Freedom

When Patty confronts her mother about her inattention in the past, Joyce says, “I guess my life hasn’t always been happy, or easy, or exactly what I want. At a certain point, I just have to try not to think too much about certain things, or else they’ll break my heart” (530). It is not difficult to imagine any of the characters at Joyce’s age—if they did not change their trajectories as presented in Freedom—not having a similar perspective.

When Part 4 begins, the lives of Walter and Patty—which have not always been easy, happy, or exactly what they want—have taken them to very different places. Walter’s gentle nature and goodwill towards humanity has all but evaporated. He saves the softest parts of himself—the good pieces that Patty adored—for the neighborhood birds. Without Richard as a nemesis, he turns his attention to Bobby and the other cats in the neighborhood. Walter’s anger and cynicism, which boiled over in the section titled “The Nice Man’s Anger,” have left him hollow and alone, although he is content in his isolation.

Walter secludes himself in an attempt to gain freedom from his thoughts, past torments, and grief. Ironically, it is the theme of family and loyalty that keeps him from moving on. As his relationship with Jessica improves, it also deepens Patty’s loss, since Jessica sounds more like Patty each time they talk.

Walter’s efforts do not protect him from a new wave of depression, however. The version of Patty that he elevated early in their courtship still exists in memories. He thinks, “Even a horrible marriage was less lonely than no marriage at all” (550). When Jessica confronts him about giving Patty a divorce if he truly no longer wants her, he says, “I have a right not to do something I don’t want to do” (552). Walter exemplifies the themes of Loyalty and Betrayal as well as Freedom and Captivity. He probably should divorce Patty, but he asserts his autonomy and freedom in his unwillingness to completely sever bonds with Patty. The best he can do by way of explanation is to tell Jessica that birds “are the only thing that’s still lovely to me. I mean, besides you and Joey” (552). One of the reasons Walter loves birds is that they are incapable of hurting him. They are predictable and cannot be disloyal.

When Patty returns to Walter, he lets her in, rather than allowing her to freeze to death. In bed, after she is warm, she says, “It’s me. Just me” (559). She is no longer pretending to be anything other than herself, which is all that Walter ever wanted. When Patty says it’s “Just me,” she says it in a way that implies that it is merely her. For Walter, Patty was so special that the idea of “just her” was an oxymoron. Now that she has returned to herself and returned to him, there is nothing he can do except take her back and kiss her.

Patty’s return restores freedom to the couple’s lives. They agree to remain bound to each other and captive to their mutual feelings, but this time they accept the sacrifice. Part of Patty’s newfound freedom comes from the fact that, by merely being herself, she charms the neighbors at Canterbridge Estates Lake. She has become the good neighbor that was partially a façade in their first neighborhood.

The transformation of the Berglunds’ home into a bird sanctuary is a final nod to the idea of finding freedom through a necessary form of captivity. The birds cannot protect themselves against all external forces. Walter can help them, but only by placing them in a captivity of which they are unaware.