Memories In Lee Smith's The Happy Memories Club

Lee Smith’s “The Happy Memories Club” shares the perspective of an elderly woman, who is a former English teacher, in a retirement facility. The two main themes of this story are focused on memory. The idea that a person maintaining their memories gives them the ability to feel a sense of security plays a major role throughout the story. Another concept that is prominent in the story is that every memory, no matter how seemingly insignificant, holds equal importance in the grand scheme of life. The themes of the story are closely related in that they find common ground in memories. Smith uses “It is the end; our memories are all we’ve got” to introduce the crucial role that memories play in the story (600). In the story, collective memories

Mrs. Scully returns to the writing group and is informed that they have taken the official name “Happy Memories Club” and plan to only share pleasant memories. The title of the club in does not fit well with Mrs. Scully because she feels that all memories are important, not just the happy ones. The good and bad memories make up who a person is. She goes on to finish telling the story of her youth, but is interrupted by other members who feel that the story does not meet the club’s standards. The leader of the club begins to criticize Mrs. Scully by saying, “I simply cannot believe that a former English teacher –,” when she is cut off by Mrs. Scully leaving (610). Mrs. Scully finds the phrase amusing because she feels that she is the same person. Even though she no longer teaches she feels like being an English teacher is something that will always be a part of her. She remembers all of the rules she used to preach to her students and it is almost as if the clubs leader is trying to take this from her. She doesn’t want to have to choose what memories to write about based on their level of appropriateness for the club because to Mrs. Scully all of her memories are of equal significance. She goes on to share a rule she used to teach about semicolons and how “it is like a scale; it must have items of equal rank” (610). This is placed there to emphasis memories holding the same level of importance to one