Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Girl Who Drank the Moon, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family and Love
Storytelling, Censorship, and Control
Memory, Forgetting, and the Future
Sorrow vs. Hope
Summary
Analysis
The parent tells their child that “of course” there’s a witch in the woods. Nobody has ever seen the Witch and nobody ever will—they’ve taken steps to make sure of it. The parent doesn’t know why the Witch wants children, and reminds the child that the witch absolutely exists—the dangerous woods are proof of this. The parent refuses to explain what will happen if they stop appeasing the Witch and admits that years ago, their baby boy was sacrificed. The parent sends their child to do chores. Tomorrow is the Day of Sacrifice. The parent says that they couldn’t have fought for their son, and that it’s impossible to change the way the world works.
Introducing the novel with this story by the parent sets the stage for how the Protectorate (where the parent lives) functions: it’s a place that’s terrified of the Witch. Note in particular that the parent says that they couldn’t have fought for their son, and that it’s impossible to change. Later, the reader will learn that this isn’t actually true—this belief is one that those in power promote to remain in power, showing how effective storytelling is as a means of controlling people.
Themes
