Vanessa reaches personal freedom to a small extent. The stories in A Bird in the House show the pains that Vanessa goes through while growing up. Vanessa travels on a journey form ignorance to knowledge. This journey is her comprehension of why things happen, and how the past, present and future are tied together. Vanessa realizes that the past affects the present which affects the future. While growing up Vanessa is faced with having to live with the dominance of Grandfather Conner. Grandfather Conner represents a dominant patriarchal figure that rules the family. He always had a strong control over the people that lived with him. He was a perfectionist and was very proud of what he had accomplished and at no cost would he let his reputation be scarred. After her fathers death Vanessa moved into the Brick House with Grandfather Conner, this is when she noticed the trapped con

In the same manner, Ewen's regrets kept him from accomplishing personal freedom. In the story "To Set Our House in Order," Ewen shares with Vanessa the dream that he once had. The dream to go out into the merchant marine. Ewen tells Vanessa about Grandfather MacLeod and how he enjoyed reading Greek plays. "'He was interested in them,' [Ewen] said. '[Grandfather MacLeod] must have been a lonely man...Maybe he would have liked to talk to somebody about [the] plays. They must have meant a lot to him'" ("A Bird in the House," p.54). The way in which Ewen describes Grandfather MacLeod's passion to Vanessa show's that Ewen felt the same way. Ewen felt lonely because he wanted to do one thing but did another. Ewen's regret is that knowing how much he wanted to go into the merchant marine he did not. Thus, it is evident that Ewen's regret did not allow him to reach personal freedom.

ditions that aunt Edna was living in and her mother was going to have to live in again. Vanessa always tried to free herself of the things that went on around her by writing exaggerated adventure stories. When Vanessa wrote, it was her chance to get away from the things that made her feel trapped. Vanessa is freed of Grandfather Conner's tyranny when he dies, at least one thinks so. However it is evident in the story "Jericho's Brick Battlements," that Vanessa will never be free of Grandfather Conner. The painful memories that she has of him will remind her everyday that she is not free of his oppression. Vanessa realizes that she is like him when: "[she] wanted to tell [the new owners of the Brick house] to trim their hedges, to repaint the windowframes, to pay heed to repairs. [she] had feared and fought [grandfather Conner], yet he proclaimed himself in [her] veins." ("A Bird in the House," p. 191). Thus, it is evident that Vanessa was not free of Grandfather Conner's tyranny, which prevented her from reaching personal freedom.

All in all, it is clear that Vanessa, Ewen and Aunt Edna all reach personal freedom, however only to a small extent. These characters at some point had freedom, or they had a way in which they could be free of the things that went on ar

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