"He wiped off the leather with his sleeve and put the shoes back into the suitcase. Outside it was dark and in the barrack windows there were lights on and figures moving behind curtains. He wondered what his father was doing right then. Getting ready for bed, maybe. Washing his face. Or brushing his teeth. Did they even have toothpaste in Lordsburg? He didn't know. He'd have to write him and ask. He lay down on his cot and pulled up the blankets. He could hear his mother snoring softly in the darkness, and a lone coyote in the hills to the south, howling up at the moon. He wondered if you could see the same moon in Lordsburg, or London, or even China, where all the men wore little black slippers And he decided that you could, depending on the clouds.
'Same moon,' he whispered to himself, 'same moon.'" (Pg 67-68)
What really struck me about this quote, and about so much of the writing from the children's perspective, was the sense of questioning, wondering, and overall consciousness of life outside themselves despite the horrible circumstances. The boy has been shipped away from his home, has lost most of his belongings, is living in terrible accommodations, and has every reason to turn inward and become frustrated and angry, but instead, he wonders about the world outside of his newly shrunken world, specifically about his father who has been separated from them for so long. Despite some more innocent moments, the boy and girl in this novel show an incredible amount of maturity, and appear to be very wise beyond their years in their chunks of the novel. There is a weight that goes along with living through such an experience, and it is apparent that the children are changed by it. This quote is a perfect blend of the newfound maturity and the innocence of childhood. The boy contemplates what his father is doing, and wonders whether you can see the same moon all over the world, and comes up with a very educated, simple answer. You can, depending on the clouds. This is a very mature and thought-out solution to his problem. But with the boy's quiet repetition of "same moon," we see that he isn't assuring himself of this fact because of his scientific interest, but because he needs to believe it to maintain his connection to his father. The boy is still an innocent child who simply wants comfort. There was something so striking to me about his prayer-like repetition of "same moon...same moon" that I knew this was a quote of particular importance.
"He never said a word about the years he'd been away. Not one word. He never talked about politics, or his arrest, or how he had lost all his teeth. He never mentioned his loyalty hearing before the Alien Enemy Control Unit. He never told us what, exactly, he'd been accused of. Sabotage? Selling secrets to the enemy? Conspiring to overthrow the government? Was he guilty as charged? Was he innocent? (Was he even there at all?) We didn't know. We didn't want to know. We never asked. All we wanted to do, now that we were back in the world, was forget." (Pg 133)
I find this quote of particular importance when contrasted with my previous one. While being held in Utah, the boy wonders constantly about his father's every little action, and wishes to know exactly what his father's life is like, but when the family is finally all reunited, not only does the father offer none of this information, but the family never asks. Despite all of the years apart, and the deep ache they once felt to know what he was doing, they can't bring themselves to desire to know what happened to him. Captivity has changed the family. They are not the same unit they were before the father's arrest, and they are not the same unit that waited impatiently for letters from the family member far away, day after day. Despite all of the nagging questions, the family does not want to know, doesn't want to have to ask what happened. There is an unspoken understanding of the huge experience that has take place, and the family finds that it cannot connect the way it used to. More than connecting with each other, more than knowing the truth, the family just wants normalcy. It is only the most extreme of circumstances that can make you desire that over anything else.
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