possesses a strength and a resoluteness of spirit that enables her to transcend them. By positioning this revelation as the magical words that unlock the hummingbird’s wish, the novel posits that fragility is the door to beauty and magic, reinforcing the theme of Fragility, Vulnerability, and Strength.

“I could wish away the hurting part. For today. But something would probably hurt again in the future. I don’t think anybody gets to walk through the world without getting broken somehow. My bones would always heal. […] Broken bones eventually heal. I’m not sure if broken hearts ever do.”

Olive’s thoughts before she makes her wish at the climax of the novel reinforce the truth that she has learned—she cannot wish her condition and her pain away, but there is no shame in acknowledging it and moving through it to find better things. However, her thoughts turn to Hatch, and the pain of missing his best friend; understanding that his fragile places lie in his broken heart, Olive uses her wish to heal him.

“‘I thought about [looking for the hummingbird],’ [Grace] said, not looking the least bit sad or perplexed. ‘But on the way, Luther Frye asked me if I’d build one of my weird doghouses for Gustav. […] I realized I don’t really have to wish for a thriving doghouse empire. I’ll just make it happen.’”

Grace’s realization complements and reinforces Olive’s. Just as Olive realizes that she doesn’t need strong bones to accomplish everything she wants to achieve in life, Grace also realizes that she doesn’t need the magic of the hummingbird to make her dreams happen. This reinforces Lloyd’s use of magical elements to guide characters on emotional journeys that guide them to important truths.