Essay Questions

What is the “Memory Keeper”

The “Memory Keeper” is a camera which Norah buys for David. It is purchased by her at Sears because of its appearance. The black and chrome features dials, levers and etched numbering in a way that reminds Norah of her husband’s medical equipment. The heft of the camera also appeals, but perhaps most important of all is the image she sees when looking through the viewfinder: “the world was so precisely framed.” She only comes to realize the reasoning behind the purchase of the camera at the moment of presentation: “so he’d capture every moment, so he’d never forget.”

What is Paul’s completely inappropriate, but intimately comprehensible first reaction upon learning he has a living twin sister?

After finally learning the truth straight from Caroline about what happened the night she gave birth, Norah gently and calmly conveys the shocking news to Paul about the existence of his twin sister Phoebe and what actually happened on the night of his birth. It is a story he knows half the truth of by heart; one of those legendary tales of labor, delivery and birth that doesn’t go strictly according to plan. Paul even learns the reason that his father gave to Caroline about why he was making this dreadful decision: to spare the family grief he expected with great certainty would be the result of keeping the girl. His mother then informs her son that all this time his sister has been living in Pittsburgh. Paul’s response is immediately recognized by himself as not being the right thing to say, though he’s not sure exactly what the correct reply to such a revelation would be. “I was just in Pittsburgh last week” is, however, exactly pitch-perfect writing by the author who manages to capture with just the right of humor the awkwardness of the situation. It is precisely the sort of almost-but-not-quite dazed logical observation that people often make when confronted with earth-shattering information that their brain is just not yet ready or prepared to calculate at a deeper recess.

What is the significance of Caroline’s camera?

Caroline also has a camera with which she takes many pictures of Phoebe growing up. Eventually, she will bring two of the photos to prove to Norah the existence of Phoebe. Unlike “the Memory Keeper” or any other kind of camera that David might use which would require 35mm film capable of being personally developed in a darkroom, Caroline’s camera is a Polaroid which snaps and develops a photograph within a minute. It is low-tech, low-cost and over time leaves the produced pictures “stiff, the color poor, muted and toned with gray.” The camera is symbolic on many levels, suggesting the economic deprivation of David’s daughter in comparison with his son while also pointing to a more honest simplicity of photography that is much closer to the adage “the camera never lies” than it is to David’s own assessment that “photography is all about secrets.”