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.
Symbols & Motifs
The Cicada’s Song
The novel’s title, Full Cicada Moon, and the resemblance of Mimi’s name to a cicada’s song both reflect one of the novel’s major symbols. Mimi was named because her cries sounded like the sounds of cicadas in the summer. In multiple instances, Mimi reflects on the nature of a cicada. One particular cicada, the magicicada, hides under the ground for years until it is ready to burst out and cover the moon. Mimi relates to the nature of the cicada, knowing that though she is “hiding underground” in her own way, she will make her debut, and both metaphorically and literally reach the moon and attract attention for her success the way cicadas do.
The title refers to the way cicadas flock to the moon when they burst out, a full moon that arrives after waiting for the right time. The Full Cicada Moon is Mimi’s time to shine—when she finally is on the path to achieving her dreams and has become her most confident and courageous self. Though it is important that she reaches that stage, it is more important that she does so when the time is right.
Flying and Soaring
The motif of flying and soaring, both literally and metaphorically, are repeated throughout the story’s events. The development of Mimi as a character is reflected on and brought full circle in her hatsuyume, or first dream of the New Year, both in 1969 and 1970. When she sees herself soaring towards the moon, Mimi is unable to determine whether it is a good dream or a bad dream. However, by the next year, Mimi finally learns about the good omens from that first dream—she would learn to reach new heights and become her best self when navigating her identity, and she would take the first step towards achieving her aspirations of becoming an astronaut.
When flight is discussed in a poem, the alignment and enjambment of the lines visually represent flight and movement, signaling the importance of the idea of flying to the story’s thematic elements. Flying is more than just taking off in a plane or spaceship in the literal sense. It is also reflective of a person reaching for the stars—becoming their best selves and working hard to achieve their dreams and goals. Mimi learns to become confident in her racial identity, peacefully stands for what she believes in despite how it challenges gender norms, and puts so much hard work into her Science Groove project that she earns a scholarship to Camp Kennedy.
Crocuses
Mimi’s mother discovers crocuses sprouting in the snow during their first spring in Hillsborough. In the poem “Crocuses in the Snow,” Mimi reflects on how snowfall and winter make one believe that everything has turned to ice and has stopped moving. However, the crocus bulbs secretly grow underground and sprout when the time is right. The crocus flower symbolizes how things are quietly changing over time under the surface to show themselves only when the time is right. The narrator uses this symbol in the poem “Vermont Neighbors” to elaborate how the people Mimi has gotten to know in Vermont are just like crocuses. They took their time to quietly grow and change before showing their colors—“the people of Vermont / do their hardest thinking / and their richest feeling / deep inside, / so no one can see” (370). Mimi realizes that the people in Vermont are not chilly like the snow as she once believed, but like invisible flowers growing under the snow all winter.
