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Photography
On the night Phoebe and Paul are born, an uncharacteristically serious snowstorm has hit Lexington, Kentucky. Snow blankets everything, and falls softly and dreamily as David and Norah make their way to the hospital. The streets are abandoned, and Norah’s obstetrician, Dr. Bentley, is caught in a drift and unable to get to the hospital. David, an orthopedic surgeon, is forced to deliver the babies himself—as a result, he is given the freedom and control to make the terrible decision of sending Phoebe away when he realizes she has been born with Down syndrome. As Caroline, the nurse present for the delivery of the babies, takes Phoebe first to a home for the impaired and later, after refusing to leave her there, drives through the snowy streets of Lexington unsure of what to do, snow emerges as a symbol of things blanketed in secrets—of facts and choices covered-up, hidden, and yet bound to be revealed one day when the truth melts off the surface of things. Snow, beautiful and blank but impermanent, represents the threat that comes along with a secret—one day, it will surely be brought to light.
Snow Quotes in The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
The The Memory Keeper’s Daughter quotes below all refer to the symbol of Snow. 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:
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Chapter 1: March 1964
Quotes
When they reached the car she touched his arm and gestured to the house, veiled with snow and glowing like a lantern in the darkness of the street.
“When we come back we’ll have our baby with us,’’ she said. “Our world will never be the same.”
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He cut the cord and checked her heart, her lungs. All the time he was thinking of the snow, the silver car floating into a ditch, the deep quiet of this empty clinic. Later, when he considered this night—and he would think of it often, in the months and years to come: the turning point of his life, the moments around which everything else would always gather—what he remembered was the silence in the room and the snow falling steadily outside.
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Chapter 2: March 1964
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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.
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Chapter 23: July 2-4, 1989
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Paul reached out into the hot, humid air, feeling as if he were standing in one of his father’s photographs, where trees bloomed up in the pulse of a heart, where the world was suddenly not what it seemed. He caught a flake in one palm; when he closed his hand into a fist and opened it again, his flesh was smeared with black. Ashes were drifting down like snow in the dense July heat.
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Get the entire The Memory Keeper’s Daughter LitChart as a printable PDF.
Snow Symbol Timeline in The Memory Keeper’s Daughter
The timeline below shows where the symbol Snow appears in The Memory Keeper’s Daughter. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: March 1964
A light snow begins to fall in Lexington, Kentucky. David Henry builds a fire after eating dinner with...
(full context)
...pack for the hospital, guides her to the car, and begins driving through the heavy snow. As they make their way through the worsening storm, David reassures Norah that he has...
(full context)
...the nurses, Caroline, who gives David the news that Dr. Bentley is stuck in the snow and won’t be arriving. David knows that Caroline has a crush on him, and he...
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...and checking her heart and lungs. He does not realize that this quiet night, with snow falling silently outside, will become “the turning point of his life.” David gives this baby...
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...lined with blankets and takes her out to her car. She drives away into the snow as David watches her go. He returns back inside, where the sleeping Norah has awakened...
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Chapter 2: March 1964
...back of her car, feeling uneasy about her mission, Caroline Gill drives carefully through the snowy streets of Lexington. The car skids twice, and she nearly turns back, but soon she’s...
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...here alone, and begins running out of the hospital. As Caroline steps out into the snow and cold air, she feels as if she is “being born” again.
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...see if there is anyone around, but there’s no one—the store is closed, and the snowy streets are empty. Caroline lets out a noise that is “halfway to a sob,” and...
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Chapter 4: March 1964
...are both on their way to Lexington, but were derailed by the accident and the snow, the trucker offers to give Caroline a ride home. She agrees, and they set out....
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Chapter 9: May 1970
...shedding its petals—he is perturbed because the falling white blooms look, for a moment, “like snow.”
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Chapter 23: July 2-4, 1989
...steps out of the car, he notices that the air seems to be full of snow—as he catches a flake, he realizes it is not snow but ash. He goes inside,...
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