Extra Credit Reading Notes: Alaska, Part B

This comparison is definitely a stretch, but The Boy in the Moon reminded me of the story in The Long Morrow episode of The Twilight Zone.  I've never even seen this episode but I've heard enough about the plot to understand that there's an astronaut who goes to space for a 30 year mission and comes home to see that his girlfriend hasn't changed at all.  The astronaut chose not to be under suspended animation and spent all those years in space alone so he could be the same age as his girlfriend when he came back.  However, his girlfriend on earth did go under suspended animation (or something to that effect on Earth) so she could be the same age as him when he returned.  To both of their surprises, they were so desperately in love with each other that he came back an old man while she was still a young woman.  It reminded me of the two lovers in The Boy in the Moon.  The boy tried to follow the girl, but in the end the girl became the sun and the boy became the moon.  Because they were in love, the sun and moon constantly chase one another but can never be together.  

Disclaimer: The sun and moon do not literally chase each other in the sky!  Nor is that ever stated in this story, but I feel like before there was a scientific explanation for the sun and moon, ancient civilizations were under the impression that they "chased" each other like night and day.  That point was never explicitly made in this story, but it definitely adds to the tragedy of these two lovers!

Ladder to the Moon, Illustration, Source

Myths and Legends of Alaska: The Boy in the Moon, edited by Katharine Berry Judson (1911).