Chapel Talk, 2014 October 8: Why Things Matter / Elizabeth Roach

English Chair Elizabeth Roach discusses the importance of objects to memory, to place in time, and to people. In examining a passage in Cheryl Strayed's writings and in Donna Tartt's novel, The Goldfinch, Elizabeth acknowledges a strong kinship in these expressions to finding deep comfort and meaning through a lost mother's cherished objects. In describing Tad's gathering of his father's items and incorporating them into their home, Elizabeth describes a sense having a home that is now complete. Elizabeth concludes that she will "keep my things, even treasure them, because their meaning comes from the power and resonance of the memory they evoke, the larger beauty they represent, and the little soul contained within each one."