The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

by

Kim Edwards

Caroline Gill Simpson Character Analysis

Caroline is the novel’s secondary protagonist, a sensitive yet strong nurse in Lexington, Kentucky who gets more than she bargained for when she assists in the birth of the children of Norah Henry, the wife of one of the doctors at the clinic where she works. Caroline has nursed a crush on David for years when she helps deliver his children—and so when he asks her to do the terrible deed of taking his Down syndrome-affected daughter Phoebe away to an institution, Caroline agrees. She soon realizes, though, that she can’t leave the child behind. While David spreads the lie that Phoebe has died at birth, Caroline absconds with the child to Pittsburgh, where the two of them begin new lives together. Over the decades that follow, Caroline grows stronger, more political, and more empathetic. She fights tirelessly for Phoebe’s right to a mainstream education and becomes an activist in her community. She finds love with Al Simpson, a kindly trucker, and eventually marries him, learning throughout their relationship that sometimes the strongest families are the ones you make—not the ones you’re born into. Caroline is tender, fierce, thoughtful, and anxious, and she constantly puts Phoebe first—though towards the end of the novel, when she takes it upon herself to reveal the truth to Norah after nearly twenty-five years, she is able to admit that her motives in raising Phoebe were not entirely pure. Caroline herself was always desperate to be a mother, and she agreed to keep David Henry’s secret so her own dreams could come true. One of the novel’s most complex figures, Caroline’s arc ties in with the novel’s major themes of families born and made, difference and prejudice, and secrets and lies.

Caroline Gill Simpson Quotes in The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

The The Memory Keeper’s Daughter quotes below are all either spoken by Caroline Gill Simpson or refer to Caroline Gill Simpson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Secrets and Lies Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2: March 1964 Quotes

She began to laugh. It wasn’t a normal laugh; even Caroline could hear that: her voice too loud, halfway to a sob. “I have a baby,” she said out loud, astonished. “I have a baby in this car.” But the parking lot stretched quietly before her, the lights from the grocery store windows making large rectangles in the slush. “I have a baby here,” Caroline repeated, her voice thinning quickly in the air. “A baby!” she shouted then, into the stillness.

Related Characters: Caroline Gill Simpson (speaker), Phoebe Gill Simpson
Related Symbols: Snow
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: March 1964 Quotes

It was strange; she disliked him so much for these words, but she felt with him also at that moment the greatest intimacy she had ever felt with any person. They were joined together now in something enormous, and no matter what happened they always would be.

Related Characters: Caroline Gill Simpson (speaker), Dr. David Henry
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10: June 1970 Quotes

Caroline thought again of Phoebe, such a loving quicksilver child. A finder of lost things, a girl who could count to fifty and dress herself and recite the alphabet, a girl who might struggle to speak but who could read Caroline’s mood in an instant.

Limited, the voices said. Flooding the schools. A drag on resources and on the brighter children.

Caroline felt a rush of despair. They’d never really see Phoebe, these men, they would never see her as more than different, slow to speak and to master new things.

Related Characters: Caroline Gill Simpson (speaker), Phoebe Gill Simpson
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15: April 1982 Quotes

“She was lucky, I guess; she never had a problem with her heart. She loves to sing. She has a cat named Rain. She’s learning how to weave. […] She goes to school. Public school, with all the other kids. I had to fight like hell for them to take her. And now she’s nearly grown I don’t know what will happen. […] What else can I say? You missed a lot of heartache, sure. But David, you missed a lot of joy.”

Related Characters: Caroline Gill Simpson (speaker), Dr. David Henry, Phoebe Gill Simpson
Page Number: 249
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21: November 1988 Quotes

Phoebe’s face was falling, tears were slipping down her cheeks.

“It’s not fair,” she whispered.

“It’s not fair,” Caroline agreed.

They stood for a moment, quiet in the bright harsh lights.

Related Characters: Caroline Gill Simpson (speaker), Phoebe Gill Simpson (speaker), Robert
Page Number: 346
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22: July 1, 1989 Quotes

Caroline said it again: Phoebe, not dead but taken away. All these years. Phoebe, growing up in another city. Safe, Caroline kept saying. Safe, well cared for, loved. Phoebe, her daughter, Paul’s twin. Born with Down syndrome, sent away.

David had sent her away.

“You must be crazy,” Norah said, though even as she spoke so many jagged pieces of her life were falling into place that she knew what Caroline was saying must be true.

Related Characters: Norah Henry (speaker), Dr. David Henry, Caroline Gill Simpson, Paul Henry, Phoebe Gill Simpson
Page Number: 369
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Memory Keeper’s Daughter PDF

Caroline Gill Simpson Quotes in The Memory Keeper’s Daughter

The The Memory Keeper’s Daughter quotes below are all either spoken by Caroline Gill Simpson or refer to Caroline Gill Simpson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Secrets and Lies Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2: March 1964 Quotes

She began to laugh. It wasn’t a normal laugh; even Caroline could hear that: her voice too loud, halfway to a sob. “I have a baby,” she said out loud, astonished. “I have a baby in this car.” But the parking lot stretched quietly before her, the lights from the grocery store windows making large rectangles in the slush. “I have a baby here,” Caroline repeated, her voice thinning quickly in the air. “A baby!” she shouted then, into the stillness.

Related Characters: Caroline Gill Simpson (speaker), Phoebe Gill Simpson
Related Symbols: Snow
Page Number: 35
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 4: March 1964 Quotes

It was strange; she disliked him so much for these words, but she felt with him also at that moment the greatest intimacy she had ever felt with any person. They were joined together now in something enormous, and no matter what happened they always would be.

Related Characters: Caroline Gill Simpson (speaker), Dr. David Henry
Page Number: 65
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10: June 1970 Quotes

Caroline thought again of Phoebe, such a loving quicksilver child. A finder of lost things, a girl who could count to fifty and dress herself and recite the alphabet, a girl who might struggle to speak but who could read Caroline’s mood in an instant.

Limited, the voices said. Flooding the schools. A drag on resources and on the brighter children.

Caroline felt a rush of despair. They’d never really see Phoebe, these men, they would never see her as more than different, slow to speak and to master new things.

Related Characters: Caroline Gill Simpson (speaker), Phoebe Gill Simpson
Page Number: 162
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 15: April 1982 Quotes

“She was lucky, I guess; she never had a problem with her heart. She loves to sing. She has a cat named Rain. She’s learning how to weave. […] She goes to school. Public school, with all the other kids. I had to fight like hell for them to take her. And now she’s nearly grown I don’t know what will happen. […] What else can I say? You missed a lot of heartache, sure. But David, you missed a lot of joy.”

Related Characters: Caroline Gill Simpson (speaker), Dr. David Henry, Phoebe Gill Simpson
Page Number: 249
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 21: November 1988 Quotes

Phoebe’s face was falling, tears were slipping down her cheeks.

“It’s not fair,” she whispered.

“It’s not fair,” Caroline agreed.

They stood for a moment, quiet in the bright harsh lights.

Related Characters: Caroline Gill Simpson (speaker), Phoebe Gill Simpson (speaker), Robert
Page Number: 346
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 22: July 1, 1989 Quotes

Caroline said it again: Phoebe, not dead but taken away. All these years. Phoebe, growing up in another city. Safe, Caroline kept saying. Safe, well cared for, loved. Phoebe, her daughter, Paul’s twin. Born with Down syndrome, sent away.

David had sent her away.

“You must be crazy,” Norah said, though even as she spoke so many jagged pieces of her life were falling into place that she knew what Caroline was saying must be true.

Related Characters: Norah Henry (speaker), Dr. David Henry, Caroline Gill Simpson, Paul Henry, Phoebe Gill Simpson
Page Number: 369
Explanation and Analysis: