A Legacy of Noria’s Tears

 

The Memory of Water ended in a very dark and gloomy tone; however, it also gives us a sense of bright hope. After Commander Taro visits Noria to her tea house, I am pretty sure all of us felt very outraged and dissatisfied. Maybe, it might have felt like the scene represented Noria’s defeat to Commander Taro for some of us. We felt angry. We felt something was lost. We felt as if Commander Taro proved his viewpoint of life to be right. A sense of hope seems to be far away from us.

But there is a continuing theme of “legacy.” Even though Noria herself is helplessly gone, Noria still exists in her words. The written record Noria left behind is a great legacy to the future generation. Despite the fact that “we could only summon an indistinct shape whose features and outlines the distance dimmed down (pg. 171),” she left something valuable to be remembered, honored, and appreciated. Noria fought for it. She didn’t survive in the fight in her lifetime; however, she left us a legacy of her tears.

It is painful to see a person proceeds into the next stage of his/her life, which everyone is unclear about. But, there is a side that provides us hope: the footsteps of the person. When Sanja came to visit Noria’s mom, I think it was the most depressing and sentimental scene in the book. But, Sanja brought the seven disks, which are Noria’s findings.

Noria is gone. But Noria is still there.