Friday, April 11, 2014

In Walk Two Moons, how does the setting impact the novel?

There are two separate stories in the novel: one takes place in Sal’s new home of Euclid, Ohio, and the other is on the road with her grandparents, traveling to Idaho. Sal makes it clear from the beginning that her real home is in Bybanks, Kentucky, where she had lived with her parents before her mother left home. Bybanks is in the country and a place of wide, open spaces. Euclid is a town where...

There are two separate stories in the novel: one takes place in Sal’s new home of Euclid, Ohio, and the other is on the road with her grandparents, traveling to Idaho. Sal makes it clear from the beginning that her real home is in Bybanks, Kentucky, where she had lived with her parents before her mother left home. Bybanks is in the country and a place of wide, open spaces. Euclid is a town where Sal feels crowded in. She misses the trees of Bybanks. She feels this defines her; Euclid does not. Yet her father needs to be in Euclid since they have learned that Sal’s mother is not returning.


On the road, Sal prays to the trees, hoping to get to Idaho by her mother’s birthday to bring her home. Each stop on the way is a place where her mother stopped. She had taken a bus and sent postcards to Sal along the way. The road serves as a link to her mother, Sal feels. Her grandparents (her father’s parents) are eccentric, but she loves them. They remind her of Bybanks.

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