In the play, “Memory House,” Kathleen Tolan writes about a separated mother, Maggie, and father, and a daughter, Katia, living in the middle of the separation. Katia feels torn between her father’s beliefs and her mother’s wishes as well as her own. She takes out her anger on her mother while struggling to work through their split. A character who outwardly conforms while questioning inwardly is Maggie, acting as though her daughter should be moving on from the divorce between her parents while internally recognizing the difficult time she is going through herself. This contributes to the overall meaning that divorce is very hard on not only children, but parents as well, by showing how a mother attempting to accept divorce for the sake of her child can cause her internal…show more content… Fuck it. Crash and burn. Go for it. I don’t give a flying fuck (37),” along with, “Why are you here, anyway? Why did you come over? Why have you parked yourself in my living room? Why don’t you go crash and burn at Daddy’s? I have things to do (37).” These outbursts are due to Maggie’s attempts at outwardly acting fine getting the best of her and causing her to instead attack Katia for her own struggles. This shows how divorce is hard on parents, too. Kathleen Tolan writes this play for the purpose of relating to much of society today. Since the play was written in modern times, many divorced couples and children of divorced parents can relate to the setting and conversational habits. Tolan’s goal is to show children of divorced parents the struggle that parents go through with separation as well. As a whole, the tension between Katia’s outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the meaning of “Memory House” as a whole by conveying a mother’s struggle to appear fine on the outside while struggling a lot on the
