58 pages • 1 hour read
Kristan HigginsPack Up the Moon
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 31-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 31 Summary: “Joshua: Month Twelve: February”
Josh closes on the house, and Radley and Sarah help him move his belongings. During the move, Josh invites Radley to live in the house with him.
Two weeks later, Josh drinks on his and Lauren’s anniversary—February 14—a gloomy New England day. He watches their wedding video and then recalls their anniversary last year with rose petals strewn from the hallway to the bedroom, where he and Lauren made love for the last time. A surprise anniversary letter from Lauren reads, “I will love you forever” (383), and Josh misses his wife.
On February 22, Josh holds a Korean jesa ceremony, which honors the dead. He prepares Korean food and non-Korean favorites of Lauren’s and follows Ben’s instructions for how to proceed; he calls upon Lauren and offers the feast to her in the presence of his and Lauren’s families and Sarah. Everyone tells Josh they love him, and Sarah tells Josh that Lauren would be proud of him. Josh reflects on how he now considers everyone “his” rather than simply Lauren’s, as he thought of the group a year ago. Josh notices a movement in the corner of the room and momentarily sees Lauren in her favorite dress she often wore on the Cape. Lauren smiles, and Josh “[doesn’t] look away. He [doesn’t] even breathe, hoping the moment [will] last forever” (388).
Chapter 32 Summary: “Joshua: Month Thirteen: March”
Josh doesn’t read the 12th letter in March and instead takes the job with Chiron Medical Enterprises on the condition that he stay in Rhode Island.
Chapter 33 Summary: “Lauren: Fifty-Seven Months Left”
After graduating from RISD—two years and one month after her father’s death—Lauren makes a list of things to accomplish in her life. She recalls her father fondly, admiring him for being just about “perfect” (394), and wants to live a life that makes both him and she herself proud. His death inspired her to change majors and commit to accomplishing her goals.
Lauren comes home from the Hope Center’s reopening after a remodel that she designed pro bono and looks at her list, which she made three years ago. She types her goals in a letter to her father about getting her dream job and a new apartment, making a difference, and meeting her future husband. In her letter, dated February 6, she writes about wearing her Armani dress to the reopening party and knowing she helped. She also mentions Josh attending the party. She recalls the first time she met Josh at a party in college and when he told her that she was “shallow and not that interesting” (403), to which she replied that he was condescending. This time, he remembered her, and she asked him on a date. Her letter concludes that she met the man she’ll marry.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Joshua: Month Fourteen: April”
Josh doesn’t move into the new house because the apartment is still “comforting” (408). He offers the administrative job with Chiron Medical Enterprises to Cookie, who declines and says she will not leave her home in Long Island. Cammie recommends someone for the position. Meanwhile, Josh settles into his new life, which he realizes shouldn’t be a solitary one. He is a regular at the Eddy, meets Jen regularly for lunch, and leads a robotics team at the Hope Center. He receives his purple belt in karate, too.
In mid-April, Josh reads the final letter over a glass of wine. Lauren writes that imagining his life in the first year is “heartbreaking” (411). She apologizes for leaving him and shares her final request: “[F]ind someone to love…don’t let me be your life’s tragedy” (412). She reminds Josh that time keeps going, and she knows he has healed by now. She proposes Sarah as Josh’s possible next wife, guessing that they have become closer; this way, they could avoid the getting-to-know-you stage. Lauren writes that she is sobbing and doesn’t know how to end the letter; she writes, “I’ll see you again someday, my darling, wonderful husband” (413). Josh thinks about Lauren, unable to move forward before going back to that day—her last.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Lauren: No Time Left: February 16”
Lauren has a painful cough and pneumonia. Once admitted at the hospital, Lauren makes the “L” sign on her forehead; Josh responds, “I love you too, loser” (417). Lauren drifts in and out of sleep as her family and Sarah arrive. Sleep begins to feel like “floating” (417), and Lauren knows she will die. She dreams of Hawaii, Sebastian and Octavia as babies and then teens, and Sarah’s wedding. She wonders if her dad is here and sleeps some more.
Dr. Bennett tells Lauren the ventilator and antibiotics won’t save her; Lauren’s organs are shutting down. She cries, and Dr. Bennett extubates Lauren, per her request. Her family and Sarah each depart after saying their farewells and “I love you”s, leaving Josh and Lauren alone. They tell each other they love each other with all of their organs, and Josh sobs when Lauren says she is lucky. She breathes her last breath and says, “[T]hank you” (426).
Lauren then sees herself and Josh in the hospital room and recalls happy times in her life. She’s proud of her body for fighting. She sees light brighten before she herself becomes light. Though her old self is gone, “her true self [will] never leave him” (427).
Chapter 36 Summary: “Joshua: Month Seventeen: July”
The final letter illuminates the scope of Lauren’s task for Josh, and he feels grateful for her help. He reflects on flying to Singapore to get established in his new position and moving into his new house. Josh asks Sarah out on a date, during which they talk about gardening, Singapore, and TV. A “chirpy” server takes their orders, and Sarah describes her choices in detail, which Josh notices. Then, Josh watches as Sarah yells at the waitress for interrupting them. The waitress cries and apologizes for being emotional because her dog died two days ago. Josh recognizes the server as Duffy’s owner as Sarah yells at the server about her comment.
Sarah and Josh kiss after dinner, which yields “no sparks” (440). They call their date a “failed experiment,” and Sarah departs with friends they’ve encountered on their walk. Josh returns to the restaurant and finds the server, whom he asks on a date. She agrees and introduces herself, causing Josh to freeze: “Rose Connelly” (442). Josh knows this is the Rose that the psychic referred to during their meeting.
Epilogue Summary: “Joshua: Fifty-Four Years Left”
Josh’s extended family and friends and Rose join him at the Hope Center, where he plants Lauren’s tree and tosses in his wedding ring. He feels Lauren’s presence in the breeze, sees the sun shine brighter, and lets her love envelop him.
Chapter 31-Epilogue Analysis
The final chapters of the novel highlight the device of pathetic fallacy, as the setting often fosters a mood consistent with the emotions of the characters. The gray, sleeting February weather perfectly suits Josh’s misery as he opens his anniversary letter from Lauren. March, when spring emerges in New England, signals changes for Josh as he begins his new job with Chiron Medical Enterprises. Lauren’s flashback to the Hope Center’s opening creates a happy fog in her mind that corresponds with the February air that causes fog when she breathes. A dark and dreary February sets the stage for Lauren’s final hours, in which she recalls the sunny beaches of Hawaii and sweet smell of newborn Octavia. The juxtaposition of Hawaii with the cold and sterile hospital intensifies the sensory imagery and a feeling of foreboding for Lauren, who likewise feels caught between her dreams and reality. As the novel’s end approaches, Josh moves into his new seaside home in a setting reminiscent of Josh and Lauren’s favorite locations—the Cape and Hawaii—and the melodious ocean sounds signal happiness and relaxation for Josh. Finally, the Epilogue’s spring weather provides the perfect pink, blooming landscape to represent Josh’s symbolic rebirth in his new life, which features a new house, new love, and Lauren’s tree planted in the Hope Center’s garden.
The Great Beyond figures in conversation between Josh and Lauren as her end approaches, offering hope by symbolizing the Immortality of Love and their connection that will exist in an afterlife. The novel’s climax—an emotional catharsis that retraces Lauren’s last day—implies that Lauren has reached the Great Beyond when she views her body in the hospital with Josh and then becomes light. Lauren again offers hope for her arrival in the Great Beyond in her last letter, in which she writes that she will watch over Josh. Josh has his parting with Lauren when he sees her at the jesa ceremony. Lauren’s final resting place, the fittingly named Hope Center, again presents the Great Beyond as a means to keep their love immortal, and Josh sees the sun glow brighter after planting Lauren’s tree, implying that Lauren awaits Josh in an afterlife.
The final chapters demonstrate Grief as a Path to Personal Growth most clearly. Josh reaches a conclusion on his own that a jesa ceremony would most appropriately honor his wife’s passing, and he accepts the job offer from Chiron Medical Enterprises. The job gives him the structure and stability that he needs to keep himself healthy and occupied in the wake of his loss. He develops a routine of social engagements, which he now happily and willingly attends. Josh’s embrace of Lauren’s family at the end of the novel demonstrates that he finally understands The Healing Power of Interpersonal Connections; these individuals will support him moving forward. On Josh’s disastrous date with Sarah, Rose’s “birdlike” qualities foreshadow her romance with Josh, who believes it is a sign from Lauren in the Great Beyond. When Josh initiates a date with Rose, he shows that he truly has overcome his grief and can love romantically again.
Higgins balances the weight of grief with levity until the end of Lauren’s life. As her timeline goes further back, Lauren reveals her immense struggle with the loss of her father by using dates relative to her father’s death and rhetorical questions, asking him where he is on her wedding day. By the time Lauren later confronts her own death, in contrast, she accepts her fate with grace, joking with Josh at the hospital by placing an “L” sign on her forehead for “loser,” and together they joke about loving with various organs. Humor marks Josh’s growth after Lauren’s death, too, when he flirts with Rose about her missteps while serving him and Sarah and about his status as a “tragic widower” (442). Thus, Josh embraces another of Lauren’s gifts—her love for comedy—to help him heal and move on.
The seagull motif reaches its full development in the final chapters when it transforms into a new bird, corresponding with Josh’s new love: Rose has a “bright, birdlike quality about her, like a chickadee, […] and…fluttery, somehow” (436). This imagery also connects to the rose motif throughout the novel, which signifies romance and new beginnings. Lauren’s letters, the main motif, also transform in the final chapters. While her earliest letters to Josh have a bossy, commanding tone, the final letters express wishes for his future happiness: “Let someone love you…Let me be one of the best things that ever happened…Let our time together be a beautiful, happy time in your life that came to an end” (412). Lauren complements her tricolon of jussives with explicit wishes for Josh, too—all encouraging him to love again. The affirmations that follow mirror Josh’s path to overcoming his grief, finding solace in the Immortality of Love with Lauren, The Healing Power of Interpersonal Connections with his friends and family, and Grief as a Path to Personal Growth with his new love.
