How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
This is what I remember: Viola is holding my hand. We're at the edge of the field, far from other people. We stand looking out into the middle of that ocean of alfalfa. I can see my mother there, a small white bundle with nothing left, and I can see that it isn't a tragedy we're watching, really. Just a finished life. (28.20-22)
If you're writing on memory in Animal Dreams, this is one quote you're going to have to deal with no matter what. Basically, Kingsolver ends the book with a meditation on memory, but it's pretty interesting, because isn't what Viola says a lot like what Doc has said about memory, and like what Codi rejects: the idea that it's the same thing as truth? And notice how this memory of holding hands with Viola suddenly becomes the memory of watching her mother's body come out of the helicopter? Is Codi remembering, or is she reconstructing her memory as not-tragedy? What would either interpretation mean for the text as a whole?