Walk Two Moons
2
WALK TWO MOONS BY SHARON CREECH (MADE BY ANANTTA KAUR) “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons on his moccasins.” Walk Two Moons By Sharon Creech (Anantta Kaur) THEME I personally think that Creech was trying to help us understand not simply one thing, but many things together. Different kinds of relationships, misunderstandings, loss, and love. Throughout the book a lot of emphasis was placed on Sal’s mother and what she was like. How the trees swaying in the wind reminded Sal of her mother singing, or the chickens at their farm reminded her of her mother feeding them with love and care. Sal basically tried to find her missing mother in everything. “She’s in the fields, the air, the barn, the walls, the trees.” (Creech, 112). This really showed how much Sal missed her mother and how she was coping with the situation. ‘Walk Two Moons’ always had one major theme that stuck out to me on every page. Never give up, never stop believing. “I had been praying that a miracle would happen and my mother would come back and we would return to Bybanks and everything would be exactly as it used to be.” (Creech, 128). Sal’s hopeful character was very easy for me to sense, as if I knew her personally, and not just as a character in a story I was reading. Up until the end of the book, there was always hope radiating off the off white pages of this book. Sal hoping her mother would come back, Phoebe hoping her mother would come back, Phoebe’s father hoping his wife would come back, Sal hoping she’d go back to her old life, and she’d find her mother in time for her birthday. When Sal’s mother Sugar left, her family was confused, to put simply. Her father was in shock and Sal herself had a hard time wrapping her brain around the fact that her mother would leave her. At first Sal and her father seemed to be strangers, but as they both began to realize the situation they formed a bond that only they could understand. “He looked away, and I felt miserable right along with him. I apologized for upsetting him. He put his arm around me and we sat there together on the porch, two people being completely pitiful and lost.” (Creech, 141). Creech really was able to show me how some bonds can just form on their own, without people even trying to form them. I also found the theme to say that sometimes people do things, and to us it may not seem like the best thing to do, but sometimes if you really love that person, you have to let them do it. “A person isn’t a bird. You can’t cage a person.” (Creech, 141) helped me understand that Sal’s mother, like Phoebe’s mother did what she had to do, and that was to leave for a while. Tying along with that, another message I found in this book was about judging. Sal began to let her mind wander and think her mother didn’t love her, or that she was sick of her family. “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.” (Creech, 185) Is similar to our modern day “Don’t judge a book by its cover quote. Sal judged many people in this book. Her mother, Phoebe’s mother, Phoebe herself, and Ben, but as she began to understand life in their point of view, everything started to make more sense. “Everyone has his own agenda.”
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IRA Book Project
Transcript of Walk Two Moons
WALK TWO MOONS BY SHARON CREECH
(MADE BY ANANTTA KAUR)
“Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked
two moons on his moccasins.”
Walk Two Moons
By Sharon Creech
(Anantta Kaur)
THEME I personally think that Creech was trying to help us understand not simply one thing, but many things together. Different kinds of relationships, misunderstandings, loss, and love. Throughout the book a lot of emphasis was placed on Sal’s mother and what she was like. How the trees swaying in the wind reminded Sal of her mother singing, or the chickens at their farm reminded her of her mother feeding them with love and care. Sal basically tried to find her missing mother in everything. “She’s in the fields, the air, the barn, the walls, the trees.” (Creech, 112). This really showed how much Sal missed her mother and how she was coping with the situation. ‘Walk Two Moons’ always had one major theme that stuck out to me on every page. Never give up, never stop believing. “I had been praying that a miracle would happen and my mother would come back and we would return to Bybanks and everything would be exactly as it used to be.” (Creech, 128). Sal’s hopeful character was very easy for me to sense, as if I knew her personally, and not just as a character in a story I was reading. Up until the end of the book, there was always hope radiating off the off white pages of this book. Sal hoping her mother would come back, Phoebe hoping her mother would come back, Phoebe’s father hoping his wife would come back, Sal hoping she’d go back to her old life, and she’d find her mother in time for her birthday. When Sal’s mother Sugar left, her family was confused, to put simply. Her father was in shock and Sal herself had a hard time wrapping her brain around the fact that her mother would leave her. At first Sal and her father seemed to be strangers, but as they both began to realize the situation they formed a bond that only they could understand. “He looked away, and I felt miserable right along with him. I apologized for upsetting him. He put his arm around me and we sat there together on the porch, two people being completely pitiful and lost.” (Creech, 141). Creech really was able to show me how some bonds can just form on their own, without people even trying to form them. I also found the theme to say that sometimes people do things, and to us it may not seem like the best thing to do, but sometimes if you really love that person, you have to let them do it. “A person isn’t a bird. You can’t cage a person.” (Creech, 141) helped me understand that Sal’s mother, like Phoebe’s mother did what she had to do, and that was to leave for a while. Tying along with that, another message I found in this book was about judging. Sal began to let her mind wander and think her mother didn’t love her, or that she was sick of her family. “Don’t judge a man until you’ve walked two moons in his moccasins.” (Creech, 185) Is similar to our modern day “Don’t judge a book by its cover quote. Sal judged many people in this book. Her mother, Phoebe’s mother, Phoebe herself, and Ben, but as she began to understand life in their point of view, everything started to make more sense.
“Everyone has his own agenda.”
I personally believe that Creech tried to teach me one main thing. Sometimes people make mistakes, and it may seem for a second as if they don’t love you, but if you really look from their point of view, their love is clear as day. Sal always judged her mother, thinking her beloved mom had lost interest in her. But once she began to ‘walk in her moccasins’ she realized how much her mom loved her, and what she did was for her well-being as well as herself. Similar to that, Phoebe’s mother had made a mistake as well, by hiding about the fact that she had a third child. She needed time to sort things out, figure out what would be best for her family as whole. Phoebe often said to her father, “My mom wouldn’t leave me. She loves me!” although sometimes her own heart would say otherwise. This story helped me understand how sometimes what people do may not seem wise, but judging them is never the right answer. Sal took a bit longer to realize this then most people, but once she did, her mother’s absence made sense.
“In the course of a lifetime, what
does it matter?”
About the Author
Tease
When Sal embarks on a cross country journey across the United States with her grandparents, to find her missing mother, Sugar, she shares her wild story about Phoebe and lunatic. The further you go into the book, the further Sal goes into her journey, and the more her story begins to unfold. A story where the reader finds themselves caught up in the midst of a heart-racing story about Phoebe’s missing mother, the possible kidnapping, and the possible lunatic. Come with Sal as she shares her story and learns a few things along the way about the importance of relationships, love, hope, and walking in another person’s moccasins before jumping to conclusions. A heart-warming, tear jerking story about a thirteen year old girl, full of bravery in her heart, and love in her soul.
“You can’t keep the birds of sadness from flying over your head, but you can keep them from nesting in your hair.”
Author’s Purpose
Sharon Creech was born in South Euclid, Ohio with a packed house with many brothers and sisters. In her book ‘Walk Two Moons’ Sal went to Idaho. When Creech was little she went to road trips with her family all around the United States, including Idaho. That’s where she says she got most of her descriptions of the beautiful place from for ‘Walk Two Moons’. When Creech was still young, she wanted to become many things like most children her age. A painter, an ice skater, a singer, a teacher, and a reporter. However she soon discovered none of those things would work out, with her shaky painting skills or short patience for learning something new. In college she started to take literature and writing courses where she learned a lot about the hobby and how much she liked it. ‘Walk Two Moons’ was one of her first books to be published in America. She has written other wonderul books such as Chasing Redbird, Pleasing the Ghost, Bloomability, The Wanderer, and Fishing in the Air. She lives with her husband Lyle Rigg, the headmaster of The Pennington School, and her two grown kids Rob and Karen. She enjoys spending quality time with her family and of course writing stories.
