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
Gramps shouts as he passes the Illinois state line; he pronounces it “Ill-ah-no-way.” Gram wants to know what happened to Indiana, and Gramps teases her and calls her a “gooseberry.” Suddenly, the road curves, and there’s water off to the right. It’s Lake Michigan. Gram says she’d like to take a dip, so Gramps cuts across traffic, and within minutes, Sal is standing with her grandparents in the lake. That night, they sleep at a motel outside of Chicago. Sal tries to picture Lewiston, but the dark whispers “rush, hurry, rush” to her and makes it impossible.
It's a mark of how much Gramps adores his wife that he’s willing to cut across traffic to get her to Lake Michigan, just because she expresses passing interest in swimming. But Sal isn’t necessarily able to see this because she’s so concerned with making it to Lewiston in time. The way she frames the dark as the entity telling her to rush personifies the natural world, making it seem as though nature (which Sal connects with Momma in her mind) is urging her on.
Themes
Instead, Sal thinks of Bybanks and how things were right after Momma left for Lewiston. At first, Sal couldn’t understand how Momma could leave her. But over time, Sal realized that she’d been Momma’s mirror: happy when Momma was happy, and sad when Momma was sad. For a few days, Sal didn’t know how to feel, but then, she suddenly felt happy watching a newborn calf stand. Sal had told herself that night that she could be happy without Momma. The thought felt mean, but it also felt true.
At first, Sal seemed to think that Momma left to intentionally hurt her. And to make matters worse, Sal was also confronted with the realization that she didn’t know how to manage or feel her own emotions without Momma to guide her. In this way, Sal’s closeness to Momma hindered her ability to be her own person. So, although her realization that she could be happy without Momma felt mean, it also marked the beginning of Sal’s coming of age, as she was forced to begin learning how to function independently. It’s also significant that Sal had this epiphany while watching a newborn calf stand up on its own, as Sal, like this animal, was learning how to pick herself up and face the world without her mother’s help. This is yet another moment when Sal finds comfort in and communion with the natural world.
Themes
As Sal is remembering these things, Gram asks if Sal would like to call Dad. Sal refuses; she doesn’t want him to think she’s a “goose.” The next morning, Gramps gets lost leaving Chicago, but they finally find the road heading west. The plan is for them to drive through Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Wyoming, then dip into Montana and finally Idaho. Gramps is looking forward to seeing the Badlands and the Black Hills in South Dakota, but Sal isn’t so excited to see those places. She knows why they’re going there, though: when Momma took the bus to Lewiston, the bus stopped in those places. Sal and her grandparents are following Momma’s footsteps.
It’s not year clear why Sal and her grandparents are tracing Momma’s exact route to Lewiston, nor why Sal isn’t excited about seeing these landmarks. Her reluctance again hints that Sal has lingering trauma around Momma’s departure and subsequent bus trip to Lewiston. But by following in Momma’s footsteps, Sal will have the opportunity to see the same things Momma did on her trip west, which may give Sal a new perspective on her mother’s journey.
Themes
