When the Moon Was Ours

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7

Chapters 8-17

Chapters 18-26

Chapters 27-37

Chapters 38-46

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Glass

In When the Moon was Ours, Anna-Marie McLemore uses the glass motif as a symbol of Transformation. Glass appears in two major ways within the novel: in the pumpkins turning to glass in the Bonners’ fields and in the decorative stained-glass coffin where the sisters imprison Miel. Both of these bring a wider cultural context to the story as classic fairy tale motifs. The glass pumpkin points to the story of Cinderella (referenced directly in the novel via the “Cinderella pumpkins,” one of the agricultural varieties grown on the Bonners’ farm), who transforms for a night, allowing others to see her true self rather than the version defined by her family’s perceptions and abuse. The glass coffin references the Snow White fairy tale, where Snow White, like Miel, is imprisoned in a glass coffin that serves as a kind of chrysalis from which she emerges transformed.

Initially, Miel sees the glass as a symbol of weakness and vulnerability—the power of the Bonner girls rendering her weak:

It had slid out here, creeping over their family’s fields, this land they would inherit. It was seeping into the pumpkins so that each one now held a little storm spinning it to glass. […] If she stayed still, it would find its way into her. It would make her breakable. It would turn her to glass (45).

McLemore presents glass both as a literal manifestation and as a metaphor for the fragility that has taken hold of Miel’s life. Miel experiences the cumulation of these when she is locked inside the glass coffin, a state of stasis that forces her relive her traumatic memories. Her captivity is, in its own way, transformative; even though the experience is painful, it catalyzes her journey into uncovering her own deeper truth. Later, the glass motif undergoes its own transformation when the revelation of buried secrets causes the glass to shatter and disperse, signaling strength and power rather than weakness. By speaking their secrets aloud, Miel and each of the Bonner girls complete their transformations.

Moon and Stars

Through the narrative, the novel’s titular moon symbolizes illumination and hope. Sam’s nickname, Moon, references the painted moons he hangs around town, and signals that Sam himself is a force of hope and light in the lives of the people around him. The artificial moons he creates bring hope to children throughout their community, keeping away nightmares and instilling a feeling of maternal protection. In this respect they also help Miel navigate her trauma before she is old enough to face it head on.

In addition, the moons that Sam designs aren’t empty symbols, but exact replicas of real moons that exist in the wider universe:

[T]his is why Sam painted shadows and lunar seas on paper and metal and glass, copying the shadows of mare imbrium and oceanus procellarum—to give her back the moon. He had painted dark skies and bright moons on flat paper since he was old enough to hold a brush, old enough to look through the library’s astronomy atlases (5).

McLemore chose to title each chapter with a translation of one of these astronomical bodies of water, weaving the motif into the novel’s structure as well.

Celestial symbolism also appears in the form of stars and constellations; Sam compares Miel to distant stars, and a powerful shared memory between them involves creating a constellation of stars on Miel’s skin. Through this action, they are able to touch without the complexities of adult attraction. This memory surfaces for Sam at a pivotal moment when Aracely is about to remove his lovesickness. Reliving the experience of tracing constellations on Miel’s skin moves him to claim ownership of his love for and connection to Miel, bringing them back together as it did the first time. In this way, the moon and stars are a constant thread that unites Sam and Miel, ensuring they always remain connected.

Roses

The roses that grow from Miel’s wrist drive every major conflict in the novel. They are an integral part of her body, as proven by her near-death experience after having one of them forcibly removed by an outside hand. While Miel’s roses are a point of interest and gossip in the community, they’re not so outlandish as to warrant medical investigation and media attention as they might in the contemporary world, which supports the magical realism aspect of the novel. Despite the range of “otherness” present in the town, from Aracely’s skills with potions to the collective power of the Bonner girls, Miel’s blended gift and curse is unique to her alone. It’s not until later that she discovers the complex and painful heritage of her affliction.

These roses cause contention in her family and inadvertently lead to the death of Miel’s mother, and the death and subsequent rebirth of her brother. Later, the Bonner sisters threaten everyone Miel cares about in order to harness the roses’ perceived power for themselves. What’s notable is that none of these incidents is instigated by any concrete evidence of the roses’ power, but rather by the stories people tell about them. Miel’s parents believed stories that the roses evidence destructive and evil power, while the Bonner sisters believe stories of the roses’ power to bring restoration.