The Memory Keeper Daughter Theme

The Memory Keeper’s daughter tells the story of Dr. David Henry, his wife, Norah and their fraternal twins who were secretly separated at birth. In Lexington, Kentucky on March of 1964 one of the biggest snow storms raced through this town, leaving tons of people without power and heat and little to no food, this was very rare being that March is usually associated with the spring. The Henry household had a different and far more important situation, Norah Henry was nine months pregnant with her thought to be only one precious little boy Paul. Norah faces the loss of her child, her sense of self, and her husband. These pillars of her life cause emotional distress, putting a damper on her husband’s ability to continue to express freely with …show more content…
David Henry’s secret is so deeply rooted that it destroys his marriage and causes him to neglect his children. Dr. Henry makes an extremely rash decision the moment the twins were delivered due to flashbacks of his entire childhood. However, this decision was made only in fear and with good intentions, but David won’t realize the entirety of the consequences until much later on. Throughout the novel, he tries really hard to reveal this secret to Norah, but as time passed the urge and desire to tell her grew very thin and unfortunately death approached David before he ever had enough confidence. The burden of the secret about giving Phoebe away turns out to far outweigh the negative effects that Down syndrome could have caused. During this era of time it was frowned upon to have a child with special needs simply because people lacked the knowledge to accurately care for these children. Thus, making David have flashbacks to when he was little and seeing society label and ostracize them from the public. Perhaps, he was thinking totally opposite of how a parent normally does when making this choice he was thinking solely with his mind instead of his …show more content…
David Henry is a orthopedic surgeon and also the husband of Norah and the father of Paul and Phoebe. He also played the major role in making sure that Norah had never seen their daughter, which put a strain on their relationship. Norah Asher Henry is the wife of Dr. David Henry and the mother of Paul and Phoebe. As described earlier in the book she was really pretty and carried herself in a very elegant manner. She was very optimistic about most things and then she was slammed with the initiate news that her daughter died and subsequently finding out that Phoebe was still alive. This really had a negative effect on Norah leading her to affairs and great depression. Caroline Gill also was a big part of the Henry household; she was the nurse that worked with Dr. Henry during the birthing of the twins and was instructed to take Phoebe to some strange place and ultimately ended up raising her as her own daughter. Gill was also responsible for telling Norah the truth about Phoebe. Paul Henry, son of Norah and David, is an established guitarist, but is affected the stress within the home because of his unknown sister. As he grows up, he discovers that home no longer feels like home so he moves out and lives with this young girl Rosemary, whom his dad was having an affair with during this stressful time. Paul still managed to keep in touch with his mother and made sure she was emotionally healing.