The False Moon by Shirley Golden

The False Moon

It is in many ways tough being a young man, in a scary, new and big world. And when you don’t have a safe spot in your own home, is it extra difficult. These problems are what our main character in the text ‘’The false moon’’ ^[a]faces. It’s a story written by Shirley Golden in 2011.

The main character in ,,The false moon’’ is also the narrator. He is called Matt by his teacher. Matt seems like a normal ‘’Teenage boy’’^[b] We don’t ever see how old he is directly in the text, but based on the facts that he lives at his mother’s home, and it is his ‘’teenage-rebellious’’ ^[c]period we hear about, must the conclusion ^[d]be that he is a teenager. He is shown as a tough,^[e] and cold person, who doesn’t even trust his own mother;^[f] for example ¨ Is it bullshit? Probably ¨ (P. 4, L. 138)

But the reason behind^[g] is just that he has been let down one too many times to trust anymore. But however, even though he’s cold, is he ^[h]still a caring boy. He shows that when his mother came home sick, and he checked to see if there was any puke in her mouth, and afterwards tucked her into bed. ^[i]As a person he is very loving and caring, but has just been let down too many times,^[j] to show it completely.

Our main character’s and his mother’s ^[k]relationship is very turbulent. It seems like there is absolutely no trust between them ¨Its probably bullshit, with her you can never tell.¨ (page 1, line 12) Its clear to see,^[l] that the main character (Matt) doesn’t trust her at all. The reason behind the fact he doesn’t trust her, could be because it is hinted that she (mother) ^[m]could be an alcoholic, she comes home very late and there is an episode where he checks if there is any ‘’sick’’ (puke) in her mouth.  Many years of disappointments, and trust breaks ^[n]from his mother,^[o] has^[p] led to a bad relationship.

You could also argue that he has too much responsibility for his mother, which is very destructive. The situation I^[q] referred to before, is it clear to see he has too much responsibility…^[r] Even tough^[s] it must have been very hard to see his mother like that, he stays calm which indicates he has tried it before.

Nevertheless, the narrator still shows a little bit of affection for her, and the other way around.

He tells the reader these stories about what his mother has said, for example when he tells about what his mother said about insects: ¨Once, not so long ago, she told me insects were attracted to the light because they navigate using the moon. The street lamps were their ,,false moon,,  she said. Its^[t] probably bullshit, with her you can never tell¨ (P. 1, Lines 9-11) ^[u]Its kind of like he daydreams about her being normal, and them two ^[v]having a normal relationship, and then he reminds himself of the fact that she cannot be trusted, by saying it’s probably bullshit.

And the mother wants to love her son, but has too many problems to do so. She asks him questions like ¨What have you been doin’ at school?¨(P.2, L. 64) ^[w]And she also tells him that she is going to change. It shows us that she does care for her son, which proves that there’s a little bit of love left, in their relationship.

The quote mentioned before about the streetlights and insects (P. 1, Lines 9-11) is also interesting, because the false moon mentioned is a symbol for the mother. It’s basically a symbol for their relationship. She is the narrators^[x] false moon, because she leads him a wrong direction, and he is the one who is being misled.