61 pages • 2 hours read
Marilyn C. HiltonFull Cicada Moon
Fiction | Novel | Middle GradeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Navigating Ethnic and Racial Identity
Mimi Yoshiko Oliver, the novel’s protagonist, is the daughter of a Japanese mother and African American father living in 1969 New England. Following World War II and the Civil Rights Movement, Mimi experiences discrimination and racism due to societal sentiments toward both the ethnicities to which she belongs. At the same time, she struggles to come to terms with what— or who—she is. One of the novel’s main themes is the way Mimi navigates her complex racial identity in the unique historical context in which she lives. Having lived amongst many other people of color when in Berkeley California, she is forced to come to terms with her “otherness” in Hillsborough, a neighborhood populated mostly by White people. When she first moves to Vermont, Mimi is taken aback by the way people treat her. The people she meets have no interest in anything about her except her ethnic/racial identity. When faced with being the “other” without anyone else to relate to, Mimi learns to understand who she is as a person in contrast with simply defining herself by her ethnicity. Over time, she gains confidence in her identity such that she is no longer embarrassed of eating the Japanese food her mom packs for her, and confidently teaches her kitchen in home economics class how her father makes cornbread. By the end of the novel, Mimi knows who she is and that her identity is not defined by the color of her skin, but by her relationships with others, her character, her choices, and her dreams.
Other characters also navigate their racial identities and how they react to society’s attitudes towards them. Uncle Kiyoshi warns Auntie Sachi against talking about her experiences in the concentration camps, just as Mimi’s mother believes they should leave such negative experiences in the past. Mimi’s mother is initially hesitant to interact with others likely because she is nervous about how people will treat her. However, with support from her husband and daughter she slowly begins interacting and sharing parts of herself with others, including Mimi’s home economics class and the wives of the college. Mimi’s father chooses to be peaceful and understanding of other people’s ways, always smiling and greeting others politely regardless of how they treat him. A highly educated man and a college professor, he teaches the importance of slow and steady change and peaceful protest to Mimi, rather than using a brute-force approach.
Challenging Gender Norms
Another major theme of the text is the struggle of Mimi and other characters against gender norms. Mimi proudly finds interest and has talent in many areas not expected of girls in 1969 New England. Mimi enjoys working with tools and wood and wants to take wood shop class, which no teacher understands or supports. Mr. Dell also dismisses her desire to learn to use tools. Girls take home economics to learn to cook and sew, a societal belief that annoys Mimi because society believes girls have no reason to ever use a hammer or saw, and because Mimi already knows how to both cook and sew.
Mimi’s dream is to become an astronaut, which almost every classmate and teacher laughs at and thinks impossible as well. It is unthinkable that any girl should want to become anything other than a housewife, teacher, secretary, or nurse. Even when Mimi scores high on a spatial reasoning test, her guidance counselor refuses to believe her score is due to anything other than a mistake and forces her to take it again—usually boys only score high on it. Society’s expectations of women’s careers are also evident in Mimi’s science teacher Mrs. Stanton, who once dreamed of becoming a scientist but became a teacher instead because her parents believed she would be a disgrace and would not be able to find a husband. She challenges these norms by supporting Mimi’s dreams and nominating her for a scholarship for a space camp, something no other teacher would have likely done.
Gender norms also effect the male characters in Full Cicada Moon. Timothy wants to learn to cook and bake but is clearly embarrassed of this desire because of what society expects of him. Timothy must therefore hide the fact that Mimi’s dad teaches him to cook. When Mimi requests to take shop and suggests that boys can take home economics, both her guidance counselor and the principal think her suggestion is silly. Societal gender norms are so deeply embedded that the school’s administration cannot fathom girls wanting to use tools and boys wanting to cook and sew.
Mimi, and eventually her classmates, peacefully protest against these gender expectations by sitting in the classrooms they aren’t expected to be in. Though the boys and girls aren’t granted permission to take home economics and shop, respectively, the principal finally agrees to offer clubs for girls and boys to learn more about these subjects. Mimi wishes they could take the classes they want, but she also understands that the clubs are a major first step in overcoming gender norms.
Eventual Versus Immediate Change
Throughout the novel, Mimi reflects on the metaphor of “raindrops on granite” (31). Her father teaches her to “be kind, be respectful, and persist” (31)—that slow and steady efforts for change are more effective than using a hammer. In multiple instances, Mimi reminds herself of an important mantra, “drip, drip, drip” (31), when pushing for change or facing situations that upset her. She is aware that for change to happen, she must be respectful and persist. This metaphor deeply resonates with the theme of eventual versus immediate change, where situations slowly change over the course of the plot. Both Mimi’s experiences with racial and gender norms and society’s attitudes towards Mimi as a female who is both Japanese and African American start to change slowly, softly, and consistently like “raindrops,” just as her father taught her.
One major eventual change is the acknowledgement of Mimi as a person, a “who” rather than the “what” others perceived her as at the start of the novel. While upon her arrival in Hillsborough people are solely concerned with Mimi’s racial identity, they slowly get to know who she is through her peaceful protest and interactions with others. By the story’s conclusion, Mimi’s classmates respect her culture and identity, and admire her for who she is. Stacey’s mom finally accepts Mimi as Stacey’s friend after meeting Mimi’s mother. Even Mr. Dell moves past his guilt about the war, acknowledges being a rude neighbor, and extends his apologies and desire to be better after his positive experiences with Mimi’s family over the course of the novel. Mimi’s initial embarrassment becomes a newfound courage when she finally learns to take the first step no matter how difficult. The school’s gender norms slowly head towards change when Mimi insists on learning to use tools and peacefully protests to be able to take shop
