The Memory Keeper's Daughter May 1965 Summary & Analysis

Summary: May 1965

David and Norah take Paul on a picnic in the Lexington countryside. As they hike in the hills, David wears the child carrier with baby Paul in it. He moves carefully along the paths while Norah speeds ahead. David can’t resist indulging his lifelong passion for rocks and pockets several as he moves along. On a steep part of the trail, David encounters a woman with signs of heart trouble, and he enjoys showing a caring concern that includes taking her pulse. He reflects on the paradox that his innate impulse to offer healing did not seem to extend to his family.

David carries in his pocket a letter that Caroline had written with news of Phoebe’s well-being and her avoidance of heart issues, a critical symptom of Down syndrome. The return address was a post office box in Cleveland, the postmark Toledo. He meditates on Norah’s lightening mood since their anniversary. He had developed in his darkroom the roll of film she had taken while drunk at the old house. He destroyed the prints and negatives, but the images haunt him.

Norah asks David to take her picture posed exuberantly on the edge of a stone bridge spanning a deep gorge, as if in midair. David fights vertigo as he joins her, fearing for her safety. He realizes that his efforts to spare her loss and pain by sending Phoebe away were naive. Loss inevitably follows them, as when he imagines Phoebe, he sees his dead sister’s face.

Back on solid ground they spread out their picnic and share childhood memories. David remembers his sister June, the demands of her care that caused his parents to neglect him, and the grief of her death. It occurs to him that his attempts to spare his son Paul these experiences by sending Phoebe away really involved protecting his own inner child. Norah and David compare their marriage to those of their parents, finding they had a common experience of silent homes. Norah revisits David’s refusal to talk about Phoebe and accuses him of wanting to erase her memory. He resists the urge to confess the lie to Norah.

Norah expresses her desire to have another child, but David discourages the idea, fearing the risk of having another child with Down syndrome. David ruminates about his sister’s death and his efforts to comfort his mother. Over June’s grave, his mother adjured him to study something to help the world, and he promised to be a doctor. Then she asked him to recite Psalm 23, and he found the verse “I shall not want” contradicted by his resentment and emptiness.

The outing ends with a sense of mistrust between David and Norah as each feels unappreciated by the other. Norah declares that she doesn’t need or want him to be her protector. David feels overwhelmed by his sense of powerlessness to control the consequences of his actions, and he blames Caroline for not having done what he’d asked in the first place.

Analysis: May 1965

A contemplative David takes stock of himself and his marriage as he and Norah hike the dramatic land forms of the Kentucky hills. He carries baby Paul with a cautiousness that weighs heavier the older David gets, while Norah increasingly rankles against the safe and the predictable and yearns for freedom. Rocks reassure David with their smooth exterior hiding the unique geode formation within. In the midst of this reverie, he reflexively reacts as a doctor to a woman experiencing breathing difficulties and gives her a brief exam on the face of the mountain pass. He gains pleasure from his role as a healer and wonders why this feeling of helping doesn’t translate to his home life. David lacks the self-awareness to see that he creates a beneficent public persona to hide his traumatized authentic self.

David’s agitation at receiving Caroline’s letter includes an urge that he should try to find her. He examines the postmark and return address. The fact that these are not from Pittsburgh where Caroline and Phoebe live indicates that Caroline has a scheme to communicate without revealing her whereabouts. Caroline specifically addresses David’s concern about Down syndrome heart ailments to reassure and perhaps rebuke his incorrect beliefs. Caroline has sent photos of Phoebe, but David sees his dead sister’s face when he thinks of his daughter. In a similar way, David discards the photographic record that Norah made of their old house when Phoebe was still part of their lives. He creates his own reality in isolation. Norah insightfully understands that David does this and again asks for the silence surrounding her to end, but he deflects the request by blaming her for her own unhappiness.

David’s refusal to have another child directly withholds crucial information from Norah. She doesn’t know they had a baby with a genetic mutation. Once committed to the secret, David can only compound the lying. As if to remind him of the justification for his actions, the powerful memory of the ritual his mother and he observed at June’s grave surfaces, his response to the scripture he read still vivid. Despite David’s earlier flash of insight that sending Phoebe away was about unresolved griefs from childhood, feelings of neglect and resentment still have him in their grip. Given this lack of self-awareness, it’s a logical segue to blame others for his distress. Angrily, he blames Caroline for not following his plan.

When Norah informs David that his protectiveness of her is neither necessary nor desirable, she is declaring independence. In dashing her hopes for another child without good reason, David lays the groundwork for their further isolation from each other.

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