Where The Mountain Meets The Moon

Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Mapping Minli’s Journey”

In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of the significance of stories and the symbolism of the red thread by using red thread to model how the characters are connected by their stories.

Both red threads and stories play an important role in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. In this activity, you will create a diagram showing how stories travel between characters by connecting the characters with red threads that represent each story.

Your teacher will assign you to one of the following three topics:

• Demonstrate how Minli is connected to others through stories.
• Demonstrate how Ba is connected to others through stories.
• Demonstrate how Dragon is connected to others through stories.

Gather Information

Go back to the book and find each story that someone tells to the character you have been assigned. Make a list of these stories and the characters that are involved in each one. Think about both the character telling the story and the characters that are mentioned in the story.

Create Your Diagram

• Place the main character you were assigned in the center of your diagram.
• Arrange the other characters around the page in any way that makes sense to you.
• Draw red lines from your main character to each character that told them a story. Label each line with the name of the story it represents.
• Finally, draw red lines from each storyteller to the characters they include in their stories. Label each line with the name of the story it represents.

Share and Reflect

Once you have finished, share your diagram with two of your peers who covered the two main characters you yourself did not cover. Together, answer the following questions:

1. If you were to combine your three diagrams, which character would it make sense to put in the middle of the new diagram? Why?

2. What would your new diagram demonstrate that your individual diagrams do not show as clearly?

3. How do the stories that travel along the red lines in your diagrams influence the characters and events in this novel?

4. After reading the book and completing this activity, how would you summarize what the red threads in the story symbolize?

5. After reading the book and completing this activity, what do you think the novel conveys about the importance of storytelling?

Teaching Suggestion: This activity can be done quickly and simply: Students might draw circles to represent the characters and then connect them with red lines—this can be done either on paper or on a computer. Alternatively, the activity can be more elaborate, with illustrations of each character and actual red thread used to connect them. The sharing and reflection part of the activity will be most effective if you can divide the class as evenly as possible among the three topics. If you suspect that your students are not quite ready to analyze a symbol and the thematic importance of storytelling, even after completing the activity, you might wish to save questions 4 and 5 for whole-class discussion.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with visual impairments may not be able to complete this activity as written. An alternative assignment might be to complete the “Gather Information” step and then use this information to write a brief essay about how their character is connected to others by stories. Then, they can join a group for the “Share and Reflect” portion of the activity and contribute to the group’s answers to questions 3-5. Students who struggle with attention or organization may find it difficult to keep track of what they are doing as they connect characters on their diagrams and the number of connections grows, making the diagram more complex. These students may experience more success if they work with a partner on this activity.

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, or oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the bulleted outlines below. Cite details from the text over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Many people and animals in the story have complex identities. Choose one such animal or person to use as the basis for your response.

• In what way is this person or animal something other than what they first appear to be? (topic sentence)
• Give at least three details of language, plot, or characterization that support your interpretation of this character’s complex identity.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this character’s complex identity contributes to the book’s thematic concern with The Power of Faith.

2. Minli learns important lessons about life from several characters whom she meets on her journey. Choose one such character to use as the basis for your response.

• What lesson does Minli learn from this character? (topic sentence)
• Give at least three details of language, plot, or characterization that support your interpretation of the lesson.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this lesson contributes to the book’s thematic concern with The Value of Gratitude, The Virtue of Sacrifice, or The Power of Faith.

3. When Minli spends the night in the cave, she struggles with some dark feelings.

• What does the cave symbolize? (topic sentence)
• Give at least three details of language, plot, or characterization that support your interpretation of the cave’s meaning.
• In your concluding sentence or sentences, show how this lesson contributes to the book’s thematic concern with The Value of Gratitude or The Power of Faith.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Many folktales and personal stories are shared in this novel, but these stories are not integrated into the flow of the narrative. Each time, the main story stops completely while a character shares a story. Do you think these interruptions break up the flow of the novel too much? What if Lin instead tried to convey the same information in smaller pieces spread throughout the action of the main story so that the interruptions were not as long? Would that make the experience of reading the book better or worse? Are the folktales and personal stories even necessary? Do they feel like digressions, or is it clear how they comment on the main story and propel the plot forward?

Write an essay in which you analyze the pros and cons of Lin’s structural choice to break up the narrative with these folktales and personal stories. Comment on whether these mini-stories effectively support the book’s thematic concerns with The Value of Gratitude, The Virtue of Sacrifice, and The Power of Faith. Be sure to support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout the novel, citing any quoted material.

2. In literature, there is something called the “pathetic fallacy.” This refers to the convention of portraying nature and the weather as if, rather than being neutral forces that respond only to natural law, nature and the weather actually respond to the feelings and experiences of human beings. This is a form of personification because it implies that nature and the weather can think and feel and make choices. Where do you see this kind of personification in the novel? Do nature and the weather seem to be both causing and reacting to events in Minli’s life, or are they mostly doing one or the other of these things?

Write an essay analyzing the use of the pathetic fallacy in Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. Show how this form of personification supports the book’s larger meaning. Be sure to support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout the novel, citing any quoted material.

3. An interesting aspect of the novel’s diction is the use of language ordinarily associated with food to describe images that are not actually about food. Why do you think Lin chose to do this? What associations might readers have with food, and how might these associations affect the reader’s experience of these images?

Write an essay in which you analyze the use of diction associated with food in the novel’s non-food imagery. Make a clear claim about the purpose of this technique and show how it supports the novel’s larger meaning. Offer both quoted and paraphrased evidence from throughout the novel to support this claim. Be sure to cite all quoted material.

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exam, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. Which is the most likely reason that Minli accepts unusual things like a talking goldfish and the king’s rapidly growing peach tree?

A) Magical things happen in the traditional stories Ba tells her.

B) She needs an escape from her life of hard work and struggle.

C) She does not have much education or experience of the world.

D) The story takes place a long time ago, when most people believed in magic.

2. What motif do the story of Jade Dragon’s children, Minli’s purchase of the goldfish, and Ba’s decision about how to feed the goldfish all have in common?

A) Deception

B) Hard work

C) Sacrifice

D) Ingratitude

3. Which is the most accurate description of Minli’s character?

A) Shy, empathetic, humble

B) Dutiful, curious, resourceful

C) Impulsive, outgoing, bold

D) Clever, confident, stubborn

4. Which statement is most clearly supported by this novel?

A) A clever and determined person can sometimes change their fate.

B) Destiny is unchangeable, no matter what strategies a person tries.

C) Powerful people use the idea of destiny to manipulate others.

D) The idea of fate is an excuse to avoid responsibility for our own choices.

5. Which character offers Minli the most help during her journey?

A) A-Gong

B) The weaver girl

C) The goldfish

D) Dragon

6. What is foreshadowed by Minli’s strategy for defeating the peach grove monkeys?

A) A-Gong curing Dragon of the poison from Green Tiger’s bite

B) The twins using Green Tiger’s own anger against him

C) Dragon and Minli both discovering a possible “borrowed thread”

D) The king’s appearance at the Market of Green Abundance

7. Which statement is most clearly supported by this novel?

A) Wealth is a reward for personal virtue.

B) People grow wealthy by oppressing others.

C) Wealth does not guarantee happiness.

D) Wealth is as easy to lose as it is to gain.

8. What is foreshadowed by “The Story of the Dragon Gate” that the goldfish tells Minli and Dragon?

A) Painter Chen’s creation of the dragon painting

B) The buffalo boy’s dislike for the people of the Inner City

C) Dragon’s meeting with his eventual mate

D) A-Fu and Da-Fu defeating the Green Tiger

9. Which is the main way that Ma changes during the course of the story?

A) She learns to have some faith in the world around her.

B) She starts to work harder to improve her future.

C) She becomes more interested in the world beyond her village.

D) She begins to appreciate the value of friendship.

10. Which character or characters have motivations most similar to Minli’s?

A) Dragon

B) Amah and A-Gong

C) Old Man of the Moon

D) Da-Fu and A-Fu

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What do the different attitudes of Ma and Ba demonstrate about life in difficult circumstances?

2. How does Where the Mountain Meets the Moon convey the importance of storytelling?