Slow Dance

Rowell employs memory as both a thematic motif and a structural device, allowing Shiloh and Cary’s past to inform their present and future. On their senior prom night, Cary gets angry when Shiloh refuses to participate and “make memories.” The experience exposes a difference in the way Cary and Shiloh view memory. While Shiloh considers every moment of her life a memory, Cary insists that the brain only remembers certain events. He explains, “The brain makes note of novelty. Broken patterns. The more we do the same things, the more they blend together” (51). In college, Shiloh attempts to influence the making of a memory by initiating sex with Cary, hoping it will fix him in her memory. Instead, she’s left with the memory of their conflict, which results in the dissolution of their relationship for over a decade. As an adult, Shiloh feels haunted by her memories, especially of her high school years and her intense, formative relationship with Cary. For Shiloh, the past is where she felt deeply connected to Cary, which connected her to a sense of identity and belonging that she struggles to find in the present prior to their reconnection.