Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Bradley Pearson tells us fairly early on in "The Black Prince"that he has always seen a special significance in kites. As he puts it: "What an image of our condition, the distant high thing, the sensitive pull, the feel of the cord, its invisibility, its length, the fear of loss" (1.12.2).
Granted, Bradley is more than a little bit drunk when he thinks these thoughts, and the meaning of his symbolism isn't entirely clear. Is the human condition more like the kite itself, straining to be free of the ties that bind, or is it more like the person who clutches those ties closely, refusing to let the object of his or her attachment get away? The image is open to interpretation, for sure, and although Bradley expands on it later in "The Black Prince," he doesn't nail it down completely.
The most powerful example of kite-like imagery that appears in the novel is Julian Baffin's balloon. Let's take a look at the scene in which it makes its first appearance:
Only it was not an ordinary kite, but a sort of magical kite. The string was invisible. Up above the house there hovered motionless, some thirty feet up, a huge pale globe with a long trailing ten-foot tail. The curious light made the globe seem to glow with a sort of milky alabaster radiance. The tail, evidently hanging free from the suspending string, since a slight movement of the air had towed the balloon out of the vertical, consisted of a number of white bows, or as they looked, blobs, which hung invisibly supported in a motionless row beneath their parent form. (1.14.127)
Here we have a magical kite/balloon/globe that seems almost like a miniature moon, and it inspires none of the dread and fear that another moon-like structure once inspired in a band of intrepid resistance fighters. But what does it mean?
After Julian cuts the balloon's string and Bradley leaves the Baffin home behind, Bradley chases after the balloon as it floats along through the evening light. Eventually he loses it, though, and it fades out of the novel for good. Does the balloon represent the cosmic passion that Bradley will eventually feel for Julian? Does it represent their doomed, star-crossed love?
There's more than one possible interpretation here, but we think you'll be on the right track if you give some thought to what Rachel Baffin says here:
"Oh, everything's changed so since even a little while ago. We can live in the open, there's nothing to be secretive about. I feel free, I've been set free, like Julian's balloon, I'm sailing up above the world and looking down at it at last, it's like a mystical experience" (1.16.101).
On the whole, this passage tends to support the interpretation that Julian's balloon (and kites more generally) symbolize a human desire for freedom and independence—but a desire that's always thwarted, somehow, by ties, responsibilities, disappointments, and the duties that come with having human connections. That said, we're open to hearing other interpretations, too. What are your thoughts, Shmoopers?