Memory and the Past

Throughout the novel, the author explores notions concerning memory and the past by way of Bobby’s psychological experience. Although 10 years have passed since his sister Alicia committed suicide, Bobby remains unable to reconcile himself with his sister’s death. Indeed, he has convinced himself that healing from her passing and his subsequent sorrow will lead him to forget his sister. In Chapter VII, for example, when Bobby goes to Stella Maris to see Alicia’s friend Helen, the narrator says that “For all his dedication there were times he thought the fine sweet edge of his grief was thinning. Each memory but a memory of the one before until…What” (257)? Bobby is therefore realizing that his grief has begun to fade, an experience he cannot understand considering how hard he has attempted to keep his sister’s memory alive inside of himself...