This Is What I Know

Abstract

The memoir, This is What I Know, considers the relationship between the narrator and her mother. It uses the lives of the dead to shed light on the lives of the living. The narrative is further complicated by the women's status as members of a minister's family and by the family's code of silence. The mother's life is used as a frame for the ten days prior to her death. The narrator uses memoir form to address issues of how the lives of the dead become myth and the ethical issues inherent in telling the stories of others. The memoir considers how untold histories, myth and memory combine to create an acceptable view of the present.