Aaron’s Gift is a story by Myron M. Levoy about a young boy finding an injured pigeon, and painstakingly nursing it back to health. He starts training the pigeon to become a carrier pigeon to carry around messages for his friends, and once he does, everyone wants to meet Aaron’s pigeon. He names it “Pidge” and only lets his very best friends and his family see Pidge. When a gang leader named Carl approaches Aaron, asking to use the pigeon as their mascot, Aaron can’t wait to agree. But Aaron’s mom refuses, so Aaron decides to make the pigeon his grandmother’s birthday gift instead after he listens to her sad story about her goat being killed when she was young in a violent pogrom against the Cossacks. But when he hears that Carl and his gang have found a map to possible treasure and made a newer, cooler badge, he decides to give them the pigeon in exchange for membership. When Carl and the gang try to sacrifice Pidge, contrary to Aaron’s expectations, Aaron fights back, trying to save Pidge from being cooked and burned. Pidge escapes in the ensuing fight, and Aaron drags himself home, calling the gang “Cossacks.” His grandmother loves his gift, but Aaron isn’t sure what it is. He realizes it’s how Pidge became free and his grandmother imagines how her goat finally escapes the Cossacks. Aaron’s gift is a heartwarming story about the importance of freedom and how the cost of belonging can be too high.
Freedom is crucial to happiness, because while you are an imprisoned captive or an incarcerated inmate, neither you nor your loved ones can find peace. Freedom is a valuable commodity, and anyone denying it to you will be violating your innate rights. Animals deserve freedom too, because that will allow those who love and value them to be happy. In Aaron’s Gift, Aaron’s grandmother had always loved birds and animals, having a goat in her childhood. When Aaron finds an injured pigeon and manages to heal it, he keeps it as a pet. When he decides to let Carl’s gang take Pidge as their mascot, the skirmish that resulted allowed Pidge to go free. Aaron’s grandmother is even happier than before, and it takes Aaron some thought to realize why. Aaron’s grandmother wouldn’t have wanted an animal captive, she would have wanted to free it. So she is undeniably ecstatic when Pidge is finally free. While something we love is under lock and key, we cannot be truly happy. We can find peace in ourselves only when we know everything we care about is safe. Liberty is essential to allowing happiness to reign, and we can reach happiness by making sure our loved ones are safe.
Belonging is a natural human impulse, but we can’t allow it to cloud our judgment and allow harm to befall us from our lapses in judgment. We have to be careful, because if our desire to belong overcomes our rational thought, we may end up doing unsavory behavior. We need to stay insightful and vigilant when shady people approach us. In Aaron’s Gift, Aaron forgot to heed the words of his mother, and he lost Pidge because of it. He could have been more careful and realized that Carl and his friends were bad news, but he wanted to belong with them too much. Aaron’s mom knew that Carl would be spiteful and harmful to Aaron, and told Aaron to stay away, but when Carl approaches Aaron with a better offer than before, Aaron wants the “cool membership badge” and to swear the secret oath and to share the secrets more than ever, and he decides to let Pidge be the gangs mascot, to horrible results that he could have avoided if his desire to belong could have been overridden. Forgetting the possible price of belonging is a mistake that we can avoid, and we should try to remember that acceptance is only good with the right people. Desiring fellowship and companionship is fine as long as we remember the dangers that can come with certain people, and the good that can come from others.
A conscience is the mark of a man or woman that has the ability to forgive and have compassion. A conscience is a voice in our head, telling us the right thing to do, and allowing us to tell the difference between right or wrong. It’s sometimes called a moral compass, because it shows us the right way to go. In Aaron’s Gift, Carl and his gang didn’t really have any morals or a conscience collectively, but Aaron could feel empathy for his grandmother, which is why he wanted to give the pigeon to her. His grandmother had lots of compassion for everyone, which is why she had always wanted to set animals free instead of capturing them and keeping them as pets. Aaron’s conscience gave him the strength and encouragement to beat Carl’s gang, albeit getting some injuries in the process. A person without a conscience is horrible indeed, because they have nothing to guide them through right or wrong. But consciences can help us have courage when we know what we’re doing is right. Consciences can help show us the right thing to do, which is why they are an important part of us.
Freedom, belonging, and conscientiousness are three themes of the story Aaron’s Gift, and this amazing book teaches us that freedom is necessary for our happiness and the happiness of our loved ones, that belonging isn’t always worth the price it may ask, and that a conscience is necessary for showing us the moral thing for us to do and to keep our virtues. This story teaches great life lessons with an entertaining storyline, with a cast of characters that keep you reeled in. It shows us the pivotality of liberty, the natural human desire for belonging, and the criticality of having a conscience. Aaron’s Gift by Myron M. Levoy is an enjoyable yet mature book that I would recommend for all readers.
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