Willy Freeman, the Brave

Author's Note: This piece is about how the point of view of the narrator, Willy in the book "War Comes to Willy Freeman" by James and Christopher Collier creates bias opinions about the events of the story.

Imagine being a child, during one of the most gigantic wars in world history. Think about being dragged right in the middle of the battle, just to take the horse back home. Lastly, I want you to theorize about watching your own father get stabbed by bayonets, only to come back home to find that your mom was taken. This is what the poor Wilhelmina Freeman goes through during the story. The story is narrated through her point of view which I do think has an effect on the reader. But, what if it went through the eyes of her kidnapped and jailed mother? Would the main theme of the story be different?

The adventurous story “War Comes to Willy Freeman” by James and Christopher Collier is written through the point of few of a little girl who generally looks like a boy. Her attitudes and emotions towards things like the war or slavery might be different than those of her mom. Willy Freeman generally believed that “Although the war is over, slaves wasn’t going to be no freer under the America’s than they was under the British, and women was still going to have to keep their place. I was black, and I was a woman, and I knew there were limits.” That is shown many times as the author’s wrote her as the narrator. This sentence and some other quotes portray bias feelings for the reader that the British were just fighting for rule and that women were not respected back then. Her bias feelings definitely influence the opinions of the readers of the book.

If the story was written with a different narrator such as Willy’s uncle, Jack Arabus, there would be a different plot and opposite opinions of the rules, laws, and thoughts about the rules of that time period. If it was, Willy Freeman and all of the fictional characters would barely be in the story because he was off fighting in the war for General Washington. He would also give the readers the feeling that he liked “keeping the women in place” which would make it a different story.

The book, War Comes to Willy Freeman by James and Christopher Collier is written with the narrator, as a teenage girl. During the story, she develops many bias feelings about the Revolutionary War and slavery. As I was reading this, I definitely caught these points of views in preparation for future reference. I really enjoyed this book because there was many twists and turns, a great adventure book about American history!!!