Walk Two Moons

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1994

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-10

Chapters 11-15

Chapters 16-20

Chapters 21-25

Chapters 26-30

Chapters 31-35

Chapters 36-40

Chapters 41-44

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 31-35 Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 31 Summary: “The Photograph”

Phoebe brings a new message to school the next day: “We never know the worth of water until the well is dry” (192). Meanwhile, Sal finds herself trying to kiss Ben as they chat before class but misses and kisses the locker by mistake. In English, Mr. Birkway alarms his students by announcing that he plans to anonymously read excerpts from students’ journals aloud. He proceeds to read several passages, explaining what he likes about each—for instance, a complaint about a student using “God” as an expletive is a reminder that people’s words can be unintentionally offensive. After class, the students confront those they suspect of writing negative things about them, and several arguments break out. After school, Phoebe and Sal go to the police station and present Sergeant Bickle with the newest message. Bickle dismisses the letter and Phoebe leaves, but Sal notices a photo of Sergeant Bickle’s family; his son is the man she knows as the “lunatic.”

Chapter 32 Summary: “Chicken and Blackberry Kisses”

Gramps books a hotel in Yellowstone so they can watch Old Faithful blow the next morning. Gram, who’s excited about seeing the geyser, chats and reminisces before asking Sal to continue Phoebe’s story. On her way to tell Phoebe about Bickle’s son, Sal sees that Mrs. Partridge is dressed to go out. As Sal watches, Mr. Birkway drives up to meet her; Mrs. Partridge says that “Jimmy” is her son, and Mr. Birkway adds that he and Mrs. Cadaver are twins.

In English the following day, Mr. Birkway resumes reading from the students’ journals. Ben seems embarrassed by one romantic passage, which Sal is dismayed to realize he couldn’t have written about her, because they hadn’t met yet. Mr. Birkway also reads a passage complaining about English class, and tries to change his students minds about the value of literature by pointing out how stories can be interpreted in multiple ways. Lastly, Mr. Birkway reads excerpts from Sal’s and Phoebe’s journals. The students giggle at Sal’s description of the “blackberry kiss,” but the focus of their gossip shifts when Mr. Birkway unwittingly starts to read a passage accusing Mrs. Cadaver of murder, then falls silent in shock.

Chapter 33 Summary: “The Visitor”

Sal is having dinner at Phoebe’s house when Mr. Birkway stops by. He apologizes to Phoebe for reading her journal aloud, and explains that his sister’s husband died in a car crash, which also blinded their mother: “My sister Margaret was the nurse on duty in the emergency room when they brought in her husband and our mother” (213). He reassures Phoebe that his sister played no role in her mother’s disappearance. After Mr. Birkway leaves, Sal tells Phoebe about Sergeant Bickle’s son, and they devise a plan. When Sal returns home, however, she finds herself thinking only about Mrs. Cadaver, whom she now sees in an entirely new light: “I could feel her heart thumping like mad as she realized it was her own husband and her own mother lying there […] It was as if I was walking in her moccasins, that’s how much my own hands were sweating” (214). As Sal concludes her story for the evening, Gram still feels wide awake, and tells Sal and Gramps that she plans to think for a while.

Chapter 34 Summary: “Old Faithful”

Although Gram never falls asleep, she’s eager to see Old Faithful the next morning; when they arrive, a ranger must warn her to stay behind the rope. A crowd gathers, and after a few false starts, the geyser finally blows: “[A] huge jing-bang spray of water surged out, climbing and climbing, and then more and more, until it looked like a whole river of water was shooting straight up into the air” (218). Gram is so delighted she begins crying, and Gramps is happy to see her so pleased. As they return to the car, Gramps promises Sal they’ll make it to Idaho by nightfall.

Chapter 35 Summary: “The Plan”

The drive through Montana is beautiful but mountainous. To avoid thinking about car crashes, Sal focuses on finishing Phoebe’s story. The day after Mr. Birkway’s visit, Phoebe and Sal are preoccupied with thoughts of tracking down Sergeant Bickle’s son. In English, Mr. Birkway apologizes for reading the journals aloud and sends the students to the library, where Ben and Sal nearly kiss while browsing the shelves. Sal goes to Phoebe’s house after school, and the girls call every Bickle in the phonebook in order to find the sergeant’s number. That night, Sal phones the number again, claiming to be a friend of the sergeant’s son, and successfully obtains the address of “Mike’s” dorm.

Chapters 31-35 Analysis

In this section, Sal learns that several people aren’t who she believed them to be in quite literal ways: The “lunatic” is the Bickles’ son, and Mr. Birkway and Mrs. Cadaver are siblings (as well as Mrs. Partridge’s children). Later, of course, she will also learn that Mike Bickle is the biological son of Mrs. Winterbottom. These unexpected familial relationships serve as a particularly dramatic reminder of the importance of trying to “walk in the moccasins” of others—that is, to explore who they are and where they’re coming from.

For much of the novel, Sal allows Phoebe’s wild theories about Mrs. Cadaver to color her own view of her, because doing so allows her to avoid thinking too deeply about her relationship with Sal’s father. Although Creech doesn’t reveal the full context of John and Margaret’s relationship until Chapter 43, the revelation that Mrs. Cadaver also lost a spouse in a car accident goes a long way toward explaining the nature of her bond with John Hiddle. Sal is of course still in denial about her mother’s death at this point in the novel, so she doesn’t acknowledge this parallel. However, she does begin to see Mrs. Cadaver in more human terms, imagining what she might have thought and felt on the night her husband died.

Meanwhile, the fallout of Mr. Birkway’s decision to read the students’ journals aloud serves as a cautionary tale about the possible pitfalls of storytelling. Although stories often foster empathy and understanding, Mr. Birkway becomes so invested in the students’ narratives as narratives that he overlooks the humanity of the real people behind the stories; while he does attempt to protect his students’ anonymity, it doesn’t occur to him that the students’ curiosity will almost certainly lead them to pry into the true identities of the journal writers. It’s only when he read Phoebe’s accusations about his own sister that realizes the real-world consequences of his actions and acknowledges his mistake: “Mr. Birkway did not read any more journals. Instead, he apologized for hurting people’s feelings by reading their private thoughts aloud” (222).

Meanwhile, Gram’s behavior in these chapters—her sleeplessness, her tearful response to seeing Old Faithful, etc.—lays the groundwork for her death in Chapter 43. Creech has foreshadowed Gram’s fate since the snake bite in Chapter 15, often by drawing attention to the lingering difficulties Gram seems to have breathing. In this section, however, the foreshadowing shifts in focus to Gram’s apparent peace with what’s happening. Although Gram is largely silent when it comes to what she’s thinking and feeling, she seems focused on tying up the loose ends of her life, fulfilling her lifelong dream of seeing Old Faithful and hearing the conclusion to Phoebe’s story (perhaps because the disappearance of Mrs. Winterbottom provides a lens through which Gram can view an unresolved event from her own past—her brief elopement with the “egg man”). Outside of this urgency, however, there’s little sense that Gram is frightened or upset, and her tranquility in the face of death helps explain the shift in Sal’s own attitudes toward mortality in the novel’s final chapters.