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Chapter 19
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 tries to write her mini journal for Mr. Birkway that night. She lists all the things she likes first. They’re all things from Bybanks, like the chickens, the fields, or the swimming hole. Sal ends up writing about Momma, “because everything [is] connected to her.” She finally writes about the “blackberry kiss.”
Here, Sal admits outright that everything precious in her life is somehow connected to Momma—even though her mother is absent, she’s still the center of Sal’s world. In particular, the family farm in Bybanks seems intrinsically connected to Momma because of how much she loved nature.
Themes
Sal writes that one morning, she woke up very early and watched Momma walk up to the barn. Momma was pregnant then, and she was singing as she walked. She put a few blackberries in her mouth, and then, Momma threw her arms around the maple tree and kissed it. Later in the day, Sal approached the maple tree. She probably was making it up, but she thought she could see a small blackberry-colored stain where Momma kissed the tree. Then, Sal kissed the tree herself. In her journal, she confesses that she’s kissed lots of trees since then. Every tree has a particular taste, but they all taste a bit like blackberries. She doesn’t know why.
Finally, Sal explains why she associates blackberries with Momma. The memory of Momma kissing the tree and leaving the blackberry stain—even if that stain only exists in Sal’s imagination—seems central to Sal’s perception of her mother, because it shows how carefree, loving, and connected to nature Momma was. Because of this, she associates Momma with blackberries and with trees, and her desire to feel emotionally close to her mother leads her to mimic Momma’s gesture of kissing the tree. The aside that all trees taste a little like blackberries suggests that Sal senses Momma’s presence all around her—it colors all of Sal’s experiences, just like the blackberry-colored stain lingered on the tree that Momma kissed.
Themes
The next day, Sal gives her mini journal to Mr. Birkway. During class, Mr. Birkway introduces a poem by e. e. cummings called “the little horse is newlY.” According to Mr. Birkway, Mr. Cummings just liked to capitalize the last letter of the title. Phoebe snickers that Mr. Cummings must not have taken an English class, but to Sal, the Y looks like a foal on its new spindly legs. In the poem, the “newlY born horse” lives in a “smoothbeautifully folded” world, which Sal likes. It sounds safe.
In English conventions, as in other parts of her life, Phoebe has a very particular idea of how things should be—so to her, e. e. cummings just made a mistake. But because Sal doesn’t approach the poem with those preconceptions, she’s able to focus on how the poem makes her feel and how the words look on the page. There’s more than one way to look at this poem, just as Sal is learning that there’s more than one way to look at a person or situation.
Themes
Phoebe leaves early for a dentist appointment, so Ben walks home with Sal. As they walk, Ben asks if Sal would like him to read her palm. Sal offers him her hand, and Ben spends about five minutes tracing the lines on her palm. It makes Sal think about the e. e. cummings poem. Finally, Ben says that the bad news is he can’t read palms—but the good news is that he was able to hold Sal’s hand and she didn’t flinch. Sal snatches her hand away and refuses to speak to him. He walks her all the way to Phoebe’s house. On the porch, Sal turns away quickly, and Ben accidentally kisses her ear. He hurries away.
The e. e. cummings poem helps Sal think about other events in her life in a new way. And significantly, given that Sal thought the world cummings described in the poems sounded “safe,” she implies that she feels safe with Ben—their romance is developing, even as Ben tricks her in a way that Sal doesn’t appreciate. Nevertheless, Ben seems to sense Sal’s lingering trauma and to want to help her heal and accept kindness and affection.
Themes
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Phoebe’s face is white and scared when she opens the door and invites Sal in. There’s a pie and three notes on the table, one each for Prudence, Phoebe, and Mr. Winterbottom. Phoebe’s note reads that she should keep the doors locked and call Mr. Winterbottom if she needs anything. Phoebe says she wasn’t concerned at first, but then, Prudence opened her note. Prudence’s note includes instructions for heating up dinner. Sal doesn’t think much of this and helps Phoebe and Prudence make dinner. Then, Mr. Winterbottom gets home. His note says: “I had to go away. I can’t explain. I’ll call you in a few days.” Sal feels a “sinking, sinking feeling.”
But Mr. Winterbottom’s note forces Sal to remember Momma’s departure—Momma also left without saying goodbye, though she left Sal a note that promised she’d be back. Mrs. Winterbottom’s differs in that, unlike Momma, she offers no promise that she’s coming back. From this, it’s hard for Sal and the Winterbottoms to gauge Mrs. Winterbottom’s intentions in leaving.
Themes
Prudence and Phoebe pepper Mr. Winterbottom with questions. Phoebe wants to call the police, since the lunatic might have kidnapped Mrs. Winterbottom. Mr. Winterbottom says he has no idea where Mrs. Winterbottom went, but they should eat dinner anyway. Later, as Sal leaves, Phoebe makes Sal swear to not tell anyone about her mother.
For Phoebe, the only plausible explanation for her mother’s disappearance is that someone kidnapped her. Mr. Winterbottom, though, isn’t willing to entertain such fantastical ideas. It’s more important to him to support his daughters and make things seem normal, even if this is perhaps impossible. In this way, Mr. Winterbottom’s tendency to brush things off and ignore anything out of the ordinary keeps him from having to confront the severity of this situation.
Themes
At home, Sal finds Dad looking at a picture of him and Momma sitting in front of the sugar maple in Bybanks. Sal tells him that Mrs. Winterbottom went away and that she says she’s coming back, but Sal doesn’t believe it. Then, she heads upstairs. Dad appears in her doorway and says that usually, people do come back. Sal knows he means this generally, but she takes his words to mean that a miracle could happen. Momma might come back, and they can all go back to the way things were in Bybanks.
By saying that people usually come back, Dad seems to imply that it was a fluke that Momma didn’t return to him and Sal. It wasn’t something they could’ve predicted, and as Dad sees it, the Winterbottoms should proceed as though Mrs. Winterbottom will indeed return. In this regard, Dad seems to have processed and accepted Momma’s absence in a way that Sal hasn’t yet, as his experience of Momma leaving doesn’t color his perception of other people leaving. His reassurance gives Sal hope that Momma will come home, which seems misguided given that Sal has left several clues suggesting that it’s impossible for Momma to return.
Themes
