Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer

Sue Griegson is a well-known member of the local poultry community and the antagonist of the novel. Ms. Griegson first appears in Chapters 11 and 12 when she comes to the Brown farm and tries to break into the coop where Sophie has locked up Henrietta. Ms. Griegson creates anxiety for Sophie, who worries that she will return to steal her growing flock of unusual chickens and wonders if she is really a better caretaker for them. Ms. Griegson’s presence in the poultry community makes it difficult for Sophie to connect with other farm kids, as Sue runs the 4-H club. She represents the problems with division in small communities.

Agnes’s letters warn Sophie not to let Ms. Griegson take Great-Uncle Jim’s chickens, but as time goes on, Sophie learns that Ms. Griegson is trying to buy and reopen Redwood Farms. Despite Ms. Griegson owning a shapeshifting hawk-chicken, Sophie is certain that Agnes would not want Sue in charge of Redwood. Ms. Griegson is presented as Agnes’s foil; both are competent chicken farmers, but Ms. Griegson’s intentions are presented as malicious and suspect.

Ms. Griegson successfully steals all of Sophie’s chickens and locks them up with the three Speckled Sussex chickens that she’s already caught. Sophie manages to free them, and with the help of Gregory, get them safely to the poultry show. Chapter 31 features a tense showdown between Sophie and Ms. Griegson in front of other members of the poultry community. However, Ms. Griegson eventually agrees that the community will help Sophie keep her chickens safe. In the final chapters of the book, Agnes bestows Redwood Farm to Sophie, protecting her chickens and her estate from Ms. Griegson, whom Agnes describes as “not so much […] a bad person [but] she makes bad decisions” (205). Sue Griegson is not heard from in the novel again. It therefore remains unclear why Ms. Griegson is not to be trusted or what her intentions are, reflecting Sophie’s age as Agnes attempts to preserve her innocence.

Gregory is the mailman in the Brown family’s new rural community. Gregory is one of the first people Sophie meets in town, and he plays a vital role in helping Sophie communicate with Redwood Farm and gather Great-Uncle Jim’s chickens. Sophie first mentions Gregory in Chapter 2, when she describes how “[t]here aren’t any people around here—especially no brown people, except Gregory, our mailman” (7). She goes on to say, “I like Gregory” because he reminds her of her teacher last year, as “they’re both tall black guys, and when they smile at you, it makes you feel like you did a great job on your science project” (7). Gregory is the first person Sophie feels comfortable around in her new neighborhood, and she chats with him regularly when he comes by for the mail. Together, he and Sophie represent the power of solidarity between people of color in white-dominated communities.

Gregory also offers his spiritual perspective when Sophie asks about mailing letters to the dead. He explains that “some people send messages to their dead families by burning their letters […] or putting them in a special place on a special day” (57). Sophie also writes that Gregory was usure about the dead sending letters back, but he said, “[t]here are more things in heaven and earth, Sophie Brown, than are dreamt of in our philosophies” (57). His reflections foreshadow the fact that Agnes is dead. Sophie likes Gregory’s outlook and looks up to him as a mentor.

Gregory’s most significant moments come at the end of the book, when he saves Sophie from her dire situation, trapped in an abandoned barn with no way to safely get her chickens home. Gregory not only helps Sophie get her chickens somewhere safe, but he advises her to rally the community to protect her chickens from local thieves. With Gregory’s advice, Sophie saves her chickens from the threat of Ms. Griegson. He therefore becomes a heroic figure by the end. At the end of the novel, Sophie expresses that she appreciates Gregory because “he didn’t try to explain you [Agnes] were dead” (208). She likes that Gregory “understands life is just more mysterious than most people thing” and wants “to try and be like that too” (208). Gregory’s influence on Sophie as a role model and as a trusted community member makes him vital to Sophie’s character development.

Agnes is the late owner of Redwood Farm. She is the only person who writes back to Sophie throughout the novel, so the revelation that Agnes has been dead the whole time, writing to Sophie as a ghost, is a narrative twist. Through her letters, she guides Sophie on the care and keeping of her unusual chickens. Agnes provides Sophie with several lessons from Redwood Farm’s free chicken course so that Sophie can learn how to feed and house her chickens. Agnes knew Great-Uncle Jim, and she helps Sophie verify that the unusual chickens she keeps finding belonged to him. She is therefore vital to the text’s exploration of Coping with Grief Through Legacy; she both helps Sophie to continue her great uncle’s legacy and she preserves her own legacy as a poultry farmer, even in death.

Agnes’s letters are written with a standard typewriter font and are full of typing errors and extra characters. In her first letter, she claims that this is because her “xxtyxpewriter is broken” (40). This makes her a comedic figure throughout the text. However, things become more mysterious when Agnes’s letters suddenly stop, and Sophie begins to put together clues that something might be wrong at Redwood Farm. For example, Sophie learns that Ms. Griegson is trying to buy and reopen Redwood Farm, and she later learns that Redwood Farm “[went] out of business years ago” (143). Sophie writes Agnes many unanswered letters about her problems with Ms. Griegson, Great-Uncle Jim’s final three missing chickens, and her burning questions. However, it isn’t until Chapter 35 that Agnes writes back again.

Agnes reveals that she’s a ghost and that she’s been communicating with Sophie through the three Speckled Sussex chickens, who can see ghosts. She’s somewhat trained them to peck at the keys so that she can type letters, and she doesn’t remember much between her death and Sophie’s first letter. Agnes says that she feels “faded around the edges” (206), like her spirit won’t be on earth much longer, so with the last of her energy, she writes a letter bestowing her estate and Redwood Farms to Sophie. Agnes is proud of Sophie as a poultry farmer and trusts her to take on the responsibility for the rest of Agnes’s unusual chickens.