Sing Down the Moon

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1970

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-4

Chapters 5-8

Chapters 9-12

Chapters 13-16

Chapters 17-20

Chapter 21-Postscript

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Chapters 17-20Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 17 Summary

Bright Morning’s father asks the soldiers where they are leading his people, and the soldiers tell him Fort Sumner is their destination. Bright Morning meets a young girl, Little Rainbow, who carries two small children. Bright Morning offers to carry one of the children for Little Rainbow. More and more Navajo join the traveling group, driven by other contingents of soldiers. Tall Boy rejoins the group, unnoticed but ashamed.

Bright Morning continues to carry one of Little Rainbow’s children. One night, Little Rainbow does not come back for the child. Tall Boy and Bright Morning attempt to find Little Rainbow without luck. Bright Morning keeps the child, naming it Meadow Flower. The older people in the group begin to falter because of the grueling journey, but the Long Knives only laugh. Bright Morning’s father says he is happy to be alive, but her mother says they are going to their death.

Chapter 18 Summary

The marching group grows, eventually comprising thousands of members of the Navajo and other tribes. Some die, including Bright Morning’s grandmother, who they bury along the way. Food is scarce, and people resort to eating pets; Bright Morning keeps a close eye on her black dog. She reduces her own rations, offering them to Meadow Flower, and Tall Boy makes her a carrying board to hold the child. Meadow Flower becomes sick, and a medicine man temporarily heals her. She becomes sick again, however, and then dies in Bright Morning’s arms. Bright Morning again goes looking for Little Rainbow to tell her the child died. Eventually, they find each other and embrace. Bright Morning discovers Little Rainbow’s other child also died.

Chapter 19 Summary

The group eventually reaches a gray, flat area where they build a camp. There are members of the Apache tribe in the area, and they quarrel with the Navajo. The Long Knives make the captives dig ditches, plant corn and wheat, and perform other tasks. There is not much for the people to do, however, and the men are idle most of the time. They speak loudly about ways to seek retribution against the Long Knives, but nothing comes of the talk. The people fall sick, crops fail, and the men have no plans to defend themselves. Bright Morning notes that even Tall Boy seems defeated when he surrenders his autonomy and says the gods will tell them what to do.

Chapter 20 Summary

Tall Boy’s father gets a horse from one of the Long Knives by trading it for a turquoise belt. Tall Boy helps Bright Morning’s family strengthen their hut, pleasing her mother. They resume talks of marriage. Bright Morning and Tall Boy have a wedding and symbolically unite through rituals like sharing pinches of food. The couple then builds their own lean-to.

Food becomes even more scarce, and the Navajo suspect the Long Knives want them to die. Bright Morning decides to leave the area and tells Tall Boy she cannot stop thinking about their canyon home and sheep. Tall Boy assumes the sheep are dead and says he does not want to think about the canyon. Bright Morning becomes pregnant and insists her baby will not be born into captivity.

Chapters 17-20 Analysis

Sing Down the Moon emphasizes the trauma of the Long Walk of the Navajo, a forced deportation and ethnic cleansing enforced by the US government. The Navajo were beaten down and stripped of their homes and way of life. “Like sheep before the shepherd, we went without a sound,” Bright Morning notes (91). The novel shares details meant to convey the harsh realities of the Long Walk: rampant starvation, death, and pain. O’Dell personalizes these hardships through Bright Morning’s experiences, as her grandmother dies, and she fears her black dog will be one of the pets people eat to survive. She also serves as a conveyor of stories, including those corresponding to historical events, such as the Sand Creek massacre of Cheyenne and Arapaho people.

Throughout the walk, Bright Morning’s sense of empathy becomes an important element of her personality that dictates her actions, just like her sense of independence. It’s this sense of empathy that drives her to help Little Rainbow by caring for one of her children, even after Little Rainbow disappears. When the child, Meadow Flower, dies and Bright Morning finally tracks down Little Rainbow, she is not angry with her for abandoning her child. Instead, the two embrace, which emphasizes how they are united in loss and grief. Bright Morning’s empathy and independence will combine to drive her actions throughout the remaining course of the novel.

Bright Morning observes all the events and conflicts of the Long Walk. She notes how the land changes as they near their destination and stop in Bosque Redondo. She does not greet the arrival as a joy or homecoming, as with her return to her tribal lands after her enslavement. Instead, she perceives that “[t]here were ghosts and witches everywhere,” as people fall sick, crops fail, and there is poor rain (104).

The people are fearful and broken, and it is once again the women who exhibit strength, fortitude, and an unerring sense of reality through these tribulations. Bright Morning’s father and others promote acceptance of the situation, noting that people are “hungry but not starving,” and “cold but they do not freeze. They are unhappy. Yet they are alive” (95). Bright Morning’s mother, on the other hand, insists they “are walking to [their] deaths” (95). Tall Boy trusts “[t]he gods will tell us what to do,” but Bright Morning sides with her mother and wants to act (106). Bright Morning and Tall Boy marry, and, especially after becoming pregnant, her resolve to leave grows. The men boast loudly about retribution, but none of them pursue any course of action—only Bright Morning does so when she decides to leave. The moment Bright Morning decides to reject their forced captivity and return to Canyon de Chelly sets into motion the action of the novel’s final. It also symbolizes her commitment to her independence and her feminine strength, both as an individual and now as a mother.