A Man

Kim Edwards’ novel, The Memory Keeper’s Daughter is a memorable piece of literature that describes a man’s and a woman’s decision and the consequences that they both must deal with. The book started to unravel its plot when a man, Dr. David Henry, made a choice of abandoning his child because she had Down syndrome, and a woman, who was Dr. Henry’s assistant named Caroline Gill, decided to raise the abandoned child. It seems like there are two main protagonists introduced in this book, but in my opinion, Doctor David Henry is the star of the show.

Throughout the book, it describes how the Henrys' have to deal with the decision Dr. Henry made and how Caroline lives with the child. Here, I think the main focus is the decision Dr. Henry made and therefore, I concluded that he is the main character since he is the one that made the choice that affected the people around him and his world.

Dr. David Henry is described as an “attentive [and] assessing” man who has a lean face and “brown hair with a reddish tinge” (Edwards 27). He is also mysteriously described by Caroline that “he was not distinguished, yet there was something in his stance, his manner – some quiet alertness, some quality of listening—that set him apart” (Edwards 27). Dr. Henry, as well, is secretive about his past and someone who keeps to himself, or so is my impression after reading a passage that explains how he does not ever make a reference to his past nor actually spend a lot of time with the people he works with; however he is presented to me as an elegant, passionate man who seems weary and old. Perhaps, it is his job as an orthopaedic surgeon that makes him seem tired in my impression throughout reading the chapters especially since he is bearing the decision of abandoning their child yet having to keep it as a secret from his wife.

Dr. David Henry conflicts with himself through the whole book with his decision to abandon his baby girl. Of course, since Caroline ‘adopted’ the child and sends pictures and letters back to him, his wife does find out. However, before all that, when the wife learns, after the birth, that her baby girl ‘died’, she does through a hard transition and this is where Dr. Henry has the worst stress. He has to face his wife every day and make her believe in the lie he made while feeling the guilt in his mind.

It was appalling and tear-jerking when I stumbled upon the scene where David makes his choice and it is right at the beginning. Even though I knew it was going to happen, I could not stomach the feeling I faced when reading this scene and I did not believe I could get through the book at all. But as I read, I understood David Henry was a normal man faced with pressure and despair who made a mistake that followed him all the way to his death.

His reason to abandon his daughter who had an illness was because he did not want to go through the heartache of losing her when she grows up. He experienced a similar problem with his sister who died at a tender age of twelve. David did not want himself nor his wife to face what, he believed to be inevitably a lost cause for his daughter. Therefore, he chose to calmly give his daughter away and hope she will live happily until her early end.

Dr. David Henry is a character I believe that is unique in his own way because he does not remind me of any character but of a parent. This situation I read about reminds me of the way parents try to support themselves yet at the same time, trying to give their children a sense of security that blocks away pain. Well, actually, I think I lied. He reminds me of Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper. The mother in that book had created a ‘twin’ of sorts to save her daughter, in order to fulfill her selfish wish to keep her daughter alive and save herself the pain. Here, David Henry abandons his daughter because he selfishly doesn’t want to grieve for a child he believes that will die early. This is what makes me believe that David is a normal man. No human is perfect and the first person we want to protect is ourselves. Otherwise, I doubt we have a survival instinct at all. And here, Dr. Henry shows this selfish wish to not hurt himself, but ironically, he still suffers because of the choice he made. Thus, this is why, I believe, Dr. David Henry is just a man like the rest of us who will make mistakes and perhaps, we’ll be like him and grieve for the choice we made in our past.