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Theme Of Memory In Death And The Maiden By Sherman Alexie

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Memories plays a monumental role in one's lifestyle. They have the power to crush and to transform one's identity. Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and Ariel Dorfman's Death and the Maiden both use memory as the fundamental building blocks to the protagonists' life story. In Sherman Alexie's novel, memory is used as a background for Junior's character transformation. Ariel Dorfman, on the other hand, portrays memory as more of a debilitating factor than anything else when it comes to Paulina Salas' lifestyle. The concept of memory is depicted in two entirely different ways in the literary texts, which allows the reader to see just how influential memory can be based on both the event being remembered and how …show more content…
He is trying to get her to see the logical side the situation, but she is relying on her memories and her experience to help her uncover the truth. During the argument, Paulina tells her husband, "I haven't opened my mouth to even whisper a breath of what I'm thinking, years living in terror of my own… but I'm not dead, I thought I was but I'm not and I can speak, damn it - so for God's sake let me have my say" (Dorfman 37). Her life consisted of remembering something she did not want to remember and not being able to speak a word about what happened. "Years of living in terror of my own…" Here, it is implied that Paulina's mind has been torturing her with images and sounds of what happened. The omission of the ending of that sentence depicts just how powerful and traumatic the event was; she cannot even completely admit to herself how much of a hold the experience has on her …show more content…
Miranda. All she wants is truth; she knows that the truth will not set her free from those memories, but rather that justice will be served on behalf of herself and those that might have gone through the same trauma as she. At the end of the confession scene, Paulina asks Dr. Miranda, "What do we lose by killing one of them?" (Dorfman 66). She is willing to kill this man "if only to do justice in one case" (Dorfman 66). By this time in the play, it is extremely clear to see that the one thought driving her at this point is personal justice. She does not want bite her tongue any longer. Her life is already ruined by the memories of her kidnapping, so killing a man and having that on conscious does not deter her in the

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