Chapter summaries Moon of the Turning Leaves Waubgeshig Rice

Chapter 2 Summary: Key Events, Themes, and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens with heavy rain breaking a ten-day dry spell, a welcome relief for the community gathered in the central lodge. The lodge is built in the old style, with an eastern doorway as the primary entrance and a western opening reserved for closing major ceremonies. Movement around the fire is strictly clockwise, following teachings Walter and Gloria passed down.

Twelve people assemble: Evan, Nicole, and Tyler (who tends the fire), Evan's parents Dan and Patricia, J.C. and his partner Amanda, Nick, Candace with her son Cal and his partner Amber, and Meghan, the white woman who arrived from the south years ago and is now considered family. Walter arrives with his medicine bundle, jokes affectionately with the group, greets each person individually, and offers tobacco to the fire in prayer.

Walter opens the discussion about the drought. The berries are behind schedule, gardens aren't coming up, and medicines are harder to find. Nicole reports on her medicine walk with Maiingan, Cal, and Amber three days earlier—she had hoped to harvest a root for her newborn granddaughter Waawaaskone's teething, but the bushes weren't even budding. They brought back only yarrow and cedar.

Walter acknowledges that dry summers have happened before, but raises a deeper concern: game is becoming scarcer, requiring longer and longer hunts. He argues that the Anishinaabek were meant to move, that their ancestors always picked up and left when the seasons told them to. He also raises the problem of overfishing—the lake can't sustain the net use, and the birds need the fish and manoomin (wild rice) too. He connects this to the historical overexploitation by settlers (zhaagnaashak) who took almost all the fish and cut down the trees, pushing the Anishinaabek north.

Walter then makes his declaration: they need to go back home, to their original homelands to the south where the birch trees grow by the big water. But first, they need to scout the area to know what's happening down there. Candace's voice cracks as she recalls past scouting trips that lost people—Isaiah and Kevin left four years earlier on a similar expedition and never returned. Evan remembers helping Isaiah pack, including Isaiah's joke about bringing his dead cellphone in case he found service to order a pizza.

Cal volunteers to go, suggesting Amber join him. He wants to honor his ancestors and his brother. Walter says they won't take volunteers just yet, but a team should go at the start of summer and return by fall. The trek south on foot could take a month. Walter dismisses the group, asking for silence about the plan for the next two days, and calls for another meeting in two nights.

Walter keeps Evan, Nicole, and Tyler behind. He reveals that a larger group of five or six should go, and that Evan should help lead the way. Nicole's face shows worry, but she agrees.

Key Events

  • The community gathers in the lodge as heavy rain breaks a ten-day drought

  • Walter offers tobacco and opens discussion about the drought's impact on berries, gardens, and medicines

  • Walter raises concerns about scarce game and overfishing, connecting them to ancestral practices of seasonal movement

  • Walter declares the need to return to their original homelands to the south

  • Candace recalls the loss of Isaiah and Kevin on a similar expedition four years earlier

  • Cal volunteers to go, suggesting Amber join him

  • Walter dismisses the group, asking for silence, and schedules another meeting in two nights

  • Walter privately tells Evan, Nicole, and Tyler that a larger group of five or six should go, with Evan helping to lead

Character Development

Walter emerges as the community's moral and strategic center. His humor—joking about his own funeral and teasing Tyler about his long hair—masks a deep seriousness about the community's survival. He frames the return south not as a choice but as a necessity, drawing on ancestral knowledge and historical memory. His private conversation with Evan, Nicole, and Tyler reveals his trust in the younger generation to carry this responsibility.

Evan is positioned as a reluctant leader. His chest pounds when Walter announces the return home, and he's pulled between hope and fear. His memory of helping Isaiah pack—the joke about the cellphone, the concern about quick-dry clothing—shows the weight of past loss. When Walter tells him he should help lead, Evan doesn't refuse, but the responsibility clearly sits heavy.

Cal steps up in a moment of courage. His volunteerism honors his brother Isaiah's memory and his desire to do what's right for the people. His suggestion that Amber join him shows his commitment to partnership, though Amber's choked cry reveals the fear this decision carries.

Candace embodies the community's grief. Her cracked voice and choked emotion when recalling the lost scouts show that the wounds of four years haven't healed. Her fear is a counterweight to Walter's hope.

Nicole shows quiet strength and worry. She reports honestly on the failed medicine walk, agrees with Walter's assessment, and nods in agreement when he suggests Evan should lead—even as her face betrays her concern.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Return to ancestral homeland: Walter's declaration that the land to the south is who they are frames the return as both a physical and spiritual necessity. The homelands represent identity, healing, and undoing what was done to the Anishinaabek.

Sustainability and ecological balance: Walter's concern about overfishing and the birds' need for fish and manoomin reflects a worldview where humans must maintain balance with all life. The community's survival depends on not taking too much.

Climate change and drought: The ten-day dry spell and its impact on berries, gardens, and medicines foreshadow larger environmental pressures. Walter notes that weather has been changing since before they came to this place.

Migration as traditional practice: Walter reminds the group that ancestors always moved when the seasons told them to. The current settlement of ten winters is an anomaly; movement is the old way.

Loss and grief: Isaiah and Kevin's disappearance four years earlier haunts the community. Candace's fear and Evan's memory of packing with Isaiah show how grief shapes decision-making.

Ceremony and medicine: The tobacco offering, the cedar thrown on the fire, and the sage smudging in the private conversation ground the community's decisions in spiritual practice.

The unknown south: Zhaawnong (the south) is a vast void. Meghan and Nick's stories of the city's collapse are the only glimpses, and no one has returned since. The unknown represents both danger and possibility.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter sets the central conflict of the novel in motion. Walter's declaration that the community must return to its ancestral homelands—and the need to scout the unknown south first—establishes the expedition premise that will drive the narrative. The chapter also deepens our understanding of the community's history: the migration into the bush ten years earlier, the losses along the way, and the unresolved grief of Isaiah and Kevin's disappearance. The private conversation with Evan, Nicole, and Tyler positions Evan as a leader-in-waiting, setting up his role in the journey to come. The themes of ecological balance, ancestral connection, and the weight of leadership are all introduced here with clarity and emotional resonance.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Walter argue that the community must return to their ancestral homelands, and what evidence does he offer?

Walter argues that the community has been in one place for ten winters, which goes against the Anishinaabek tradition of seasonal movement. He points to the scarcity of game—moose and deer are farther away, requiring longer hunts—and the overfishing of the lake, which can't sustain the net use. He connects this to the historical overexploitation by settlers who took almost all the fish and cut down the trees, pushing the Anishinaabek north. The return south is framed as undoing what was done to them and reclaiming their identity.

2. How does the memory of Isaiah and Kevin's disappearance shape the community's response to the scouting proposal?

Candace's cracked voice and choked emotion when recalling the lost scouts show that the wounds are still fresh. Evan's memory of helping Isaiah pack—the joke about the cellphone, the concern about clothing—humanizes the loss. The community's hesitation is understandable: they've tried this before and lost people. Yet Cal's volunteerism, framed as honoring his brother, shows that grief can also motivate courage.

3. What is the significance of Walter keeping Evan, Nicole, and Tyler behind after the meeting?

Walter's private conversation reveals that the public meeting was only part of the decision-making process. He trusts these three with the deeper plan: a larger group of five or six, with Evan helping to lead. This positions Evan as a leader-in-waiting and shows that Walter's approach to community decision-making involves both public discussion and private counsel. The sage smudging that accompanies this conversation underscores its ceremonial weight.

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