The Memory Keeper, by Masha Gessen

Sample Solution

    One example of the raw and painful segments of Voices from Chernobyl is when author Svetlana Alexievich describes the aftermath of the explosion at the nuclear plant. She details how people were forced to evacuate their homes, leaving everything behind in a hurry.

“They hadn’t even taken their most precious things: photographs, albums…they left their kitties and puppies behind” (Alexievich 24). This not only shows how desperate these people had become in such a short amount of time, but also that they had to leave some of the few reminders they had from happier times before the disaster occurred. The stories that follow this exemplify Gessen's description by presenting accounts from survivors who describe heartbreaking scenes with brutal honesty. For instance, one survivor talks about being given pills at a hospital shortly after radiation was released into the environment due to the explosion. He said he asked what it was for, and was told “It doesn’t matter what it is—just take it! There are no other options! So I took them…It felt like my stomach exploded inside me” (Alexievich 30). The rawness of this account shows both his confusion over why he was given medication without explanation, as well as his desperation to take anything offered because there weren't any other options available to him. Another example comes from Oleg B., who gives an account of having attended school just days after the explosion happened: “all week long we studied chemistry…but nobody looked in our textbooks…We just sat there silently looking out windows or watched puffy clouds moving across sky” (Alexievich 31). This expresses how all sense of normalcy has been lost during this catastrophic event; although classes were still taking place as usual, they lacked any kind of focus on actually learning material as everyone was too preoccupied with worrying about how dangerous their situation could be if radiation spread further beyond what it already had. Finally, another part that illustrates Gessen's point is when Alexievich speaks to Tanya K., whose father died soon after becoming exposed to radiation while working at Chernobyl: “I remember crying so hard I couldn't catch my breath…I felt empty inside—like a bottomless hole” (Alexievich 38). The vividness with which she recounts her emotions demonstrate both her immense pain and despair over losing someone close to her in such horrendous circumstances due to something out of anyone's control--a feeling many people have experienced throughout history but expressed through words here thanks to Alexevich's work on Voices From Chernobyl