Metaphors of digging and personal value in Elizabeth is missing

Memory, as Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary says, is the ability to remember things. That ability forms the inner world of every person because we are what we think and what we think depends on what we remember. In other words, memory forms personality.

In Emma Healey’s bestseller Elisabeth is Missing, Maud is an aged woman who is not just forgetful but has a memory defect -dysmnesia. Being afraid of death 'never knowing', she clings to the reminiscences of people and facts that structured her life when she was younger. Maud’s mind desperately catches reminders of those people and facts like a beast scouting the forest for food.

Minor details of everyday life make her mind retrieve the reminiscences which are usually connected to something important for her: for example, chocolate wrappers remind Maud of her husband Patrick, who used to tell her off for eating sweets [p.4]; a sudden pain in her thumb reminds her of Helen’s childhood: ('Helen used to hold my thumb when she was a baby' [p.119]); the feeling of tiredness reminds Maud of her sister Sukey’s disappearance [p.119], Some of the reminiscences not only give Maud a picture from the past but also give her mental and physical health in her present. For example, when Maud thinks of Elisabeth, she says: 'my limbs are suddenly lighter; my back straightens' [p.123]. Some of Maud’s actual habits stem from the past events. For example, her habit to eat toasts is connected to the reminiscences of her mother: 'Toast was practically all Ma would allow me to eat that summer I was ill' [p.123], In these examples, we can see how memory helps Maud to preserve her personality.

Throughout the whole story, we follow Maud as a detective who doesn’t have a definite plan but has a goal. Maud sees the world around her as a chaos distracting her from achieving her goal - to find Elisabeth. Sometimes going through the chaos of strange things, events and scents, Maud comes across clues that take her back to those things that she desires. Then she literally starts digging the ground or digging up rubbish in her waste bin in the hope of finding something that would give her another clue. For example, the fresh and sharp smell of the damp soil reminds Maud of a song and she immediately attempts to find its record in the ground under the apple tree [p.109].

The metaphor of digging corresponds to the process of recalling, which is a recurring motif in the story. We find Maud digging (recalling) almost in every chapter. For example, in Chapter 6 in one of the passages we find Maud having dug up a lot of notes out of the wastepaper basket and having found a compact lid. That passage explains the process of recalling: Maud 'digs up' lots of thoughts and finds the one she has been looking for. The people who have no mental infirmities can easier hold a thought, while Maud often distracts. It makes her build her life around remembering. For example, she comes across a compact lid in a basket filled with wastepaper. Maud says she 'rescued' [p.86] the compact lid. The description of the lid is remarkable: it is 'scratched, blue and silver' [p.86], in other words, old but valuable, like reminiscences that structure Maud’s life. The wastepaper basket and Maud’s chaotic system of notes explain how Maud’s memory works: she picks up memories and associations randomly, trying to connect them.

The compact lid is one of the most significant things Maud is looking for. It first appears in the Prologue, where we find out that Maud values it: 'it makes me squirm with memories' [p.l], 'I’ve missed this tiny thing for nearly seven years' [p.2], says Maud. The compact is important for understanding the whole novel: each compact has two lids, just like Maud’s narration has two lines: Sukey’s and Elisabeth’s. Among the other things that trigger Maud’s memory and make her not only alive but also living are shells, which are connected to Sukey’s and Elisabeth’s lines, too. Shells appear throughout the whole story in different forms like reminders or hints on something that is hidden in Maud’s mind: 'I feel as if I am inside of a shelf [p.103], 'of course, we’re really in a sort of cafe, not a shelf [p.104], 'I held a shell to my ear, letting the hollow gush drown their voices...' [p.106], '...and there was the constant roll of waves close to my ear, though I had no shells to listen to' [p. 120].The reminiscences of shells and the compact somehow support Maud’s mind in understanding of the current situation.

Memory is one of the main topics in the novel Elizabeth is Missing. It is often compared with the process of digging; memory is shown like a chaotic system of notes. These comparisons explain how Maud’s memory works: she rummages inside her memory and associations trying to connect them. Despite the lack of order, it supports Maud’s mind in understanding the world. Since memory forms personality, collecting and preserving the reminiscences becomes for Maud a vital task.

Darya Ryabova,

Two Natures: Many Ways

Men and women relationships have always been a burning issue to discuss and if s obvious for me that its rather rampant nowadays. Each day thousands of men and women try to mate for life. But the development of a healthy relationship is a “day-to-day work”, a challenging endeavor. And before the partners reach the marriage stage, they have to pass several over stages: to learn each other's domestic side, to meet each other's parents, to learn each other's take on the child-rearing and many other things. Some people get married