Literature Analysis #1: The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

1. The Memory Keeper's Daughter is about a couple, Norah and David Henry, who go out into a clinic in a snow storm due to fact that Norah is about to give birth. When they get to the clinic, David performs the birth and Norah gives birth to their very first child, Paul, who was healthy and beautiful. Minutes later after cleaning Paul, Norah starts to get contractions and suddenly goes unconscious. David realizes that they were expecting twins, fraternal twins. When he held their daughter, Phoebe, he detects she has Down Syndrome. Because of his childhood experiences he decided he did not want to put Norah through bad things in her life so he quickly wrapped Phoebe in a blanket, put her in a box, and gave her to the nurse assisting him, Caroline Gill. When Norah woke up David explained to her that their daughter had died at birth but their son remained alive. This is obviously a huge lie that will forever haunt David throughout the rest of the novel.

2. The theme of the novel is to not let the past haunt you which make you take decisions based on the traumatizing experiences. I feel that when David gave Phoebe to Norah he thought much about his past and how he didn't want those things to happen in his late life so he made a drastic decision, one which would change a lot of his life and would achieve a burden built inside him.

3. When I first read what this book was about I was very much intrigued by David's decision of giving his daughter away without even concerning his wife in his actions. I felt like this book would have a plot twist to it and a mystery like feel, which it did. That's what kept me reading, wondering how the truth would unveil in the end.

4. I found this book realistic because I believe feel that everyone lives such different lives and have different obstacles to over come. At first I thought this book was based on a true story but it turns out it's not. That's how true I thought it was.

5. The author's tone is different in two aspects. I feel that when the chapters would go back and fourth from the lives of Norah, David, and Paul it would have a negative vibe. As to were as when the chapter talked about Caroline and Phoebe's life it had a more positive feel. 

6. 10 Literary Elements:
- Dramatic Irony: "Our little girl did not die. Caroline Gill took her and raised her in another city... I gave away our daughter"(322). This refers to dramatic irony because through out the whole book we know that Phoebe never died and David had lied to Norah all her life since she gave birth. 
- Symbolism: "She thought of the camera, its precise dials and levers. The Memory Keeper, it said on the box, in white italic letters; this, she realized, was why she'd bought it- so he'd capture every moment, so he'd never forget"(88). This symbolizes why the book is called The Memory Keeper's Daughter. 
- Onomatopoeia: "A fly buzzed, caught between the panes of glass in the old windows"(162). This is an onomatopoeia because it describes what the bus is doing.
- Flashback: "The doctor had felt transported back in time. His sister had been born with a heart defect and had grown very slowly, her breath catching and coming in little gasps whenever she tried to run"(17). David remembers this when he sees his daughter after the she was out of her mother's stomach because he thought of how much his mother had to struggle with when June, his sister, was alive.
- Simile: "Asleep in the dull glow of the streetlight, she looked like any child, her future as unmapped as the ocean floor, as rich with possibility"(95). This is a simile because it uses the words as and like which is talking about Phoebe.
- Imagery: "Then he turned her over to see her face. Creamy white vernix whorled in her delicate skin, and she was slippery with amniotic fluid and traces of blood. The blue eyes were cloudy, the hair jet black"(16). This symbolizes imagery because the author is describing how Phoebe looks as she had just gotten out of her mother's belly.
- Metaphor: "The sky was a dark ending indigo and the streetlights had come on..."(243). This is a metaphor because it describes the sky as something else but not becoming a simile. 
- Alliteration: "hidden in the back of a backroom drawer after the curators had gone; the single photograph of his father's family too.."(400).
- Personification: "Cars rushed over the fields of Doro's childhood, their headlights playing on the wall..."(95). This describes a personification because its a combination of a human trait being used by an inanimate trait.
- Repetition: "For the worst had already happened to them in the eyes of the world, then surely, surely, it was the worst that they left behind them now"(69). This symbolizes a repetition technique because it repeats the word surely.

1. Direct Characterization:
- "The moment he saw her, he knew something was wrong. She had large blue eyes, in a pale face that might have been forty or twenty-five, and whenever something was not to her liking a thin vertical line formed across her forehead..."(12). This describes Caroline Gill and her characteristics. 
- "Then he turned her over to see her face. Creamy white vernix whorled in her delicate skin, and she was slippery with amniotic fluid and traces of blood. The blue eyes were cloudy, the hair jet black"(16). This shows how Phoebe had been born, straight out of her mom's belly. 
Indirect Characterization: 
- "That was Lucy Martin... She's a dreadful gossip. Trust me. You just made her day"(57). This demonstrates how Lucy Martin is because of her actions, before this dialogue between Caroline & Al, Lucy had been looking out through the window observing Al's and Caroline's every move. 
- "Even at this distance she could tell he was a large person. He wore a bulky coat and a wool knit hat. His hands were shoved into his pockets"(54). This comes to show how Al looked like and what Caroline observed from the distance.

2. The author's syntax does not change because throughout the book she keeps the same tone or mood throughout each character. Especially about David.

3. I feel that David is a static and flat character because he doesn't really change. He's always very sad and depressed, ever since that snowy night. In the story he doesn't exactly go through a serious of changes he just goes and carries on in his life, trying to give out to others. Never really worrying about himself.

4. After reading this book I came out realizing that I had just read a character. Why I believe so is because anytime someone new came up it was just their description. I didn't necessarily feel like I had met a new character. 

One of the things I will forever remember from this book is why the book was named The Memory Keeper's Daughter. When I was reading page 88 at the bottom, I came across the dialogue between Caroline and David. The author, speaking for Norah, said, "She thought of the camera, its precise dials and levers. The Memory Keeper, it said on the box, in white italic letters; this, she realized, was why she'd bought it- so he'd capture every moment, so he'd never forget." This shows that the book was named after David. He was the memory keeper's daughter. I feel like this was a cool realization because even the name in the book was in white italic letters. I'm not exactly sure how to explain why this will always stay in my mind about this book, but I know it's a good one. It's like finding the last clue to a huge mystery, sort of how Nancy Drew feels after she's done helping with a case.