Walk to moons Essay- Judgments
By: Scott Glueck
Summary of Walk to Moons
In the novel Walk to Moons by Sharon Creech a girl named Sal is on a road trip with her grandparents to go visit her dead mothers grave. While she was on this road trip she told a story about her friend named Phoebe whose mother left her to be with her long lost son.
Thesis of Walk to Moons
In the novel, Phoebe and Sal strongly misjudged the characters Mike Bickle, Mr. Birkway, and Mrs. Winterbottom before they walked "two moons in their moccasins".
Support #1 Judgments
Immediatly both Sal and Phoebe jumped to conclusion about the fact that Mike Bickle is the "potential lunatic". "Mike is the potential lunatic" (p.246). For Phoebe this was a reasonable thought because she was the type of girl that had an odd mind of her own, but that was not the case for Sal because she knew that they did not have enough of evidence to have brought up that discussion. After days and days of being worried the mother finally came home. "Mike is my son" (p.248). When Mrs. Winterbottom released this to family it was a huge shock because phoebe was so far off her theory of Mike and that he kidnapped her. That news made Phoebe realize to not be very judgmental.
Support #2 Judgments
When Mrs. Winterbottom left her family under suspiciously, Phoebe and Sal (mostly Phoebe) began to misjudge her. As a daughter of a mother whose missing, they have all rights to be worried, but she had clear evidence. "I think she's kidnapped" (p.127). Even after the father of Phoebe tried to explain to her that she was wrong because there was obvious evidence that she left because she needed to, not because she was kidnapped. Not even Sal could stop Phoebe, so together they went searching for Mike Bickle incase he was the lunatic. "On the bench was Phoebes mother, and she was kissing the lunatic" (p.235). Now that they had seen that, they both knew that their theory of the kidnapping was wrong. Later on, the mother announced she was coming home with someone. "Mike is my son" (p.248). Since Phoebe was as stubborn as a horse, she still would not give in to trusting him, even though he was her "brother".
Support #3 Judgments
Sal and Phoebe's crazy teacher, Mr. Birkway, had them thinking that he helped Mrs. Cadaver kill her husband and then helped burry him in her backyard after they saw him at her house with a shovel. " ' Maybe Mr. Birkway helped chop up her husband' " (p.86). Right there was another one of Phoebe's crazy theories about someone she knew nothing about. Mr. Birkway read a journal from Phoebe that included information like that, so he came to their house to set things straight. " 'Mrs. Cadaver is my sister' " (p.218). Knowing that Mrs. Cadaver was the sister of him was shocking news because they thought that she was randomly teaming up with him to kill. he also gave more information about the husband. " 'Her husband died when a drunk driver rammed into his car' " (p.218). When they heard that they both felt terrible for having been so rude and disrespectful.
Conclusion
In short, the Characters learned by the end of the story that they should not have been jumping to conclusions so quickly when they had not "walked to moons in their moccasins". After they learned about all of the people that they judged, both of them finally realized all of they needed to do was talk to them one on one.