Chap­ter 5 of If These Wings Could Fly immers­es read­ers in the com­plex­i­ties of fam­i­ly rela­tion­ships and soci­etal expec­ta­tions. The nar­ra­tor reflects on her sis­ter, Camp­bell Grace Barnes, a deeply intro­spec­tive and thought­ful indi­vid­ual who tends to keep her emo­tions and thoughts hid­den. Camp­bell finds an unusu­al sense of free­dom in rid­ing her bicy­cle, a sim­ple activ­i­ty that allows her to escape the pres­sures of their busy home life. She trea­sures the qui­et inde­pen­dence that comes with bik­ing, enjoy­ing the solace it pro­vides away from the respon­si­bil­i­ties and expec­ta­tions imposed on her. How­ev­er, her care­free exis­tence takes a turn when she acci­den­tal­ly destroys Mrs. Stieg’s gar­den while rac­ing with her friends. This unin­ten­tion­al act of mis­chief becomes a focal point for con­flict, rais­ing ques­tions about respon­si­bil­i­ty and the con­se­quences of their actions.

Mrs. Stieg, a wid­owed elder­ly neigh­bor, con­fronts the nar­ra­tor short­ly after the inci­dent. Her tone is harsh and rep­ri­mand­ing, sig­nal­ing her dis­ap­proval of Campbell’s actions, but it also car­ries a more sub­tle under­tone of crit­i­cism. She implies that Camp­bell, as a young woman, should be asso­ci­at­ing with oth­er girls, not spend­ing her time with boys. The dis­ap­prov­ing remarks seem to reflect an out­dat­ed view on gen­der roles and soci­etal expec­ta­tions. While Camp­bell attempts to explain the sit­u­a­tion, claim­ing that the destruc­tion of the gar­den was pure­ly acci­den­tal due to rac­ing down a hill, Mrs. Stieg’s per­spec­tive doesn’t allow room for such expla­na­tions. Her view seems root­ed in a belief that young women should be more con­trolled in their behav­ior, rein­forc­ing rigid soci­etal norms. The ten­sion between the two char­ac­ters is pal­pa­ble, and the nar­ra­tor becomes increas­ing­ly aware of the deep gen­er­a­tional divide between Campbell’s mod­ern think­ing and Mrs. Stieg’s old-fash­ioned val­ues.

The fol­low­ing morn­ing, the sis­ters vis­it Mrs. Stieg’s house to apol­o­gize and help restore the dam­aged gar­den. As they work to repair the ros­es, they are met with the painful real­i­ty of thorns, which draw blood from their hands. This phys­i­cal pain is sym­bol­ic of the emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal toll they are expe­ri­enc­ing as they nav­i­gate the adult world’s com­plex expec­ta­tions. The thorns rep­re­sent not just the lit­er­al injuries sus­tained while try­ing to fix what was bro­ken, but also the metaphor­i­cal chal­lenges of rec­on­cil­ing their actions with the judg­ments of oth­ers. The task of repair­ing the gar­den becomes a sym­bol for the dif­fi­cul­ty of restor­ing some­thing that was dis­rupt­ed, not only in the gar­den but also in the rela­tion­ship between the sis­ters and their neigh­bor. As they strug­gle to mend the flow­ers, the girls are forced to con­front the deep­er issues at play—how their actions are per­ceived by oth­ers and how they fit into the broad­er social con­structs of what is deemed appro­pri­ate for young women.

As the girls com­plete the task, Mrs. Stieg con­tin­ues to impose her tra­di­tion­al beliefs upon them. She crit­i­cizes the behav­ior of mod­ern youth, claim­ing that women’s pri­ma­ry role is to sup­port their hus­bands, a per­spec­tive that is both out­dat­ed and restric­tive. For Camp­bell, this remark strikes a nerve, as it trig­gers a strong sense of defi­ance. She responds angri­ly, refus­ing to accept such lim­it­ing views and express­ing her frus­tra­tion with the nar­row def­i­n­i­tion of wom­an­hood that Mrs. Stieg espous­es. The anger that Camp­bell feels is not just about the con­fronta­tion with Mrs. Stieg, but about the larg­er soci­etal forces that dic­tate how young women should behave. Mrs. Stieg’s shock at Campbell’s out­burst high­lights the deep cul­tur­al divide between the gen­er­a­tions, with younger indi­vid­u­als increas­ing­ly reject­ing the out­dat­ed roles that soci­ety has long assigned to women. Campbell’s defi­ance becomes a piv­otal moment in the chap­ter, sym­bol­iz­ing her rejec­tion of the rigid, tra­di­tion­al views that lim­it her poten­tial and her desire to carve out a more autonomous path for her­self.

The chap­ter ends with the nar­ra­tor reflect­ing on the soci­etal pres­sures placed upon women, sym­bol­ized by the wilt­ing ros­es in their home. The ros­es, which were once vibrant and full of life, now reflect the with­er­ing of tra­di­tion­al ideals that have been forced upon them. The wilt­ing flow­ers become a pow­er­ful metaphor for the dam­age caused by these out­dat­ed per­cep­tions of wom­an­hood, which no longer res­onate with the nar­ra­tor or Camp­bell. Over­whelmed by these pres­sures, the nar­ra­tor makes the deci­sion to dis­card the ros­es, reject­ing the harm­ful ideals they rep­re­sent. By throw­ing the flow­ers away, she sym­bol­i­cal­ly frees her­self from the con­straints of gen­der roles and the expec­ta­tion that women must con­form to pre­scribed soci­etal norms. This act of dis­card­ing the ros­es sig­ni­fies her will­ing­ness to con­front the com­plex­i­ties of wom­an­hood in an hon­est and resilient way, with­out being con­fined by the lim­it­ing beliefs of old­er gen­er­a­tions. The narrator’s rejec­tion of these ideals serves as a per­son­al dec­la­ra­tion of inde­pen­dence, a state­ment that she will nav­i­gate her own iden­ti­ty with­out being shack­led by soci­etal expec­ta­tions.

The themes of rebel­lion, iden­ti­ty, and the pur­suit of per­son­al agency are skill­ful­ly inter­wo­ven through­out this chap­ter, offer­ing a poignant com­men­tary on the strug­gles young women face when con­front­ed with tra­di­tion­al soci­etal expec­ta­tions. As the chap­ter unfolds, it reveals the inter­nal con­flict between con­for­mi­ty and auton­o­my, as well as the grow­ing ten­sion between the old and new ways of think­ing. The nar­ra­tor and Campbell’s jour­ney is one of self-dis­cov­ery and defi­ance against the forces that seek to define them. Their actions, whether inten­tion­al or unin­ten­tion­al, serve as cat­a­lysts for change, as they grap­ple with the com­plex­i­ties of their iden­ti­ties and the soci­etal pres­sures that seek to shape them. The chap­ter ulti­mate­ly under­scores the impor­tance of chal­leng­ing restric­tive roles and embrac­ing the free­dom to define one’s own path in life.