comment on theme

The primary theme of When the Moon Was Ours is different characters attempting to discover their true sexual and gender identities. This is not just true of the protagonists of the novel, Miel and Sam, but it is also true of one of the antagonists, Peyton Barber, who is a closeted homosexual for the majority of the novel. Because both the “good” and “bad” characters face their own struggles with sexual identity, this theme is shown to be a universal part of the human condition, and not simply something that is dealt with by exclusively “good” or exclusively “bad” people. The characters’ varying moments of uncertainty about their own sexuality or gender identity creates one-half of the main conflicts in the novel, with the other half of the conflict being supplied by the town’s malicious and unforgiving gossiping around all sorts of subjects about its residents, including these issues of sex and gender.