81 pages • 2 hours read
Grace LinWhere The Mountain Meets The Moon
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2009A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 27-31Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 27 Summary
Minli and Dragon take off in the direction the compass indicates, trudging through grey, rocky terrain. In the distance, they spy a bright yellow spot of landscape that looks like gold. Minli doesn’t have the proper clothing for the cold weather, and Dragon wants to get her warmer clothes, but they stop before reaching the village to spend the night in a cave. Minli builds a fire, and as Dragon sleeps, she stays awake thinking about Ma and Ba and the ways they’ve sacrificed for and protected her. She thinks about the buffalo boy, who doesn’t have these same protections but still seems happy, nonetheless. She feels guilty and ashamed and is unable to sleep. Suddenly, she hears a noise outside the cave. When she steps outside, she sees the frightening Green Tiger.
Chapter 28 Summary
Ma and Ba eat dinner in their hut as the wind blows hard outside: “The wind continued to slap the house and trees, the whole earth seemed to shudder at the screeching wind. Only the moon above was still” (161). The goldfish senses a peculiar anxiety in the weather: “‘There is fear in the wind,’ the fish said, ‘great worry,’” (160). Ma feels scared thinking about Minli experiencing the same wind somewhere far from home, and she and Ba offer unspoken prayers to the moon to protect their daughter.
Chapter 29 Summary
Minli screams as the Green Tiger launches to attack her, but before the Green Tiger pounces, Dragon intervenes. The tiger runs away, but not before staring Minli down with a menacing look. Minli then notices that the tiger clawed Dragon before retreating, and now Dragon is bleeding. Dragon assures Minli that dragons heal quickly, but throughout the night, his health sharply declines. By morning, he’s breathing but unconscious. Desperate to find help, Minli sets out alone toward the yellow village in the distance.
Chapter 30 Summary
Minli is navigating the boulders and rocks along the way to the yellow village when she sees the Green Tiger waiting in a clearing. Then she sees a little girl in red, A-Fu, approach the tiger. Just when Minli is about to intervene, a little boy in red—the girl’s brother, Da-Fu—tells her to be quiet. A-Fu addresses the tiger, pretending to bow to him: “Powerful Spirit of the magistrate my worthless ancestors angered!” (168). A-Fu then tells the tiger a tall tale.
Story Summary: “The Story the Girl Told the Green Tiger”
A-Fu and Da-Fu agreed to offer themselves as a sacrifice to the Green Tiger so he would let their village live in peace. On their journey to find the Green Tiger, though, they met a different, darker beast who mocked the Green Tiger and took Da-Fu. This is a lie, because Da-Fu sits next to Minli while his sister carries out their secret plan. A-Fu tells the Green Tiger that the other beast insulted the Green Tiger, and she offers to lead the Green Tiger to the beast so he may face him. The furious Green Tiger takes this bait and agrees to follow A-Fu.
Chapter 31 Summary
Minli and Da-Fu surreptitiously follow A-Fu as she leads the Green Tiger to an abandoned well. She tells the Green Tiger that the dark beast is the Green Tiger’s estranged son, that he awaits him at the bottom of the well, and that he thinks the Green Tiger is a coward. This enrages the Green Tiger, provoking him to roar at what he perceives is his son—but what is actually his own reflection—in the bottom of the well. The Green Tiger mistakes the echo of his own roar for the mocking roar of his son. It’s so powerful, it knocks the children over: “He gave a deafening roar that bellowed, filling the sky with thunder” (174). Finally, the Green Tiger dives into the well, believing he’s launching into battle but instead falling to his death.
Chapters 27-31 Analysis
For Minli, Chapters 27-31 contain the next step in Vogel’s model of the hero’s journey: the “Approach to the Inmost Cave.” This is usually either a physical or metaphorical cave, where the hero faces an external or internal conflict before preparing to make the final push and finish the journey. For Minli, the cave is both physical and metaphorical. She and Dragon see a glimmering city on the horizon, but before they can get there, they have to spend a night in an actual cave. Dragon notices Minli “shivering” (158), which indicates a weakened state for the usually sturdy hero. She’s also unable to sleep, which is abnormal. It’s in this sleepless state that Minli enters her metaphorical cave. When she reflects on the buffalo boy’s happiness amidst his difficult circumstances, it makes her feel guilt for having not appreciated her parents. Rather than feel grateful and inspired by her parents’ love, in this moment, she feels shame. This is the darkest Minli has felt or will feel in the narrative, and she must emerge from the cave if she wants to complete her mission.
When Minli does emerge from the cave, she enters the “Supreme Ordeal” phase of her hero’s journey. The Green Tiger, who’s the embodiment of the Magistrate Tiger Minli's heard so much about, represents both a physical and philosophical foe. Many heroes face the Supreme Ordeal alone, but Minli receives help from Dragon, Da-Fu, and A-Fu. Dragon succeeds in saving Minli’s life, but it comes at a cost: he grows quickly ill from the Green Tiger’s poison, and Minli has to set out on her own to save him.
A-Fu and Da-Fu destroy the Green Tiger by using his wrath against him, tricking him into a fight with himself. This is a metaphor for how selfishness and anger are destructive forces—Magistrate Tiger’s anger has wreaked havoc on entire villages, destroyed his relationship with his son, and brought about his own death. The metaphor underlines a thematic principle: if selfishness destroys, sacrifice saves. His demise also harkens back to the greedy monkeys who refused to let go of the rice, sealing their fates. Again, a personal flaw has been the villain’s undoing.
Related Titles
By Grace Lin
