Memory
As the title of the story suggests, memory is thematically spread across the narrative in many forms. The story covers the memory as theme from the concept of how it can impact the future course of life to the struggle to define by purposeful forgetting. Decisions in the heat of the moment can be made based on the input of things remembered which actually have little direct significance in that moment. On the other hand, some people make decisions based on memories which are not even real, but have been fed to them externally.
Female Empowerment
The time period covering over the course of the narrative stretches from 1964 to 1989. It is not just random chance that the twin which author chose for the father to give away is the daughter rather than the male. This is symbolic of the thematic exploration of the patriarchal devaluation and authoritarian dominance of females in 1964. Norah, his wife, transforms over that period from a “Suzy Homemaker” to the owner of a success of travel agency. The novel is an exploration of the various ways in which women have made progress in being able to choose their own destinies and shape their own identities.
Random Fate
One pure random act of fate serves to intrude upon upon and intensify the impact of that carefully cultivated systemic patriarchal order in a way that profoundly changes the lives and alters the various individual destinies of several people. Heavy snowfall from “the sort of storm that rarely happened in Lexington” serves to force David Henry, an orthopedic surgeon, to assume the role himself when his wife’s obstetrician is unable to make it. Two things happen as a result of this unforeseen circumstance which would not have occurred otherwise: his wife gives birth while under the effect of anesthesia which allows him to make the rash decision to give away their son’s twin sister who was born with Down syndrome and to tell his wife that their daughter died without her ever knowing the truth. Historically speaking, Lexington, KY usually gets less than two inches of snow in March, but on the night that his wife goes into labor, it was already piled halfway up David's calves. No freak blizzard, slightly premature labor or a simple delay of two or three days and everything changes in the lives of these characters.
