"The Summer of the Falcon" by Jean Craighead George

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The Summer of The Falcon

Every popular novel must have an interesting story, suitable conflicts, and a theme. In the novel The Summer Of the Falcon, the author Jean Craighead George parallels the maturation of the main character with the teaching of a bird to fly and take commands. June becomes mature and grows form childhood to adulthood, In the end of the story, June is not a child anymore. Neither is the falcon. It has fully grown and has decided to live independently, without any of June's support.

The main theme of the novel is maturity, freedom and realizing the cycle of nature. Of these three, maturity is the most important. When the story begins, June is just a little child, and she hates to do any housework. For example, she dislikes dressing up, cooking, and other chores. We can see that in P.19

'June was still rebellious, 'Why can't woman be trained

to do something else? Beds and dishes are so horribly

dull.'

But finally, by training the falcon, we can see the comparison between June and Zander(the falcon). First Zander is just a little pet for June. With the training by June, and the mistakes that he fall into the river, he grows matured has been well trained. At the same time, June also has been trained by her mother and, watching the things happen to Zander, June becomes mature too. She helped her mother by carrying suitcases and boxes and walked carefully up the stairs to her room, holding her head high as she had been taught in the dance class.

Everybody is supposed to have their own freedom. Without freedom, one will not live like a human being but like a toy. But, too much freedom for a ungrown child will cause danger rather than...