Going To the Moon

Theme

The themes present in this short story are immigration, identity, and isolation.

Immigration is present in this story because the boy’s family originally came from Italy

and moved to Canada in hopes of bettering themselves. Identity is present because the

child feels ashamed of his heritage because it singles him out from the other kids; also

he is trying to fit into a school society that is very foreign to him. He is trying to change

his identity to be better suited to a North American lifestyle. Examples of isolation are

the child feeling alone at the school because the others don’t accept him. Also he feels

alone because the school robbed him of his brother’s support; he used to look up to his

brother, until he attended the same school with him and his brother shunned him.

Symbolism

Symbolism is used in this story in several places, Miss Johnson’s classroom, the Apollo

space mission and the painting that the kids made is a symbol of hope for the young

boy because when he is in the classroom and studying space, he is a part of the group

and he feels as though he belongs. Conversely when the astronauts die, it is a symbol

of his hope dying because the classroom which used to be special to him, with pictures

of the moon and astronauts, reverted to a normal classroom with the religious posters

that hung in all the other rooms. The Detroit skyline and the dining room with the

grandfather clock, are symbolising aspiring to something but not being able to achieve

it, because the dining room is kept very nice but no one is allowed to go in it, and going

to America was the original goal of his great grandfather who was the first to come to
Canada, and that goal is so close to them that they see it every day but still haven’t

reached they’re goal.

Character Development

There is a lack of character development in this story; the main character wasn’t even

named. He goes through a brief period where he seems to change and become happier

and more accepted by everyone else, however after the astronauts die the character

reverts to his old self. Also the other characters aren’t mentioned very much in the story

and don’t change throughout the story.

Literary Devices

The line ``we had to hide ourselves like animals changing the colour of their fur to fit into

a landscape`` is a simile, the meaning is that the two brothers had to attempt to change

themselves so that they could blend in with everyone else and not be singled out and

bullied because of cultural differences like an animal changing its coat to avoid

predators.

Questions for Going to the Moon

1. Miss Johnson`s significance in this story is that she is dressed differently than the

other teachers in the school and she conducts her classroom differently. The

narrator makes a connection with her because she is different and he is also very

different from the other kids. Miss Johnson represents hope for acceptance to the

narrator because she looks and acts differently from the other teachers, also she

doesn’t treat him different like everyone else does.

 2. a) The main theme of the story is unachievable goals and the pursuit of

happiness, the events in the story that reinforce it are: the astronauts dying

because the class had been following them closely and waiting to see them

achieve their goal but they die before they can. Another event is the story of the

author`s family, they are always working very hard to have a better life, and they

moved from Italy in hopes of being prosperous in North America but they are still

just as poor as they were and still have to work very hard.

b) The moon is a metaphor for happiness and acceptance because when the

children go to the moon the narrator is a part of the group and accepted by the

other children. Also it relates to unachievable goals because after the astronauts

die the children no longer go to the moon

3. The author develops the tension felt by immigrants by describing the school as

the immigrant boy sees it, bleak and unfamiliar. Also when he talks about how the boy

expects his mother to simply buy him a new coat when his old one breaks but she sews

buttons on it shows a contrast between North American lifestyle and European lifestyle,

which consequently causes the boy to be more of an outcast and ashamed his jacket

and mothers ideals.

4. The allusion that the author uses is to the wizard of oz, he wrote ``like Dorothy falling

asleep on the road to emerald city`` it is effective because Dorothy fell asleep short of

her destination much like the family intended to go to Detroit but settled down just short

of it in Windsor.
5. The narrator is an outsider because he wasn’t raised like a Canadian, he was raised

by his European parents and not accustomed to the ways of North Americans this gives

him a different, and somewhat more critical look at the North American society because

he doesn`t have a feeling of national pride, and he can see things impartially.