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Chapter 1
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
After Sal and Phoebe’s adventure, Gram and Gramps decide to drive from Kentucky to Ohio to get Sal, and from there, drive west to Lewiston, Idaho. The trip is supposed to take a week, and Sal isn’t excited for the trip—but she has to take it. Gramps is thrilled to see “the whole ding-dong country,” and Gram is excited to be with her “favorite chickabiddy.” Gramps is also happy that Sal, who’s 13, is better with maps than Gram. But this isn’t why Sal is going on the trip.
It’s not yet clear why Sal is reluctant to go on the trip, nor why Lewiston is their destination. It’s also hard to tell whether Gram and Gramps know the exact reason why Sal feels uneasy. They might be oblivious, or they might simply be trying to ensure that the trip is enjoyable for her by not feeding into her worries.
Themes
Sal is going on the trip for three reasons. First, Gram and Gramps want to see Momma, who’s “resting peacefully” in Lewiston. Second, Gram and Gramps know that Sal also wants to see Momma but that she’s afraid. And third, Dad wants to be with Margaret Cadaver—he’s already seen Momma on his own. There’s also a fourth, less important reason, which is that Dad doesn’t trust Gram and Gramps to behave themselves without supervision. This might seem silly, but trouble seems to follow Sal’s grandparents, who are Dad’s parents. They’re good people, but they’re very peculiar.
Sal’s fear of seeing Momma is why she’s dreading the trip, and she hints that something traumatic has happened to Momma in the time since she left Sal and Dad. The phrase “resting peacefully” seems to imply that Momma is relaxing or healing from something in Lewiston, but it’s impossible to tell what, exactly, is going on at this point. Gram and Gramps don’t seem to share Sal’s reluctance to see Momma, so it’s possible that they have a different perspective the situation than she does. Meanwhile, it’s implied that Sal resents Dad for wanting to be around Margaret and not Momma. Sal is also stepping into an adult role on this trip, as Dad seems to think of her as a sort of babysitter for her grandparents.
Themes
Once Sal and her grandparents’ plan is set, Sal suddenly feels like it can’t happen fast enough. The wind seems to say “hurry, hurry, hurry” to her. Now that she’s decided to go, she knows she has to be there by Momma’s birthday. Sal believes that if she can bring Momma home, her best chance is to try on Momma’s birthday. Sal doesn’t say this out loud, as she knows that Dad, Gramps, and Gram will tell her she’s silly.
Here, Sal seems to confirm that Momma is just convalescing in Lewiston, if her hope is to bring Momma home. But her reasoning for believing that Momma’s birthday is the day to do this is unclear. It also seems like there’s more going on here than Sal lets on, since she knows Dad and her grandparents would find this silly—perhaps Momma can’t, or won’t, come back.
Themes
Finally, the day of the trip arrives. Sal spends the first half hour praying that she won’t be in an accident and that they’ll arrive by Momma’s birthday, which is seven days away. She prays to the trees, since that feels easier than praying to God. Gram interrupts Sal’s prayers when they pull onto the Ohio Turnpike. She calls her Salamanca, which is Sal’s full first name—her full name is Salamanca Tree Hiddle. Momma and Dad thought that Salamanca was the name of the Native American tribe that an ancestor belonged to, but they were wrong; that ancestor belonged to the Seneca tribe. Trees are Momma’s favorite, which is how Sal got her middle name (Momma wanted Sal’s middle name to be Sugar Maple Tree, but that seemed like a lot). Most people just call Sal by her nickname, though a few boys tease her by calling her Salamander.
It’s unclear whether Sal is afraid of accidents because she doesn’t trust her grandparents’ driving, or if she has other reasons to fear being on the road. Sal’s name connects her to both her Native American heritage and to the natural world. It also connects her to Momma, since trees are Momma’s favorite element of the natural world. This shows that nature is, in many ways, something that connects Sal to Momma, which further explains why Sal is so reluctant to leave their land in Bybanks behind—she feels like she’s leaving Momma behind as well.
Themes
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Back in the car on the Ohio Turnpike, Gram asks Sal to entertain her and Gramps, maybe with a story. Sal tries to think of one that her grandparents haven’t heard; she learned most of her stories from Gramps. She refuses to tell one about Momma but realizes she can tell her grandparents “an extensively strange story” about her friend Phoebe Winterbottom, Phoebe’s disappearing mother, and the lunatic.
Sal seems to decide on telling Phoebe’s story solely because she believes her grandparents will find it interesting. At this point, Sal doesn’t see storytelling as anything other than a method to entertain people, which is why she focuses on sensational, “exceptionally strange” elements like Phoebe’s mother’s disappearance and the “lunatic.” However, the reader knows from the previous chapter that after this trip is over, Sal will recognize that Phoebe’s story is like the plaster wall Dad chipped away at to reveal a hidden fireplace. In other words, she will come to see storytelling as a way to uncover hidden truths.
Themes
