Interpretation of Symbolism and Meanings Behind Song of The Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell

In Song of the Sparrow by Lisa Ann Sandell, Elaine is a sixteen-year-old girl trapped in a military camp with her father and two brothers. Without a feminine influence and only men Elaine grew up wild, but imprisoned still in military camp after military camp. One day, men from the camp come back from a nearby village with a carriage containing a woman. Elaine is at first excited for a feminine companion, but this girl, Gwynivere, seems to be above all work and treats Elaine like she is wasted space. Not long after, Arthur and his men leave to push back the Saxons from Briton, and Elaine, not wanting to be left out of the action, follows behind. During the journey Elaine is captured by Saxon men, and to her and the men’s great surprise, Gwynivere leaps out to protect Elaine but is also captured. While imprisoned, they overhear the Saxons planning to attack Arthur and his camp in the night when they will not suspect them to come. Gwynivere and Elaine make a plan which involves Elaine distracting the Saxons while Gwynivere runs to warn the men at camp. Elaine gets pierced with an arrow while running by the men as Gwynivere secretly runs in the other direction but manages to make it to a boat, where she is later discovered by her Gwynivere and men of the camp. Elaine is healed with Gwynivere’s help and the men go to war with the Saxons and win. The long war between the two countries is over, and all the men are able to go home or help Arthur build a new place, called Camelot. In this paper I will do a character analysis, discuss the author’s style and voice, the point of view, and my personal opinion of the book.

I chose to analyze Gwynivere, who is the picture of beauty, with a “crown of hair the color of flaxseed, skin ivory and delicate, full coral lips.” But she is also haughty and carries herself as though she is above all others, and upon first meeting Elaine she wrinkles her nose in distain when Elaine offers to show her the camp, and says, “I have no interest in your plants… Nor have I any interest in tramping through the mud and filth, as you so clearly relish doing.” Or at least that’s how she appears to be when she is first introduced in the story. When she and Elaine are captured by the Saxons, a whole other side of her is revealed to Elaine as Gwynivere admits that she is jealous of Elaine, of “how the men look at her with admiration and as a friend, rather than just a beautiful face.” Because Gwynivere has a significant change in character from beginning to end, this makes her a dynamic character. Not only does she provide interest to the story with her personality, she is important in the fact that without her, Elaine would have been captured alone and unable to warn Arthur and his men, and without her, Elaine and many of the men would be dead. Gwynivere’s major impact on the story and her changed personality is the reason I chose to analyze this character. Elaine is infuriated by Gwynivere’s stuck-up attitude and how she acts towards her at the beginning and is the antagonist towards Elaine. But as Gwynivere undergoes a complete personality transformation, both she and Elaine are protagonists against the enemy Saxons, united together in a horrible situation.

In Song of the Sparrow Sandell has a very unique writing style. The way the book is set up in freestyle form gives it an ancient feel all on its own, as well as putting emphasis on words and giving it a poetic feel. The choice of words also tell you that this is taking place in another time period, where more elegant language is used and helps put you into their world. The story is told using mostly the main character’s thoughts and description of the scene rather than dialogue, again helping put you in their world. The author’s voice that she uses also changes the feel of the story, which leads into how the point-of-view affects how readers see the character’s world.

As previously mentioned, writing style can affect how readers see the world the author has created, but sometimes the point of view from which it is told makes an even larger impact. Song of the Sparrow is told from a 16-year-old girl’s point of view, a very different perspective then if the story had been told from a middle aged man’s point of view. Being told from a teenager’s perspective allows us to see the world more simply, focusing only on the things she finds important. That being said, the reader’s perspective of that world is marred by seeing the world only from her eyes, as they only see and think what Elaine sees and thinks.

Since Song of the Sparrow is from a girl not much older than me, I can make many connections from my life to hers. A connection I can make is text to self, and is Gwynivere treats Elaine like she is a waste of space. Many times I have felt as though I am being looked down on by someone prettier or smarter than me, just like Elaine feels when Gwynivere speaks to her in the beginning. I picked to read this book because I haven’t read much on the legends of Camelot and wanted to learn more while still enjoying what I was reading. Two things I dislike about this book is that it gets a bit slow at times and the way it is written in almost poetry form bothers me. But there are also things I like about the book, such as the sweet and old-fashioned romance and the way the words seemed to flow. I really got interested in the book when Elaine and Gwynivere are captured and the real action begins and I would definitely recommend this to my peers. Overall, I think that it is a spectacular book and I enjoyed reading it a lot because of both romance and the action included.