The book, Catherine Called Birdy, is a historical fiction novel written by Karen Cushman. This book shows a tough journey of a young girl named Catherine with the lack of freedom from family restrictions, inequality of men and women and the seeking power of the church. In this book, there are many times when Catherine gets frustrated for having no rights to control her life but instead get it controlled by her father. This is proved by the marriage she was forced to accept with the pig, Shaggy Beard. This also leads to the fact that in noble families, marriages are mostly controlled by men and the fact that during the time of middle ages, females were to stay home doing all the housework and had no rights for freedom. This is proved when at the beginning of the book, all Catherine did was sewing and she was sick of it. Not only did the men control their lives, but there was the church. This can be proved by all the saint days that were written in the book
and the fact that Catherine had to follow them strictly, not eating food that were restricted on some days. Catherine had a difficult and a tough time with all the chaos that were going on. Back then, life in medieval times was difficult particularly for a noble girl. Like many others, Catherine had no rights or freedom but to follow and obey the orders.
