How would you know your father if you had never met him?
According to Muna's mother, he will know his father by the chrysanthemum tattoo on his shoulder. This novel The Sign of the Chrysanthemum by Katherine Paterson was set during the Heiankyo era in Japan's medieval times. How will Muna find his father? This was before photographs and before the internet. And now Muna's mother has died so he doesn't even have her help anymore. He has set off on an impossible quest: to find his father.
Text to Self
Muna's wish to find his father is based on his desire to be complete, to know both his mother and his father. A boy wants and needs his father. I think about my own experience and how lucky I am to have both parents, and how lucky my children are to have both a mother and a father. I think we need our fathers, just as Muna does, not only to feel complete, but to know that they love us and are proud of us.
Text to Text
Last year the seventh graders and I learned about Heiankyo in Social Studies. Although I can't connect Muna's life experiences to mine, I was fascinated by the setting, Heiankyo, because of what I learned about it. I learned that it was the capital city of medieval Japan and its layout had been modeled after the Chinese city Chang'an, with a broad main avenue and smaller streets connected to it. However, there were some important differences; for example, Chang'an was a walled city whereas Heiankyo was not. The Chinese had many enemies, barbarians in the north regularly invaded China. In contrast, the Japanese were protected by the sea, so there was no need to build a wall around Heiankyo. Having this background knowledge about the setting is helping me to understand the period the characters live in.
Text to World
I've read about children who have been raised by their mothers. They grew up not knowing their fathers because their parents are divorced. This makes me think of Michael Phelps, the American swimmer, who was raised by his mother, just like Muna. His parents were divorced and his father had no contact with him after the divorce. Michael Phelps became an Olympics gold medalist. He won 8 gold medals, the most ever by a single person. I read that he gave a lot of the credit for his victory to his mother. He does not seem to miss his father's influence or that he is incomplete, like Muna. I suppose that Muna needs a father because he has very little to be proud of in his life and he needs his father to tell him that.