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Chapter 43
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Girl Who Drank the Moon, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Love
Storytelling, Censorship, and Control
Memory, Forgetting, and the Future
Sorrow vs. Hope
Summary
Analysis
Luna pulls Xan’s frail body into her lap. Xan asks if Luna’s magic has started and says that she’ll die soon. She asks if the word “magic” stays in Luna’s head and explains that she locked it away to keep Luna safe. Luna says that she doesn’t want to talk about it unless it will make Xan well. Xan instructs Luna to collect the moonlight and feed it to her, as Xan did for Luna when Luna was a baby. She says that she thought Luna’s mother abandoned her. The madwoman whispers that they took Luna. Xan says she understands now. She was wrong to be incurious about the abandoned babies, but the Protectorate was so sad. She asks the madwoman for forgiveness and Luna asks if the children in the woods are the Star Children. Xan confirms this, and says that Luna was accidentally enmagicked.
It’s telling that now that Xan is willing to talk to Luna, Luna doesn’t want to talk. This is because Luna is currently prioritizing her relationship with Xan over discovering new information, but this still illustrates how negative emotions make people incurious. The different ways in which Xan talks about how Luna ended up in the woods and how the madwoman says it happened (Luna was abandoned vs. Luna was taken) are also significant. This shows again how slightly different perspectives majorly influence how people perceive a story, and it helps Xan and the madwoman better understand each other.
Themes
Luna gathers moonlight and feeds it to Xan. They both feel better, and Xan says that her magic is flowing into Luna. It’s time for Xan to die, especially since Luna has a mother who has always loved her. Antain weeps and apologizes to Xan. Luna warns him to be careful and notices a rock rise up to hit him, but she glares at it and realizes that she’ll need to be careful. Antain asks if Xan is the Witch who demands a baby, but Luna insists she isn’t. Antain says that someone demands a sacrifice. Luna remembers Antain and says that he angered the old men.
Xan’s insistence that Luna will be fine, in part because her mother is here, shows that Xan isn’t precious or selfish about her relationship with Luna; she understands that Luna can develop a loving relationship with her birth mother without it threatening the relationship that Xan has with Luna. In this way, the novel shows that it’s possible to love many different people without compromising at all.
Themes
Xan pulls herself to her feet, and Luna sees that she looks older every second. She feeds her more moonlight. Xan says that they need to rescue the next baby, so Luna puts her arm around Xan and offers her other hand to the madwoman. Her heart says, “she is here.” The woman takes Luna’s hand as the crow sits on Luna’s shoulder and the paper birds rise. They hear footsteps and Luna sees glowing, tiger-like eyes. Xan greets the Sorrow Eater.
The combination of Luna, Xan, the madwoman, and their collection of birds suggests that together as a united family, these women have hope and the truth on their side—now, they know that Sister Ignatia is the Sorrow Eater and that she’s the one to blame for the horrors taking place in the Protectorate.
Themes
