Animal Dreams Memory Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

This is my problem—I clearly remember things I haven't seen, sometimes things that never happened. And draw a blank on the things I've lived through. (5.97)

Codi's big point here is that without a sense of what's true, it's difficult to trust an idea of who you are. Notice how she is always putting herself down? We think she might remember some of that stuff wrong.

Quote #2

Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth but not its twin. (5.98)

Memory is like, "Sure, I'll hang out with you at the reunion, truth, but I'm not buying a two-thousand-dollar plane ticket for your destination wedding in Guam." In other words, memory and truth aren't the same thing, and sometimes they don't even get along. Just because you remember something, that doesn't mean it's true.

Quote #3

As plainly as anything then, I remembered trying to save the coyotes from the flood. My ears filled with the roar of the flooded river and my nose with the strong stench of mud. I gripped the armrest of Loyd's truck to keep the memory from drowning my senses. I heard my own high voice commanding Hallie to stay with me. And then, later, asking Doc Homer, "Will they go to heaven?" I couldn't hear his answer, probably because he didn't have one. (16.177)

When Codi remembers things from her past, it's totally immersive. Like Doc, she seems to travel in time in her thoughts. It's sort of ironic that her memory, when she does have it, is so incredibly vivid—maybe an indication of the fact that she feels things deeply in general.