A major topic in The Invention of Wings is freedom. While there is the obvious physical freedom from slavery, figurative freedom is also searched for throughout the course of the novel. Sarah struggles with a feeling of helplessness in Charleston, as she is not able to follow her dreams or fill her place in society as a wife. She is stuck in the middle, with nowhere to go. She cannot grow as a human being, she just stays in the place she's been in since a child, even though she is becoming a very different person than she was.
"'I'm sorry, Handful, I know how you must feel.' It seemed to me I did know what it felt to have one's liberty curtailed, but she blazed up at me. 'So we just the same, me and you? That's why you the one to shit in the pot and I'm the one to empty it?'" (Kidd 89).
Handful and Sarah are very similar in their desires to live freely, but they differ in their actions towards freedom. Handful does not have her freedom, but she acts bravely and does everything in her power to help gain her own life. On the other hand, Sarah is a free woman, but she does not act on her desires out of fear. She miserably stays in Charleston for a long time before finally using her freedom and leaving. These differences are just due to Sarah and Handful's differences as human beings.
"I remembered suddenly that day last winter in the drawing room when Handful cleaned the chandelier, the allegation she'd leveled at me: My body may be a slave, but not my mind. For you, it's the other way around. I'd dismissed the words - what could she know of it? But I saw now how exact they were. My mind had been shackled" (Kidd 210).
Handful and Sarah both help each other grow and develop through their relationship over the course of their lives. It is Handful that influences Sarah to follow her dreams and ambitions, and it is Sarah who aids Handful in her escape towards freedom.