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Chapter 40
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
In Coeur D’Alene, Gramps drives right to the hospital. According to the doctors, Gram had a stroke. Gramps insists on staying with her through all her tests, even though an intern says she’s unconscious and won’t know the difference. Sal waits in the waiting room until a man comes in with a beagle. When the receptionist tells the man that he’ll have to leave the dog outside, Sal offers to sit outside with the dog.
Once again, Gramps shows Gram how much he loves her by insisting on staying by her side as she undergoes tests. When the intern remarks that Gram won’t know the difference, it suggests that he doesn’t put as much stock in a love like Gram and Gramps—he sees things from a purely medical perspective and perhaps ignores the emotional aspects of his work.
Themes
As Sal sits on the grass with the beagle, she wonders if Gram’s stroke happened because of the snake bite. Does Gramps feel guilty for stopping at the river? Sal wonders again if Momma’s baby wouldn’t have died if Sal hadn’t climbed the tree and broken her leg, and if Momma hadn’t carried her. But Sal also thinks that people can’t just sit in safety, like Phoebe and Mrs. Winterbottom tried to do. People have to go do things—and maybe this is why Gram and Gramps brought Sal along on this trip in the first place.
This is a big moment for Sal, as she starts to realize that it’s worth it to take risks and try new things, even if that means getting hurt in the process. People can’t just lock themselves away, because as Mrs. Winterbottom demonstrated, that eventually becomes unsustainable. This also raises the question of how, exactly, Sal has been sheltering herself, and how going on this trip will help her move away from that.
Themes
The beagle is just like Moody Blue. As Sal prays for Gram, she remembers when Moody Blue had a litter of puppies. For the first week, Moody Blue wouldn’t let anyone near the puppies. But as the weeks went on, Moody Blue let people touch them. When the puppies were about six weeks old, Moody Blue started snapping at them. This bothered Sal, but Momma explained this was normal. The puppies needed to become independent so they could survive without Moody Blue. Now, Sal wonders if Momma’s trip to Idaho was a lot like Moody Blue snapping at her puppies. Momma might have left for herself and for Sal.
Thinking of Moody Blue’s reaction to her puppies helps Sal rethink her belief that Momma was just being selfish by leaving. It’s possible that Momma’s departure was natural in its own way, as children (like puppies) eventually have to become independent from their parents. The separation may have even helped Sal grow stronger and learn to survive without her mother, just as Moody Blue snapping at her puppies forced them to survive on their own. This aligns with Sal’s previous description of learning how to identity her own emotions after Momma left, whereas up until that point, he had been Momma’s “mirror.”
Themes
Sal goes back into the hospital when the beagle’s owner comes back for her. A nurse shows Sal in to see Gram after midnight. Gram is still gray, and according to a nurse, she can’t hear. Gramps tells Sal that they’re going to be in the hospital for a while, so he gives Sal some cash and the car keys, in case she needs something. He assures Sal that Gram doesn’t want her sitting around the hospital. Gramps tells Sal to whisper anything into Gram’s ear, and then go do what she needs to. Sal whispers in Gram’s ear and then goes to the car. She studies the map and closes her eyes. She knows Gramps knows what she’s going to do.
Gramps continues to suggest that the medical professionals don’t know Gram as well as he does, and he’s certain that she can hear. Whether this is true or not (it’s impossible to know), Gramps also seems to imply that Sal whispering into Gram’s ear before Sal takes off is going to give Sal the closure she needs, whether Gram can actually hear or not.
Themes
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Sal studies the route from Coeur D’Alene to Lewiston, and then she starts the car. She drives around the parking lot and consults the map again, but she decides that “in the course of a lifetime, there [are] some things that matter.” Sal drives onto the highway, going slowly and praying to the trees. There’s no traffic. It takes her four hours to get to the top of Lewiston Hill, which looks down over Lewiston. There’s a treacherous, winding road in front of her that leads to the town. Sal pulls into the lookout at the top and looks over the guardrail. She can’t see the bus, but she knows it’s there.
Gramps taught Sal to drive years ago, so when he gave her the keys, he presumably knew that she’d take the car the rest of the way to Lewiston. Sal’s drive is a literal journey across Idaho as well as a symbolic coming-of-age journey. Having realized that separating from Momma helped her grow stronger, she can now face her fear of cars and get herself to Lewiston without help. The fact that that Sal knows there’s a bus over the guardrail creates more tension, as this suggests that there was some sort of accident here, and that Sal knew about it ahead of time. So, when Sal paid close attention to the buses on the road in earlier passages, it was likely connected to this accident.
Themes
Sal drives slowly down the road. Her palms sweat, and the car goes too fast for Sal’s comfort. She snakes down the road. There’s another spot to admire the view about halfway down, and Sal pulls into it. When another car pulls into the overlook, the man in it asks Sal where the driver of her car is. Sal says they’re around. The man continues that this is quite the road to be driving at night. He points down the hill a bit. Sal can see a rough path and something shiny. The man says a bus went off the road here just over a year ago. Only one person survived.
Finally, it’s implied that Momma was killed in the bus accident that the man references here. This means that the description of Momma “resting peacefully” in Lewiston at the beginning of the novel was a euphemism for death rather than actual rest or healing. The fact that this revelation happens so far into the novel (and in an indirect way) suggests that up until now, Sal has been lying to herself—and, by extension, to the reader—so that she wouldn’t have to face her grief over Momma. By telling herself that she could bring Momma home if she got to Lewiston in time, Sal was trying to avoid the painful truth that it’s impossible for Momma to come back, though she did know this on some level. Furthermore, the fact that Momma died in a bus accident is probably why Sal was nervous to travel, and why she’s been so preoccupied with buses on the mountain roads. Now, as Sal confronts the site of her mother’s death, she must finally rely on her own perceptions (rather than what Dad and her grandparents have told her) and face the truth of what happened.
Themes
