The historical fiction novel “The Catherine Called Birdy” by Karen Cushman is a hard journey of a teenage girl during medieval times. The novel contains three themes of power of church, gender equality and freedom from family restrictions. Catherine’s everyday is controlled by the power of church, each day in her diary is a different Saint Day. Also, the novel represents people as religious community in the medieval times, the Catherine’s visit church often and also for religious days such as Lent and Easter. The novel contains variety of events and stories related to religion, for instance heaven, God and angel. Another theme in this historical fiction novel is gender equality. Girls are treated worse than boys in the medieval times. In the beginning of the novel, Birdy complains about why she has to behave like a lady and why she can’t be a monk or a crusader. Birdy listened to a lot of lady lessons from mom, but she is an adventurous girl. However, she is forbidden to be a monk or a crusader or be active because she is a girl. Since Birdy is a girl, it’s tough for her to have freedom from family restrictions. She can’t marry who she loves, her father has to choose her husband and Birdy was forced to marry Fat Shaggy Beard by her father. All in all, life in medieval era was challenging particularly for a noble girl like Catherine.
