38 pages • 1 hour read
Scott O'DellSing Down the Moon
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1970A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Bright Morning
Given that O’Dell’s Sing Down the Moon is a work of historical fiction, Bright Morning is a lens through which readers can interpret the historical details described in the work. Yet O’Dell also delves into Bright Morning’s individual concerns. At the beginning of the novel, she is on a quest to prove her maturity and confidence, and she is also infatuated with Tall Boy and concerned with what he, and others, think of her.
Bright Morning faces serious trials very early on in the novel, and thus she quickly overcomes her lack of confidence and fixation on the perception of others. She shows strength and resolve throughout her enslavement and escape, traits which continue to evolve over the course of the novel. She relies on her intuition, wisdom, and tenacity to escape her initial enslavement, and it is these traits that later help her to escape from Bosque Redondo.
Even after Tall Boy sustains his injury, loses the chance to be a warrior, and descends in social standing, Bright Morning remains loyal to him, noting that her “heart went out to him” as she sees how crushed he is (71). This exemplifies how Bright Morning’s relationship to Tall Boy changed from one that required him to validate her into one based on mutual support. She continues to care for Tall Boy—not as a warrior, like him, but as someone equally fierce, as when she outspokenly speaks in his defense before a white officer at Tall Boy’s hearing for attacking an Apache man. She eventually earns the respect she seeks from Tall Boy when he agrees to escape the reservation and find their abandoned sheep in Canyon de Chelly.
Bright Morning also repeatedly symbolizes the strength of womanhood. As male characters, from Tall Boy to her father, bow to the wills of their captors, it is Bright Morning who refuses to give up. Empowered by her own independence and innate empathy, she carries forward into a new, better life for both herself, her newborn child, and the sheep that fall under her care.
By the end of the novel, Bright Morning is fully formed, confident, and capable of acting boldly and independently. Ultimately, she finds validation and a renewed sense of hope when they successfully return to the canyon and find sheep there. Bright Morning’s actions frequently buck the will of both her captors and her tribe, and it is this rebellion that leads to her success. While Bright Morning is a vessel for understanding the horrors faced by Native Americans during European expansion into North America, she also represents the strength and independence of women throughout history who refused to bow to convention.
Tall Boy
Tall Boy is first presented in Sing Down the Moon as an undeniably admired figure. Though young, he gains enormous respect as a hunter and warrior. Consequently, he attracts the attention of Bright Morning. Given her mother’s high status due to her large flock of sheep, the anticipated pairing of Bright Morning and Tall Boy seems both inevitable and celebrated. Yet Tall Boy’s story throughout most of the novel is based not on his achievements and status, but rather on his fall from grace.
Tall Boy’s future as a warrior ends when a Spanish soldier shoots him in the arm. However, he is reluctant to accept this reality and repeatedly insists he will remain a warrior despite his injury. Unable to live up to his potential, Tall Boy is frustrated and loses standing in society. Bright Morning’s mother, for instance, no longer considers him a suitable husband for Bright Morning.
As the Navajo attempt to survive on the reservation, Tall Boy begins to find a new lifestyle. He finds ways to be active without playing the role of warrior, such as when he helps Bright Morning’s family improve their hut; she notes, “This pleased my mother” (107). His imprisonment after hitting an Apache man, however, puts Tall Boy back into a downtrodden frame of mind. After they return to Canyon de Chelly, there are signs Tall Boy has evolved and will continue to do so. He finds a way to foster resistance against the white soldiers, not by being a warrior himself, but rather by raising his infant son to have a spirit of resistance, represented by the toy spear he makes for his son and the song Tall Boy teaches him “about the Long Knives and how the spear would kill many of them” (135).
If Bright Morning is an allegory for strong womanhood, then Tall Boy is, in many ways, its correlative for the detriments of toxic masculinity. Stubborn and selfish, Tall Boy refuses to bend to the will of his wife, even as he bends to the will of the white soldiers. It is only when Tall Boy evolves outside of his stereotypical masculinity and steps onto equal footing with Bright Morning that he once again experiences success as a character.
Bright Morning’s Parents
Bright Morning’s mother and father are important influences on her, shaping her personality by providing models to emulate as well as authorities to resist. At the beginning of the novel, Bright Morning reveres her mother as a woman of power and confidence. She admires her mother for the many sheep she owns and longs to regain her mother’s trust and respect by watching over the flocks. After Tall Boy becomes injured and is unable to continue as a warrior, Bright Morning’s mother rejects him as a potential husband for her daughter. Bright Morning does not agree with her mother and continues to support Tall Boy. This moment of division between daughter and mother shows how Bright Morning is becoming an independent woman. It is only through differentiating herself from her mother that Bright Morning can truly emulate her strength and independence.
During the Navajo’s time on the Long Walk and the reservation, Bright Morning’s father represents the voices of those resigned to their fate, having lost the will to resist the white soldiers. He continually insists that things will turn out alright, even when every sign points to the contrary. As they march during the grueling Long Walk, he trusts the soldiers’ word that they are being led to “a place of running water and deep grass” (95). Bright Morning’s mother, on the other hand, is outspoken in her opinion that life under the control of the white soldiers can come to no good end. She emphatically states, “We are walking to our deaths” (95). Thus, Bright Morning’s mother aligns with Bright Morning, while her father corresponds to the point of view Tall Boy initially takes.
The contrast between Bright Morning’s parents at that time encapsulates the division within her people on a larger scale and serves to emphasize how Bright Morning’s own decision to resist white rule and escape the reservation positions her as a decisive, bold woman. Bright Morning’s mother joins with her daughter in ridiculing Tall Boy for his complacency, and their jeering ultimately convinces him to agree to leave with Bright Morning. In the end, she and Tall Boy leave the reservation without saying goodbye to her parents. On one hand, this is indicative of Bright Morning’s self-reliance and independence. More poignantly, however, it is a reminder of the ways in which the white oppression of the Navajo damaged their tribal culture on numerous levels.
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