37 pages • 1 hour read
Reyna GrandeAcross A Hundred Mountains
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The White Rosary
When Apá first leaves to cross the border, he carries a white rosary with heart-shaped beads with him. Juana later uses the white rosary as a way to identify her father, asking coyotes if they’ve seen it. When Juana finally finds Apá’s body, he still has the white rosary. Many characters turn to religion for protection, and Apá did the same when he carried the rosary with him on his journey. However, it didn’t protect him, and he died attempting to cross the border. Nevertheless, finding the white rosary provides comfort and closure to Juana. Even though Juana has her own doubts about religion, she carries the rosary with her when she returns to the village as an adult to visit Amá, and turns to it as a source of comfort. When José Alberto comes to tell Juana that he knows the truth about their family, Juana “nervously ran her fingers over each bead of the rosary, mumbling an Our Father under her breath” (252). Even though the white rosary didn’t protect Apá, it becomes an item that connects Juana to her family by the end of the novel.
The Moon
When Juana, as Adelina, first arrives in Los Angeles, she thinks, “the moon had eight phases. Eight ways she presented herself to the world” (23). Later, a homeless man tells her:
[The moon] has two faces. She only shows one face to the world. Even though it changes shape constantly, it’s always the same face we see. But her second face, her second face remains hidden in darkness. That’s the face no one can see. People call it the dark side of the moon. Two identities’ (24).
Though the reader doesn’t know it yet, this is representative of how Adelina is really Juana, and has many secrets and memories that she doesn’t share with the world. As a child, Juana often looks up at the moon. Shortly after Apá leaves, Juana observes, “Over the course of the month, it had changed from being a sliver to what it was now, almost a complete circle, bright and full. This was how Amá had changed, too. Little by little” (78). Again, the moon represents how people can change, and the many sides of themselves that can emerge. At the end of the novel, Juana “turned to look at the ghostly moon that was now preparing to begin a new journey across the sky” (255). While Juana has been haunted by her past throughout the novel, she has now received closure and brought out the truth about her family. The moon now represents a new journey, and a new life, for Juana.
Mountains
When Apá first leaves for the United States, he tells Juana that the United States is just on the other side of the mountains, and says, “‘When you feel that you need to talk to your Apá, just look toward the mountains, and the wind will carry your words to me’” (29). The mountains represent Juana’s hope that Apá will return to her soon. However, when Doña Martina tells Juana that the United States is much farther than she thought, Juana realizes that “Apá was not on the other side of these mountains. And in order to find him, she would have to cross not just these mountains, but perhaps a hundred more” (106). Nevertheless, the mountains continue to represent Juana’s hope and determination that she will one day find Apá and bring him home.
The Plate
Amá and Apá have a box of plates in their wardrobe that they received as a wedding gift. The plates are some of the nicest things the family owns, and Amá refuses to use them. Amá says that they will one day be Juana’s inheritance when Juana gets married. Amá tells Juana, “‘It gave me and your father good luck, Juana. We’ve had a good marriage’” (42).
However, after Apá has been gone for several weeks, Juana finds Amá destroying the plates. Juana finally manages to save one plate, “the only plate left of her inheritance” (75). Finally, at the end of the novel, José Alberto gives the plate to Juana. Even though Juana had forgotten about the plate, Antonia had been holding onto it the whole time and gave it to José Alberto when she told him the truth about his family. At first, the plates represent Apá and Amá’s happy marriage. When Amá destroys them, they represent how much the family has been broken, and what little hope Amá and Juana have left. When José Alberto gives Juana the plate at the end of the novel, it represents the possibility for Juana to finally have a happy life.
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By Reyna Grande
