Previous
Chapter 13
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Walk Two Moons, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Judgment, Perspective, and Storytelling
Parents, Children, and Growing Up
Grief
Nature
Summary
Analysis
Sal is at Phoebe’s the following Saturday. Mrs. Winterbottom is running errands, while Mr. Winterbottom is golfing. Mrs. Winterbottom instructed the girls to call the police or Mrs. Cadaver if they hear any noises. Phoebe is very jumpy. She remarks that Mrs. Cadaver works odd hours—but Sal points out that as a nurse, Mrs. Cadaver works various shifts. From Phoebe’s bedroom window, the girls watch Mrs. Cadaver cut branches off trees and then start poking a rhododendron bush. Just then, a car pulls up—and Mr. Birkway gets out of it. He hugs Mrs. Cadaver and then helps her dig up the rhododendron and move it to the backyard.
Because Phoebe and her mother expect bad things to happen, they fixate on harmless noises and assume the worst in people. Even though Sal dislikes Margaret, she’s better able to “walk two moons” in Margaret’s shoes that Phoebe is—that is, she can at least see the situation from Margaret’s perspective and understand her habits this way. Mr. Birkway’s arrival, on the other hand, is a real mystery—he and Mrs. Cadaver are obviously close, but it’s unclear how they know each other.
Themes
Phoebe is convinced that Mrs. Cadaver buried something under the rhododendron, like Mr. Cadaver. Maybe Mr. Birkway helped. She suggests that Dad shouldn’t go over to Mrs. Cadaver’s house anymore. Sal isn’t convinced Mrs. Cadaver is a murderer, but she doesn’t want Dad hanging out with her. This is especially true since there are lots of creepy things, like masks and swords, in her house.
Sal doesn’t buy Phoebe’s fears outright, but again, they provide a convenient excuse to hate Mrs. Cadaver. And as Sal goes along with Phoebe’s way of looking at the world, things that might not have bothered before—like the masks in Mrs. Cadaver’s house—suddenly start to look sinister.
Themes
Dad acts different at Margaret’s house. At home, he reads old letters, stares at the photo album, and looks lonely. But he smiles at Margaret’s house and sometimes touches her hand. Sal doesn’t like it. While she doesn’t want Dad to be sad, she likes that Dad is thinking about Momma when he’s sad.
Sal reveals here why she resents Margaret so much: she takes Dad’s attention away from Momma. She isn’t willing to accept that Dad is trying to move on and heal after Momma’s departure, a process she’s trying to sabotage.
Themes
Later that afternoon, Mrs. Winterbottom comes home looking terrible, like she’s been crying. Phoebe pulls Sal upstairs to do homework and insists her mother likes to put groceries away by herself. She also doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with her mother. Sal wonders about this. How can she see that Mrs. Winterbottom is sad and worried, but Phoebe can’t? Is Phoebe afraid to see it? Did Sal not notice some things about Momma?
To Sal, it’s obvious that Mrs. Winterbottom is experiencing extreme emotional distress. So, it’s shocking for her to realize that Phoebe either can’t or won’t see the same thing. As Sal connects this back to Momma, she starts to realize that perhaps being so close to someone blinds you to seeing how they’re actually feeling. This would also line up with Sal’s other indications that Momma wasn’t happy—perhaps Sal just didn’t see it.
Themes
Get the entire Walk Two Moons LitChart as a printable PDF.
When Sal and Phoebe come back downstairs, Mrs. Winterbottom is asking Prudence if she thinks she (Mrs. Winterbottom) “lead[s] a tiny life.” Prudence isn’t interested; she asks for nail polish remover and for her mother to hem her skirt. Sal asks Phoebe why Prudence doesn’t hem her own skirt, but Phoebe accuses Sal of being critical. Mrs. Winterbottom hems Prudence’s skirt right away.
By “a tiny life,” Mrs. Winterbottom likely means a life that’s limited, unfulfilling, and unimpressive. By asking this question, the reader can infer that she thinks she leads a tiny life, and that she’s probably hoping someone will tell her that she doesn’t. When both Prudence and Phoebe brush their mother off, they essentially show her that she does lead a tiny life—her world is limited to being a wife and mother, and she’s unappreciated and taken for granted within this role.
Themes
As Sal walks home later, she wonders why Mrs. Winterbottom does so much for her family if she doesn’t like it. At home, Dad hands Sal a package from Margaret. There’s a sweater inside, but Sal doesn’t want it. She tells Dad she doesn’t want to hear anything he has to say about Margaret—and she realizes she sounds like Phoebe.
As an outsider, Sal is able to think more critically about Mrs. Winterbottom’s dissatisfaction and the Winterbottoms’ family dynamic more generally. But at the same time, it’s much harder for Sal to interrogate her own behavior or see things from Dad and Margaret’s perspective. She’s starting to look critically at her own behavior, though, as she realizes that she’s acting like Phoebe.
Themes
