The characters that we meet in Missouri are Sibonia, Ms. Abby, The Reverend, Pie, and Darg.


Sibonia
Sibonia is Libby's sister and they are both slaves living in the pen outside of the Pikesville. She was sort of short tempered because when Onion asked about Bob, she threw a ball of mud at him.

Ms. Abby
She is described as a white woman wearing red lipstick and a face covered in powder smoking a cigar. She is in charge of the prostitutes and Onion was sent into her room to get forced to work since he accidentally said that he worked in that field of work.

The Reverend
We meet Reverend Martin again on page 112 after Fred shoots and kills a Good Lord Bird. Him and Onion hear horses coming towards them so Fred orders Onion to hide. One of the men riding up to greet them turns out to be The Reverend, "the feller Fred drawed on back at the Old Man's camp" (McBride 112). He was wearing "his two shiny pearl-handled numbers on his belt, which he likely stole off some dead Free Stater, for he hadn't had them things before" (McBride 112). This proves that he has changed himself, at least physically, from the last time that Onion and the army had seen him. As soon as Fred recognized Reverend Martin, he shot him in the chest and said "'That'll teach you to draw on me, you apple-headed, horse-thieving, nigger-loving bastard'" (McBride 113). He then proceeded to gloat about killing Fred, almost as if he had been hunting a large animal, saying, "'I got me one of the Brown's boys,' he said proudly. 'Got the biggest one'" (McBride 113). 
It is interesting seeing how the Reverend has flip-flopped from being a part of John Brown's army to leaving, joining up with and maybe even leading what seem to be Pro Slavers, and then killing Fred Brown in cold blood.

Pie
We meet Pie when Chase, one of the men that brought Onion and Bob to Missouri, takes them to the Pikesville Hotel. Onion thought that there "weren't nothing compared to seeing that bundle of beauty coming down them stairs that first time. She would blow the hat off your head. She was a mulatto woman" (McBride 144). She was a black prostitute and apparently Chase owes her $9.

Darg
Darg works for Ms. Abby who uses him as an enforcer. That is all we know about him so far.

1. What is the meaning of the good lord bird? What does it represent?  How does it connect to to the title of the book?

• The good lord bird is described on page 33 as a woodpecker because, "when man sees it, he says, 'Good Lord'". Its feathers are said to bring you understanding that will last your whole life. The bird basically hypnotized Fred while they were looking at it and instead of taking the chance to run away, Henry took out the feather from a good lord bird that John Brown had given him. This connects to the story because John Brown had given Henry a feather which symbolized a lifetime of understanding. This is fitting because John Brown was an abolitionist trying to fight for the freedom of slaves which proves that he has an understanding that he was trying to share with Henry. Also, the book in itself represents coming of age and self discovery. While being freed from one owner, Henry finds himself under the control of yet another white man. The need for freedom is a constant as the story goes on which relates to a bird needing to fly. Henry tries to take flight multiple times during the story which connects him to the good lord bird. 

2. What is Henry’s nickname?  How did he earn it?

• Henry was nicknamed "Little Onion" because when John Brown reached into his coat pocket and dug out a dirty old onion, Henry thought that he was supposed to eat it, which he did. The onion turned out to be John Brown's good luck charm that he was giving to Henry as a gift now that he was free. Since he ate it, Henry became John Brown's new good luck charm and was therefore called "Little Onion".

3. What was Henry’s rationale for continuing to live a lie?  Was it justifiable?

• Henry was unable to inform John Brown in the beginning that his name was actually Henry and that he was in fact a male. As time went on, it became harder and harder to try and correct John Brown. Furthermore, Henry knew that he would be treated differently as a female than as a male so it seemed like the smart decision to stick to the lie and keep pretending to be Henrietta. 

Is it permissible to lie? If so, when? If not, why?

Lying can go one of two ways; either you get away with it or you don't. After that, you have to wait and see if the lie you told helped you or hurt you. So far, the way that I see it, Henry has told 1.5 lies. The first one being that he was a girl. However, he did not outwardly saw that he was a female. He simply stopped trying to object. The other time that I only kind of counted was when he was given the onion by John Brown and pretended he that knew what he was supposed to do with it. Henry's way of lying seems to be omitting the truth. This leads me to believe that he is just a shy 10 year old boy and that has led to these so called lies.

In my opinion by omitting the information, he has actually helped himself because by being a "girl" he will get better treatment. Also, by eating the onion, he has now become John Brown's good luck charm which will help him in the long run because he will probably get preferential treatment.

In these two cases, he has both gotten away with the lies and they have helped him.

1. I have not played a sport since I went to camp and was forced to partake in such activities. I was on the softball team but spent most of the playing time on the bench since I was very far from physically fit. I had had a choice between multiple sports to choose from but I chose softball because of the fact that I had been on the REC softball team for my town when I was in elementary school and was familiar with the sport. I had spent most of my time on the bench during that period also. These two instances basically deterred me from trying any other sport.

2. I am as passionate as I can be with photography without knowing much about it. I love taking photos and experimenting with different ideas but only when inspiration comes to me. If I were to purposely go out and force myself to shoot photos, I would probably not come back with photos I actually liked.

3. I have never really told a big lie on my own behalf before. When we were a little younger, I used to lie to cover for my sister a lot so she wouldn't get in trouble for doing things like drive two states over to visit a friend. I told my mom she was doing something so I'm sure the things I've said to keep her out of hot water with my parents have been the biggest lies I've ever told.

4. I rarely write out an outline before I start writing. I find that I write better when I just let the words flow out of me and then I go back and fix it. My raw ideas usually turn out better.

5. So far I feel I have the potential to be a really decent writer. However, I tend to write things last minute which usually hinders my ability to put 100% of myself into what I happen to be writing. I am hoping that I can either change that about myself and begin my assignments sooner or improve enough where in case I end up writing something in a hurry, I still end up doing a good job. I hope this course teaches me how to improve my writing in general while also helping me to sound more intelligent and professional with what I write.

6. To be completely honest, even when I read books cover to cover in my English class senior year of high school, I did not find myself interested enough in the book to want to read. I constantly skipped chapters and looked up summaries online instead. I find that if I do not decide to read on my own, I find it hard to fully engage myself in the material. I also find it hard to focus while I read and often catch myself zoned out. This then forces me to read parts of the book multiple times which can get discouraging and ultimately leads to me giving up on the book.

7. I have all of the social media accounts but the only one I really write on is twitter, I put short captions on my instagram posts and snap chats but I would not really call that writing on it. I have found myself writing on twitter a lot recently though. It is a cool way to write down your thoughts.

8. I want to learn how to become a better student so that I can, in turn, become more professional and therefore better myself for the future.

9. I would describe a hero as someone who risks something for the good of someone or something else. Whether it be your life, safety/ well being, money, etc., if you are willing to sacrifice that for a greater good, I would consider you a hero.

10. The last thing I failed at was being a good and helpful live in for my bunk counselor while working at my camp this past summer. I was more focused on hanging out with my friends than checking in at my bunk and seeing if she needed help with our 9 year old campers. I saw how exhausted the job made her which made me realize that this coming summer when I work there again, I need to put a lot more effort into helping take care of the campers in my bunk even though it is not in my official job description to do so.

11. I would consider myself a B writer because sometimes I mess up with grammar and do not always know the best words to use when I write because I do not have the most extensive vocabulary. It is also sometimes hard to put what I want to say into words and sentences that sound good on paper.