38 pages • 1 hour read
Scott O'DellSing Down the Moon
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1970A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 21-PostscriptChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 21 Summary
Bright Morning begins repairing two blankets by using bits of a third. She also starts to store food a pinch or two at a time, saving up for their escape and the journey ahead. She tells Tall Boy about her plan, but he insists the soldiers will catch them if they try to leave and refuses the idea of escaping. One day, they are cutting wood when an Apache man tries to take the wood from them. Tall Boy beats the man with a piece of wood, and that night, soldiers take Tall Boy away. The next day, their captors take Bright Morning and her father to a hearing with an officer. She says that her name is Bright Morning and does not give the officer her real name. She explains that the Apache’s injuries are his own fault, which annoys the officer. As the soldiers lead them away, Bright Morning’s father insists Tall Boy will return home soon.
Chapter 22 Summary
Bright Morning continues to secretly store supplies. She finds one of the Long Knives’ bayonets and hides it. One night, Tall Boy comes back to them suddenly. He escaped through a hole in the wall of the soldiers’ fort, and he believes he has until morning before they realize he is gone. Tall Boy is still uninterested in escaping from the Long Knives’ control, prompting Bright Morning to ask him, “Are you an old woman?” (121). Her mother joins her in criticizing Tall Boy, who leaves in shame. Outside, he finds Bright Morning again and says they should leave immediately. They do so without even telling their family. They take the old horse, choosing a path through the river to hide their tracks. Bright Morning believes the soldiers will not bother to pursue two escapees. She continues to think about her sheep, although Tall Boy still insists they must be dead. They take a path off the trail, heading to Canyon de Chelly. The build a hut and live there for the summer, when Bright Morning’s baby son is born.
Chapter 23 Summary
One morning, Bright Morning and Tall Boy see soldiers but remain hidden. The Long Knives turn away. Bright Morning and Tall Boy depart again for Canyon de Chelly. He insists he is only going there “because I am tired of hearing about sheep” (129). He first heads alone into the canyon to assess the condition of things. When he returns, Tall Boy says there is no sight of anyone, but he did see one sheep. Bright Morning decides there is a small hidden canyon in which they can safely stay. There are grass, water, and wild plums in the canyon and a cave in the rocks. Bright Morning finds the sheep, who has a lamb. She shows them to her son as rain begins to fall.
Postscript Summary
O’Dell explains that the events of Sing Down the Moon took place in 1863–1865. He describes how Colonel Kit Carson was sent by the US government, along with 400 soldiers, to destroy Navajo crops and livestock, rounding up the Navajo and “killing those who fought back” (135). In 1864, O’Dell writes, the Navajo began to surrender. Carson and his men marched the Navajo to Fort Sumner, near Santa Fe, New Mexico, a 300-mile journey known as the Long Walk. Some Navajo hid, he explains, but most were held at Fort Sumner until 1868, when they were set free near Canyon de Chelly with few resources to begin again. O’Dell notes that details in the novel, such as the Sand Creek massacre of 1864, refer to true facts, and the disease smallpox killed many other Native Americans. However, O’Dell concludes, the Navajo population has since grown, and the culture is vital and full of life in the present day.
Chapter 21-Postscript Analysis
While the Navajo struggle to survive in Bosque Redondo, Bright Morning prepares to leave. By repairing blankets and carefully saving food a pinch at a time, she displays her ingenuity and resolve. Her relationship with Tall Boy is a source of conflict, as he does not share her desire to escape captivity and even directly states that her plan is foolish. Even after white soldiers imprison him, Tall Boy remains unwilling to leave. Bright Morning’s father also expresses trust in the captors and insists that they will set Tall Boy free. By contrast, Bright Morning again shows her defiance, boldly speaking out in Tall Boy’s defense when before the officer at his hearing.
When the time comes to escape, Bright Morning independently takes action, while Tall Boy requires prodding to go along with her plan. It is only after Bright Morning and her mother challenge Tall Boy’s masculinity that he agrees to leave with Bright Morning. Tall Boy already felt shame and frustration over losing his identity as a warrior because of his injury. Bright Morning exacerbates and blatantly capitalizes on this shame in order to prompt him into action. However, after witnessing the repeated strength of the book’s female characters and the weakness of the male characters, the reader may identify the irony in Bright Morning’s insult.
The couple is sad they must leave without saying goodbye to their families, a moment that underscores the ways in which the deportation of the Navajo impacted the tribe’s culture. Yet overall, Sing Down the Moon closes with a mood of happiness, hope, and homecoming. In the final scene, Bright Morning comes across an ewe with a lamb. The ewe’s attempt to raise its lamb independently in the hidden canyon mirrors Bright Morning’s own determination to make it in this new landscape and world. Tall Boy is symbolically present in this final scene, as his son holds a toy spear, and Bright Morning recalls a song Tall Boy taught their son “about the Long Knives and how the spear would kill many of them” (135). Just as she shepherded Little Rainbow and her child, so will Bright Morning shepherd this ewe and her lamb. In this moment, with Tall Boy relegated to symbolism and the bond of mother and child at the forefront, we once again witness the powerful combination of Bright Morning’s independence and empathy.
Despite the tragedies and hardships Sing Down the Moon depicts, the novel ends on a note of peace. The “Navaho rain” appears, echoing the arrival of the spring waters Bright Morning greeted with joy at the beginning of the novel. It is a symbol of both the immense change just a few years can bring and, simultaneously, how unchanged certain things remain.
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