The Theme of a Novel

We are captives of memory
Memory influences our life and the past often steals the present from us; the past influences the emotions and actions of everyone in the novel, especially Declan, but also including Bernard and the other characters. This is the main theme. The novel is called” A Thief in the House of Memory”; the novel has already told us in the title that the novel is concerned with memory and its theft of our present, although the thief is Denny who wants to steal a   watch in the big house. However, the past is a powerful thief indeed.

Declan, an always depressed adolescent, liked to recall the happy memories of the past of his mother, and he expected to find the true reason why his mother left him when he was 10 years old. As a matter of fact, he was negatively influenced by them which led to him being unable to accept Birdie who would be his step-mother because he couldn’t forget the past, even though Birdie has been looking after him very carefully for a long time. By the author’s description of Declan, some irrefutable evidence has demonstrated that Declan liked Birdie, but he couldn’t allow anyone to replace the status of his mother in his heart :” And before Declan could say a word-before he could say that he loved her more than anything in the world”. (P94) Sometimes, the past makes the present reality unreal to Declan, but his dreams seem real. This point is best illustrated with the example of a conversation: ”Dec said to Ezra,’ I’ve being seeing a lot of my mother lately’ “.(P103)   Ironically, the truth is that his mother never came back, and his mother didn’t care about anyone but herself. The memory of his mother makes Declan think his mother cares about him. At the end of the novel, fortunately, the truth has been brought to light so that Decline knows that why his mother left the whole family, and he has escaped from his memories and his past so that he will adapt to his current situation and what he has to face. Consider P175 for...