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 Sisters of the Star always have an “apprentice.” He’s always a young boy, and he’s more like a servant. They hire him when he’s nine and keep him for three years, and each boy is fired with the same note: “We had high hopes, but this one has disappointed us.” Some boys only stay days or weeks, but those that last longer are fired when they begin to realize how much knowledge is in the Tower’s libraries. Antain was fired the day after the Sisters granted him access.
It’s telling that the Sisters fire their apprentice when he learns that there’s a lot to discover in the Tower’s libraries. This suggests that the apprentices may be some of the only people in the Protectorate aware of the possibility that the stories guiding the Protectorate aren’t correct. But by keeping them from confirming this, the Sisters are able to maintain their power.
Themes
The Tower, where the Sisters live, is in the center of the Protectorate. It’s an intricate structure, with rooms everywhere and odd corridors designed to confuse. During Antain’s time there, he learned all sorts of useful things, and the Sisters praised him. His firing still stings, years later. One day, Antain makes his excuses to the Elders and decides to visit the Sisters, who were an odd family for him while he was there. Rook, Antain’s little brother, answers the Tower door and shows Antain to Sister Ignatia’s office. Sister Ignatia is a formidable woman, but she liked Antain.
Antain’s sense that the Sisters were a family of sorts to him again makes it clear that people need not share blood to be family. It’s possible to form a chosen family with anyone, as long as there’s love and mutual caring involved. That Antain has the ability to forgive Sister Ignatia for firing him speaks to his capacity to forgive and think well of others, a quality that highlights his generous and hopeful nature.
Themes
Sister Ignatia greets Antain warmly, invites him to sit on a chair covered in spiky vines, and shouts at Rook to bring tea and cookies. Antain feels a pang of shame at the fact that he was fired. Sister Ignatia asks Antain if he is married, and says that she can tell he’s sweet on someone. Antain blushes, thinking of Ethyne, and says that the Council keeps him busy. Sister Ignatia seems to sneer at this. Antain says he’s learning a lot but thinks of the screaming madwoman and abandoning the baby. He wonders why the Council won’t answer his questions. Sister Ignatia says that she’s surprised that Antain joined the Council, though she knows it was Antain’s mother’s idea. She says she thought he’d be a carpenter.
Everything about Sister Ignatia and her office is designed to intimidate and make guests feel horrible—this is likely why Antain feels guilt about being fired, even though the same thing happens to everyone. Again, when he dwells on the madwoman and the abandoned baby, it shows that he’s far too curious and compassionate to believe the Elders at face value that this is the way things must be. His questioning nature puts him at risk, but it also means that he has the potential to bring about great change.
Themes
Rook stumbles in, spills the tea and cookies, and rushes away. When Sister Ignatia asks, Antain insists that he’s just here to visit. With a smile, Sister Ignatia says that Antain is lying and says that she understands why he’d want to see the madwoman, who is “a fountain of sorrow.” Antain asks if she can be cured, but Sister Ignatia insists that there’s no cure for sorrow and grins an odd smile. Antain points out that most people who lose children aren’t this sad, but Sister Ignatia says that with this woman’s madness, she’s very interesting. Sister Ignatia icily reminds Antain that as an Elder-in-Training, he can see prisoners whenever he wants and doesn’t need to go through her to do so.
Xan’s constant refrain that sorrow is dangerous takes on new significance in the context of Sister Ignatia’s hints about the madwoman’s sorrow. Sister Ignatia’s odd smile suggests that she’s gaining something from the madwoman’s sorrow—in other words, she has something to gain by making people sad and keeping them that way. This begins to point to her as the person who’s actually benefiting from the stories that the parent tells, while the Elders may be just as fooled as the rest of the Protectorate.
Themes
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Sister Ignatia leads Antain to the prison cells and Antain hopefully peeks into rooms looking for Ethyne. They reach the prison floor and Sister Ignatia leaves Antain with a Sister. The Sister confirms that Antain doesn’t have any paper and then shows him into the cell. Antain is shocked: paper is exceedingly expensive and yet, the madwoman’s cell is filled with thousands of paper birds. They’re beautiful. The madwoman stirs. Antain barely recognizes her with her hair shaved and the brightness in her eyes gone. The woman says that Antain looks familiar as Antain notices maps that all say, “she is here.”
It’s important to remember that Antain actually takes note of the madwoman’s birds, and what her maps say. This shows first that Antain is open and interested in other people—he doesn’t move through the world trying to see people merely as he wants them to be. It also gives Antain information that will be important for him later. By being so open, Antain is able to further cultivate his hope and gather knowledge to eventually break through the Protectorate’s censorship.
Themes
Antain explains that he’s an Elder-in-Training. The madwoman lies back down and laughs, which makes Antain shiver. Suddenly, Antain notices that the paper birds are all facing him. The madwoman slowly tells Antain to tell Gherland that “she” is here and terrible. Antain doesn’t know what this means, and thinks that the woman is too mad to reason with. The madwoman says that her daughter isn’t dead and Antain points out that she shouldn’t be—they don’t know what the Witch does with the children. One of the woman’s paper hummingbirds crawls into Antain’s shirt and pokes him, and a paper raven cuts Antain’s cheek. The woman says that the reckoning is coming. Antain pounds on the door, but his words and fists make no sound. Hundreds of paper birds attack him.
Antain’s unthinking and unwavering belief in the Witch’s existence is, at this point, a comfort—but the madwoman seems aware of the fact that there is no witch as Antain thinks of her, and the real antagonist is actually somewhere in the Tower. Though the birds are symbolic of the madwoman’s hope, attacking Antain with them effectively robs Antain of some of his hope. It shows him that there is a far greater enemy in the Tower, even if he wrongly believes at this point that the enemy is the madwoman.
Themes
