How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
At the end of his life, when his ninety years had turned him into a twisted, fragile tree, Esteban Trueba would recall those moments with his granddaughter as the happiest of his whole existence. (9.27)
Memory does a lot of things in the novel, such as help the narrator see connections between family members and understand present events. But perhaps one of its simplest and most satisfying functions is to provide a measure of happiness to Esteban Trueba in his old age.
Quote #5
When Alba asked to hear these bizarre stories again, Blanca could not repeat them, for she had forgotten them. This led the little girl to write the stories down. (10.30)
Alba takes up her Grandmother Clara's practice of writing down things she wants to remember – another connection the two women share.
Quote #6
She recalled the past as a series of violent acts, abandonment, and sorrows, and she was not certain things had been the way she remembered. The episode of the mummies, the photographs, and the hairless Indian in Louis XV shoes that had prompted her flight from her husband's house had grown hazy with time. She had told and retold the story of the count's death of fever in the desert so often that she had come to believe it. (10.59)
Silence, for Blanca, helps erase the memory of unpleasant events in her past. Likewise, the repetition of stories that are pure fiction only serves to solidify them until even the storyteller begins to confuse these tales with the facts.