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Chapter 36
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 can’t watch. She races for the bus stop, leaving Phoebe behind. When Sal reaches the hospital, she realizes she missed the bus stop. She has a hunch, so she asks the receptionist to see Mrs. Finney. When Sal says she’s not family, the receptionist says she can’t see Mrs. Finney—Mrs. Finney is on the psychiatric ward, and that’s family only. The receptionist sends Sal outside when Sal says she’s actually looking for Ben. There, Sal finds Ben sitting with a woman in a pink robe. Ben introduces Sal to Ben’s mother, but his mother doesn’t look up. She just walks away across the lawn.
Finding Mrs. Winterbottom with the lunatic isn’t at all what Sal expected. So, although Sal wants to support Phoebe, she discovers in this situation that she can’t—dealing with disappearing mothers, especially when Sal’s own Momma didn’t come back, is too emotionally taxing. And now, Sal gets to unravel the mystery of Ben’s mother, who has also been mysteriously absent throughout the novel. Finding Ben here shows Sal that she and Ben may have even more in common than she thought.
Themes
Ben and Sal follow Ben’s mother. The woman reminds Sal of Momma right after Momma got home from the hospital. Momma would get up in the middle of things, or she’d forget what she was doing and start something else. She’d wander in odd patterns through the field. After a while, Sal says she has to go. At that moment, she and Ben both have the “same agenda.” They lean forward at the same time, and Sal remembers Mr. Birkway’s vase picture. Sal and Ben kiss, and it doesn’t taste like chicken. Sal feels like the “newlY born horse,” and Ben asks if their kiss tasted like blackberries to her.
The similarities between Ben and Sal become even more pronounced as Sal discovers that Ben’s mother reminds her of Momma. Given that Mrs. Finney is on the psychiatric ward, she clearly has a mental illness—and the similarities between her and Momma’s behavior imply that Momma may have been similarly struggling with mental illness after the trauma of the stillbirth. Meanwhile, Sal’s first kiss with Ben signifies her growing up and moving away from her past by strengthening her present relationship. Ben asking whether the kiss tasted like blackberries is a nod to Momma—he’s heard the story of her blackberry kisses, and it's clearly affected him, just as it affected Sal.
Themes
