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Chapter 31
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
Gramps drives quickly through Wyoming. The trees and the rivers whisper to Sal to hurry up. They arrive in Yellowstone late and get a room at an inn. Gram is thrilled to see Old Faithful in the morning. She assures Sal that once they see Old Faithful blow, they’ll continue on. Sal spends the night praying to an elm tree that they won’t get in an accident, that they make it to Lewiston on time, and that they can bring Momma home. Later, Sal discovers she prayed for the wrong things.
Noting that she prayed for the wrong things here indicates that later, Sal will be able to look back on this moment with a totally different perspective, perhaps because of new information she’ll learn. The tone of this line also implies that whatever is going to happen isn’t good, building a sense of foreboding and dread.
Themes
Gram is too excited to sleep, so she rambles. She asks Gramps if he remembers the letter from the egg man that he found under the mattress. Though she said at the time that she didn’t know how it got there, she’d like to confess that she put it there. Then, she says that it’s the only love letter she’s ever gotten. She teases Gramps about Gloria and then asks Sal to continue her story about Phoebe and the lunatic.
It’s not yet clear why Gram chooses this moment to confess the truth about the egg man’s letter. But this detail nevertheless reveals that Gram and Gramps’s relationship wasn’t perfect—Gram longed for love letters, which she never got from her husband.
Themes
Sal races out of Sergeant Bickle’s office after seeing the picture of the lunatic. She runs all the way to Phoebe’s house and notices Mrs. Partridge on her porch, all dressed up. Mrs. Partridge explains that she’s going somewhere, and Jimmy is coming to get her. A car pulls up—and Mr. Birkway gets out. He calls Mrs. Partridge “Mom,” and he and Mrs. Partridge explain their relation. Mrs. Partridge used to be a Birkway, and Mrs. Cadaver used to be a Birkway too. Mrs. Cadaver is Mr. Birkway’s twin sister. Sal spends the rest of the evening trying to track down Phoebe, with no luck.
It’s unclear what Sal intends to do with the information about the lunatic, but realizing he’s Sergeant Bickle’s son gives Sal and Phoebe one more mystery to pursue. The revelation that Mr. Birkway and Mrs. Cadaver are twins shocks Sal, as it humanizes Mrs. Cadaver and dashes Sal’s hope that Mrs. Cadaver could fall in love with Mr. Birkway and leave Dad alone. Because Sal dislikes Mrs. Cadaver so much, she’s never asked—or expressed any curiosity—about Mrs. Cadaver’s life.
Themes
At school in the morning, Sal says she has news. Phoebe, though, doesn’t want to talk about it. Sal doesn’t understand what’s going on, and the day is terrible. Mr. Birkway makes everything worse by reading people’s journals again. Sal studies Mr. Birkway and is very disappointed—if he’s Mrs. Cadaver’s twin, he’s not going to marry her. The first journal he reads from is about a girl named Jane, who’s smart, cute, and smells good. Sal’s arms prickle—Ben might have written this, and he definitely didn’t write it about Sal. He didn’t know Sal when he wrote it. Sal notices that all her female classmates are smiling. Ben is staring at his desk.
Sal is getting more comfortable with the fact that she has a crush on Ben. It’s exciting, at first, to think that he wrote about her—but when she realizes that’s impossible, she has to confront that Ben has had crushes on other girls before her. In this way, Sal has to recognize that Ben’s life doesn’t revolve around her, and that he’s growing and changing just like she is.
Themes
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From the next journal, Mr. Birkway reads that “Jane” knows nothing about kissing—she believed it when the writer told her kisses taste like chicken. Mary Lou leaps up and yells at another girl. From the same journal, Mr. Birkway reads that the writer hates writing, journals, and “idiot symbols.” The writer wonders if maybe the woods in the snowy woods poem are just woods, not a symbol for death or sex. Beth Ann stands up and announces that she does hate all those things—especially the journals.
Beth Ann—the writer of these entries—is likely referring to Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening.” For her, trying to parse the symbolism of the woods is just an obnoxious exercise, and she doesn’t understand why she has to do it. Identifying symbols, though, can be a lesson in critical thinking and seeing something from multiple perspectives, which is the same lesson Mr. Birkway is trying to teach by reading students’ journals aloud.
Themes
The room goes quiet. Mr. Birkway briefly looks ready to strangle Beth Ann, but then he says he knows how she feels. He appreciates her honesty, and he used to feel the same way about symbols. Mr. Birkway pulls out a picture and asks Ben what the picture is of. Ben says it’s a vase. When Mr. Birkway shows the picture to Beth Ann, she sees two people. Mr. Birkway says they’re both right and shows everyone that you can see both a vase and people. This picture, he says, is like a symbol—there’s nothing wrong with seeing a vase or people, and it’s even better if you can see both.
Mr. Birkway proposes here that there’s no one right way to see a symbol or image—or, for that matter, a person or situation. Moreover, with new information or another person’s perspective, it’s possible to come to a different understanding of what something means or why it’s important. Sal has already alluded to this idea several times, most recently when she noted that she prayed for the wrong things but wouldn’t realize that until later.
Themes
Then, Mr. Birkway pulls out another journal. Sal feels ready to die—it’s her journal, and Mr. Birkway reads the story of Momma’s blackberry kiss and how Sal has kissed trees. The only thing that stops Sal from dying is that Mr. Birkway picks up another journal. But as he starts to read that the writer is concerned about a Mrs. Corpse, who may have murdered her husband, he seems to regret ever reading the journals out loud. Students go wild when the bell rings, wondering who Mrs. Corpse murdered and teasing Sal about kissing trees.
The story of Momma’s blackberry kiss might be meaningful and tender to Sal, but to her classmates, it’s something to mock her about. Mr. Birkway seems to finally realize how hurtful reading his students’ journals aloud can be when he discovers that Phoebe has written accusations about Mrs. Cadaver, his sister. With this new information, he seems to change his perspective.
Themes
