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.
Chapters 9-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 9 Summary
Ten nights later, Rosita, Bright Morning, and the white woman attend church services. Rosita tells Bright Morning the celebration is Easter, a commemoration of the death of Jesús Cristo (Jesus Christ), who she likens to a combination of the Navajo deities. Bright Morning sees Nehana, who says nothing but holds up one finger. Bright Morning interprets Nehana’s signal to mean they will meet at the church the next night.
Bright Morning prepares the next day by stashing some tortillas and a blanket in her room. She tells the white woman she has a headache, goes to her room, and sneaks out, taking her bundle and the black dog with her. Bright Morning reaches the house’s gate and finds it locked. She hears the white woman’s voice and, in a panic, throws the bundle over the wall. The blanket catches on the wall, and, at the last minute, Bright Morning uses it to climb up and over, taking the dog with her.
Bright Morning runs to the church, where Nehana and Running Bird wait for her. Inside the church, parishioners continue their Easter celebrations. Bright Morning sights the Spaniard, dressed as Christo, and he looks directly at her. As the crowd weeps, the girls sneak out and take three pinto horses as they go.
Chapter 10 Summary
The girls come upon a woodcutter at his fire. He talks to them and says he recognizes the horses. He promises to tell the men who track the girls they went in a different direction if the girls give him a horse bridle and bit. Nehana refuses, and they knock the man down as they ride off.
The trio continues, stopping to rest when they can. They attempt to evade the trackers by traveling through water and doubling back on their trail. Nevertheless, they eventually see three men on horseback in the distance following them. Nehana tells them to run for their lives, knowing they will be tracked.
Chapter 11 Summary
Bright Morning, Nehana, and Running Bird rest at night because their horses are tired. When the black dog barks, they start to ride again. Suddenly, two horsemen emerge. The girls fear their captors have found them, but the horsemen are Tall Boy and his friend Mando. The Spanish trackers soon catch up to the group and demand the girls and horses. When one of the Spaniards pulls out a gun, Tall Boy lets out a war cry and stabs the man with his lance. The other Spaniard, terrified, gallops away. As Tall Boy, Mando, Bright Morning, Nehana, and Running Bird leave, another Spaniard hiding in the bushes shoots Tall Boy. The shot injures Tall Boy’s arm, and he is unable to ride. The group constructs a makeshift sled and pull Tall Boy homeward behind a horse. When they near their village in Canyon de Chelly, Bright Morning rides ahead to ask for their medicine man.
Chapter 12 Summary
As she arrives at the village, everyone is surprised to see Bright Morning. She immediately asks for Bitter Water, the medicine man. He helps to heal Tall Boy by cleaning his wound and using spiritual objects. Bright Morning and others help Tall Boy recuperate by cooking his favorite foods. They realize Tall Boy’s arm is incapacitated by the injury, ending his days as a warrior. Bright Morning’s mother no longer believes he will make a suitable husband for her daughter, and other boys begin to visit their home. Bright Morning remains resolved in her choice of Tall Boy despite what has happened. Her mother tells her to plant squash seeds and says she wants Bright Morning to have her womanhood ceremony.
Chapters 9-12 Analysis
Sing Down the Moon centers on the world of Bright Morning’s Navajo culture, but neighboring communities, including the Long Knives, Spaniards, and white settlers of the city, impact Bright Morning’s life and civilization. When Bright Morning witnesses Easter celebrations in the city, she experiences a foreign religious aspect of the other communities’ shared culture. The novel uses the device of estrangement, or presenting an aspect of the white settlers’ culture in an unfamiliar way, to emphasize how Bright Morning’s culture is different. When Rosita explains the Easter celebration, she uses terms with which Bright Morning is familiar, comparing the figure of Christ to a composite of various Navajo gods and goddesses. Even as it draws a comparison, the explanation emphasizes the differences between the cultures. Bright Morning is wary of the event despite Rosita’s explanation; she notes that the sounds of the ritualistic mourners, or penitents, are “a loud cry, like the cry of a wounded animal,” as “women began to weep” along with the cracking of whips (48).
The cleverness of Bright Morning and her friends is on full display as they plan and execute their escape. Again and again the girls narrowly escape, but their calculated mistrust serves to protect them. This is particularly evident when they come upon the woodcutter in the wilderness: They are wise enough to not take his bribe and instead choose to rely on their own ingenuity as they make their escape. This choice serves as another indication of Bright Morning’s independence, intuition, and wisdom.
However, the success of the girls’ escape also depends on the miraculous appearance of Tall Boy and Mando in the wilderness. Tall Boy’s reemergence demonstrates the bond between himself and Bright Morning, as do his actions to fend off the Spaniards. When the Spaniard injures Tall Boy, it sets in motion the warrior’s fall from a position of honor and his struggle to maintain his dignity. For the remainder of the novel, this struggle complicates Tall Boy’s relationship with Bright Morning.
As Bright Morning returns to her village, the joy with which her tribe greets her recalls the opening of the novel: “[a] dawn wind blew, smelling of earth and wood smoke and corn ripe in the fields. It was a Navaho wind. Joyously I breathed it in” (62). This comment prefigures the very end of the novel, when Bright Morning again returns to her home and breathes in the scent of a “Navaho rain.”
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