An Unforgettable Moment

There was one place in this novel that I have found to be absolutely unforgettable and that is where I will focus my attention for this journal. For starters, in my personal life, things have been a little bit rocky lately especially in my family. I have always been fortunate enough to have had my parents demonstrate a healthy and happy relationship but lately, they have had some issues and it has made my family dynamic anything but comfortable and normal. I have used this magical novel as an escape from that reality this week and in turn, through reading it, I have been reminded of the meaning of family and unconditional love. 

Chapter 43 and the beginning of chapter 44 absolutely had my full attention and even moved me to tears. On page 345 when Luna and her mother meet for the first time and Antain recognizes the woman from the tower, and on page 346 when Luna is recognized as “The baby” by her mother to me showed how strong the sense of family is. It symbolized to me that even when things are screwed up, they will eventually come back around. Just after this happens in the book, Luna is reunited with Xan and is absorbed by her pain. She puts her entire attention towards her grandmother and is only worried about her as all of her childhood memories came flooding back. This moment made me freeze. It is a demonstration of the unconditional love that families can share, regardless of the circumstances. And then in Chapter 44, when Luna “threw herself to her knees” to hold her grandmother and again when Luna says “I don’t want to talk about it, Grandmama, unless it can make you well” were more representations of unconditional love and being able to get through anything with family (349, 350). 

I felt that I needed to write about these moments because of my personal situation this week. I needed to share the connections I had to this book and how the story taught me a lot about my situation. This kind of answers the question by Richard Peck, “What’s the one thing in this story that’s happened to you?” Does anyone else have a scenario from the story that has happened to them or that relates to their own life?