Memory In Toby's Room

Memory is a thing of bewilderment. Memory not only creates a housing for memorizing a formula or book, but at its forefront good and bad memories, which can be accessed by the beholder at any time. In the novel Toby’s Room by Pat Barker, Elinor, one of the main characters, seems to be in a sort of crisis within her memory functions after she experiences mental distress from unfortunate experiences. The effect throughout the novel is that Elinor cannot have a clear perception of reality since she encounters and sometimes creates herself some kind of distortion like when she cannot escape her past by painting settings of her past, or even in some of her social experiences that ultimately leads to nostalgia.

The representation of looking in

There were other times in which Elinor became entangled into the past, which made Elinor loath the present. One of those times was when Dr. Tonks offers her a job as a sketch artist, “ ‘I am not sure I can do it. But yes, I’ll give it a go. Tonks says he’ll help, he says I can go back to the Slade, one day a week, if I want. Feels a bit like flying backwards . . .” (200). The question could then be, why is it that she wants to go back to a place that reminds her of the past? To which the answer could be that she wants to go to the past, and evidently be in the past, presumably with Toby during a much happier time to try and deal with the death and crumbling society that were the product of the Great War. By taking that job in a way works to produce a nostalgic escape for Elinor, it creates this kind of time warp effect. Similarly, places that Elinor visits also remind her of such happy times: “ [a]ll the way to Oxford on the train I was wondering whether the garden in winter would still be as beautiful as I remember it. The last time I was there was the second week in May. Toby was still alive” (232). Hence, although it might not be intended to have such an effect, nostalgia produces a better time to help Elinor recuperate with what is going on in the