...“The Memory Keeper's Daughter” is a well-written book with an interesting concept. Growing up in the 2000s, Down Syndrome has always been pretty known about and accepted. However, being based in the 1960's, this book gave me a better understanding and different perspective of how a lack of knowledge scares people. David only knew Down Syndrome through his sister and some research, and based his decision off of statistics. Secondly, this book does an outstanding job of keeping the reader interested. The chapters differ in perspectives, and the reader gets insight from Norah, David, Paul, and Caroline. I think that the differing perspectives by chapter help the reader to understand the full impact of giving Phoebe away, and how each person's...
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...David is the protagonist in the book The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards. In the first chapter, David delivers his own babies. One of them, his daughter, was born with down syndrome. “He thought of his sister, pale and thin, trying to catch her breath, and his mother turning to the window to hide her tears”(Edwards 18). The author used imagery in this line to vividly describe David’s sister and the pain his whole family went through because of his sister's death. He decided to spare his wife the same pain his mother had, so he sent the baby away to go to an institution. This decision changed David’s life. He would have to keep his secret eternally. David received The Memory Keeper, a camera from his wife for their anniversary. It was...
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...Throughout the novel, love is introduced as a weapon of destruction yet as a tool of hope and growth. In the Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards, the author concludes that the power of love can bring people together, and can also tear people apart. When David Henry decides to give his daughter with Down Syndrome away, he does it due to his love for his wife saying, “I’m trying to spare us all a terrible grief”, and, “That it would be best this way for them all.” (Page 19). This act of concern and protection for his wife’s feelings later pushed his family to downfall, leaving his wife Norah to drown while everyone around her is breathing. As their family collapsed, they kept going back to this act of “love” that David completed. However,...
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...ago after much persuasion by my beloved book reader friend, I began The Memory Keeper's Daughter, by Kim Edwards – And I can tell you right now that it was terrible, not because it was bad, but because it was so good: I couldn't put it down until I finished the final pages at 4 in the morning. Argh! Not a good thing, when your alarm goes off at 6.30 AM to get ready for more reading at school What fascinates me about this book is what it has to say about "secrets.” And how confessing the deepest and most sinful secrets can give more freedom than money or success can ever bring. The basic premise is this- a doctor is forced to deliver his wife's child in the middle of a raging snowstorm. The only complication is that she's actually carrying twins - the first, a healthy beautiful baby boy; the second, a Downs Syndrome baby girl. The year is 1964, when such children are regularly institutionalized - after all, babies like this rarely survive long anyway, and even if they do, their quality of life is marginal at best. As a doctor, David Henry knows his daughters prognosis full well, and rather than force his young wife Norah to deal with such a tragedy, he makes a snap decision to try and protect her from a lifetime of unspeakable grief. His solution: hand the "defective" daughter to his nurse to deliver to an institution, while he informs his wife of the tragedy - she delivered twins, but her daughter did not survive childbirth. She is dead, gone. With that simple little...
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