Be Careful of Your Sorrow

"Why would we speak of impending loss? Why would we introduce her to that kind of sorrow? It's dangerous Glerk, remember?" 

Glerk wrinkled his brow. "Why do we think that?"

Xan shook her head. "I have no idea." And she didn't. She knew, once, but the memory had vanished. It was easier to forget." (pg. 110,111)

...

 As I read the first half of The Girl Who Drank the Moon, I was overcome with the repetition of this idea of sorrow. Throughout the unraveling of Luna's story, sorrow is portrayed with great intensity, emerging as what seems to be the most prevalent danger in their realm. Surpassing the dangers of the Witch, the Woods, and the Volcano, sorrow is constantly being mentioned as a thing to be feared. I am deeply intrigued by the author's agenda as it pertains to sorrow and I am eager to see how it manifests itself later in the book. 

So far, we understand that Protectorate is a city of sorrow. Xan describes Protectorate as "...a dismal place- bad air, bad water, sorrow settling over the roofs of its houses like a cloud." (pg. 20).  Which, as we later learn, is by design. Protectorate was always meant to be a place filled with sorrow, a place filled with people so sad that they could not think for themselves. "The Witch, that is, the belief in her- made for a frightened people, a subdued people, a compliant people, who lived their lives in a saddened haze, the clouds of their grief numbing their senses and dampening their minds." (pg. 12). The sorrow of Protectorate is intentional and it is benefiting something...someone, larger than themselves. 

The overwhelming recurring presence of sorrow in this story is impossible to dismiss. In fact, as we move forward in the book, we see the Witch, Xan, struggle to dismiss her own feelings of sorrow and her distaste for it grows. "Sorrow is dangerous" she snaps, on page 109. "Be careful of your sorrow," Xan is warned in her youth, "Your sorrow is dangerous. Don't forget that she is still about." And so Xan swallowed her sorrow. And her memories too..." (pg. 72)

Who is she? Does our antagonist (who largely still remains a mystery) have something do with sorrow?

Although Xan cannot remember why she fears sorrow, we see a glimpse of its potential danger in the following chapters. As Luna's mother resides in what we can assume is Protectorate's version of prison, we learn something very valuable about sorrow. "For years, the madwoman's sorrows had fed the Head Sister. For years she felt the predatory pounce. (Sorrow Eater, the madwoman discovered herself knowing)... For years she lay silently in her cell while the Head Sister gorged herself on sorrow. And then one day, there was no sorrow to be had. The madwoman learned to lock it away, seal it off with something else. Hope." (pg. 144). 

"Hope and light and motion, her soul whispered. Hope and formation and fusion. Hope and heat and accretion. The miracle of gravity. The miracle of transformation. Each precious thing is destroyed and each precious thing is saved. Hope, hope, hope." (pg. 131)

We have yet to discover the hidden meaning (or identity) of sorrow and why it is so dangerous, but we do know that hope can overcome it. I think we will find that there is a much deeper storyline here than we may have anticipated. I presume that we will have the fortune of witnessing a grand transformation in the minds of the people of Protectorate. Protectorate in itself means "a state that is controlled and protected by another". Right now Protectorate is controlled by sorrow, but as we continue to read, I think we will find that a transfer of power is coming, and that power is hope. 

This is a unique twist on classic literary undertones. Barnhill's approach to see hope triumph over sorrow rather than good vs. evil, is a fresh perspective that has inspired a great deal of introspection in me. It has certainly made me curious about the role of sorrow in my own life; how it has been disguised as a person or an experience in my past, and how I eventually found salvation and identity in hope. Although sorrow has had many identities in my own life, I am eager to discover how sorrow reveals itself in, The Girl Who Drank the Moon.