The Memory Keeper's Daughter

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“Photography is all about secrets. The secrets we all have and will never tell” (217). Secrets are ultimately what changes a person’s life, in the novel The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards the reader finds out that photography can hold some deadly secrets. Readers become more aware of secrets, which are kept by each character is affected by the untold truth. These secrets ultimately effect the three main characters in the storyline drastically. In the novel David, Norah, and Caroline’s stories intersect, which shows the reader how they are dealing with their guilt and lies and what they think about the actions of another character in the novel. One lie affects the characters from the beginning, and ends up changing then in ways they …show more content…
Coincidentally her doctor never came because he had landed in a ditch while driving to the hospital. Without any time to spare, David Henry decided he would deliver the baby. After Norah gave birth to a beautiful son, David realized she was still having contractions and to his surprise Norah was having twins. Norah gave birth to a baby girl, but to David’s shock when he glanced at his child’s face he realized she had Down syndrome. He then thought about all the problems this child would have and what kind of negative impact she would have on their family. He thought about his sister June who he had lost at a young age due to heart complications. David had never truly laid to rest his grieving for her, so he made a decision which would transform his family’s life forever. He had remembered a time when he was learning about Down syndrome, and his teacher had said, “Poor kid. There’s nothing they can do except try to keep him clean. They ought to spare themselves and send him to a home” (17). This made him believe that this baby with Down syndrome would be better off in a home, than having to endure a life of hardships with the Henry Family. David also did not want to have to grieve over the loss of a child again after losing June too soon. He then handed his baby to Caroline Gill, a nurse who had helped him with his wife’s delivery. David told Caroline to take the baby to a …show more content…
He states, “He'd kept this silence because his own secrets were darker, more hidden, and because he believed that his secrets had created hers” (219). This shows the reader that David regrets keeping these secrets and lies from Norah, which he wishes he could go back and change his decision he had made because of his past life. Caroline had to deal with the guilt of lying to the man of her dreams, Al. Even though she had kept this secret for many years, it was slowly killing her that Norah didn’t know about Phoebe and that she might be hurting Al with the truth about Phoebe’s real father. Caroline always wonders about how Norah would react if she found out. Caroline also was scared if she let her secrets in the light that Norah would want to take Phoebe away, and all her hard work fighting for Phoebe’s right to have an education would mean nothing. In conclusion, the secrets that each character kept shaped them into the person they became in the end. The loss of Phoebe made Norah and David slowly split apart and made Norah become and alcohol and seek promiscuity. David always felt guilty and tried to hide his guiltiness with work and photography. Caroline dealt with her guilt by focusing on Phoebe to better her education and give her the life she
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