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 says that of course there’s a witch in the woods—she visited yesterday. This witch turned magic as a baby, when another ancient witch filled her with magic. Eventually, the old witch’s magic flowed into the new witch, which is what happens when a witch claims someone to protect. This, the parent says, is how the Witch claimed the Protectorate. They belong to each other, and the Witch’s magic blesses them, the Bog, and the volcano. This is why the Protectorate’s children are happy and healthy. Long ago, the Witch received a poem from the Beast. It was possibly the poem that made the world. The Witch keeps it in a locket. One day, the Witch will fade and only the stories will remain. She might become the Beast or the Bog or a poem, but it’s all the same.
In this story, the parent shows just how much things have changed in the Protectorate since the Witch (presumably Luna) claimed the Protectorate as her own. Now that Luna is in charge of things and spreads blessings, love, and hope, people are happy, healthy, and once again connected to the natural world. While it’s unclear how exactly Luna “claimed” the Protectorate, the parent nevertheless casts it as a positive thing. With this, it shows that those in the Protectorate have reclaimed the power to tell their own stories, which helps them foster positive emotions and hope for the future.
Themes
