Some Themes
- Repetition: The memoir revolves around themes of repetition. Vilar says, “Repetition informs my life” (Vilar 4). In this memoir, patterns are repeated generation after generation.
- Abandonment: “Someone goes and some stays” (Vilar 66). Whether through migration or suicide, abandonment and its aftermath are key issues in this text.
- Motherhood: By focusing on three generations of women, all of whom experience unplanned and/or unwanted pregnancy, this memoir explores the complexity of motherhood. Vilar says, “A missing mother—and one of whom not even her photographs remain—is a problem” (Vilar 29).
- Identity: This memoir explores the legacy of violence and history, both personal and political, in the individual’s life. It also examines the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico and what this means for the identity of those with Puerto Rican origins.
Read more about this topic: The Ladies' Gallery: A Memoir Of Family Secrets
Famous quotes containing the word themes:
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In economics, we borrowed from the Bourbons; in foreign policy, we drew on themes fashioned by the nomad warriors of the Eurasian steppes. In spiritual matters, we emulated the braying intolerance of our archenemies, the Shi’ite fundamentalists.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)