Examples Of Heroism In Walk Two Moon

Walk Two Moons: A Heroine’s Journey

Many typical adventures in classic novels follow a pattern of events using the archetype, the Hero, which defines the nature of their journey. However, some stories don’t fit the layout of a Hero’s journey, which is often more limited to the interpretation of a male’s heroic quest involving accomplishing amazing feats and deeds in order to prove one’s masculinity. The alternate story pattern created for a heroine’s journey defies the general perspective of heroism, instead highlighting the bravery in defying expectations of one’s character and refusing to stay in the place that has been set by the heroine’s community. Walk Two Moons is a book written by Sharon Creech, which tells of a teenage girl who retraces

Sal must leave her home to escape the paralysis that life has imposed upon her given her mother’s unexplained disappearance and embark on the journey which puts her in her mother’s shoes to find peace in her past and discover herself. Sal explains, “My father was right: my mother did haunt our house in Bybanks, and the fields and the barn. She was everywhere. You couldn’t look at a single thing without being reminded of her.(Creech 188)” In the beginning, Sal couldn’t bear the thought of leaving her home and moving, but she later realizes she needed to leave and follow her mother’s path in order to make peace within herself so that she could return

Specifically in the layout of a heroine’s journey, the mentor doesn’t go to the heroine, rather the heroine finds her own mentor to learn what she needs and eventually leaves by her own decision. In this book, Sal’s mentor is actually Phoebe’s story and her family, who don’t even know that Sal’s mother left. While not consciously mentoring Sal with what she needs to know, being around Phoebe after her mother left allowed Sal to watch her own story from a different perspective. Sal reflects on this after returning home saying, “Phoebe and her family helped me, I think. They helped me think about and understand my own mother.(Creech 273)” Sal responds similarly to Phoebe upon the sudden absence of their mother because they can’t fathom a logical reasoning for their mothers’ choice. One can’t explain all of the awful things in life, like cancer, death, war and murder, but this opportunity let Sal understand her mother’s perspective and come to terms with it logically rather than with crazy stories and false