Question

In at least one hundred words, explain what Sonny learns from Joe Willow through the event in the passage.

Answer 1

Sonny learns about the sun and the stars.

The way Joe Willow explains the change from day to night, is that when "daddy", in this case the sun, "goes to bed" (sets), "all the little children come out". The "little children" refer to the stars, they are coming out in the sky at night time.

Answer 2

In this excerpt from the short story The Passage by Durango Mendoza, Joe describes the sun and the stars and how they relate to life and death. The "daddy" is referring to the sun, and the "little children" are the stars. The story explores the theme of loss of innocence and mortality, and this passage further conveys these two themes. The sun setting is a metaphor for death. When the sun dies, the stars finally come out. This could be interpreted to mean that a person cannot truly grow up until they experience the loss of a loved one.