Memories
Meena has compared the memories of her past with mango fruits. She used to live her grandfather sitting among the mango and cashew trees. While writing her memoir, she became overwhelmed by her past memories. She says, "I sit here writing, for I know that time does not come fluid and whole into my trembling hands. All that is here comes piecemeal, though sometimes the joints have fallen into place miraculously, as if the heavens had opened and mango trees fruited in the rough asphalt of upper Broadway.'' She says that the she feels like heaven has opened and the mangoes are falling in the upper story.
She has also compared time with fluid and asserts that time does flow like a fluid in her hands. The memories doesn't come in a smooth way instead, they come in the form of pieces.
Fault Lines
The metaphor of fault lines has been used by the writer to visualize the uprooting that she encounters in the course of her life. This term was used by the geologists to refer to the cracks in earth and Meena Alexander has used this term to metaphorically describe the cracks in her life. Meena lived a life of an immigrant. She moved from one place to another because of her father's posting and she suffered from a state of homelessness. It affected her mentally and she underwent a traumatic phase in life. Her memoir is evocative of her traumatic life and her yearnings for her beautiful life in India with her family.
Death
Meena has metaphorically described her journey from Kerala to Khartoum as a figuration of death. She was very close to her family especially her grandfather Ilya who was responsible for his acumen in political matters. She reminisces about his smile in the garden in which they used to sit, surrounded by cashew and mango trees. She says, “The first ocean crossing obsessed me. I think of it as a figuration of death” The memories of her childhood haunted her and she suffered the trauma of displacement and a life in exile. She used to weep for hours and she yearns to go back to her home. Although she visited her home in the vacations and met her grandfather but still she couldn't embrace the change in her life.
Nonentity
The author has employed the metaphor of nonentity for herself to describe her identity crisis. Meena's life was a continuous journey from one place to another. She moved to different places and encountered various cultures since her childhood including Allahabad, Kerala, Tiruvella, Sudan, Kozencheri, Pune, Kartoum, London, Delhi, Hyderabad, NewYork. She learned different languages in all places which include Malayalam, Hindi, English, Arabic and French. She frequently asks herself “Who Am I? Where was I at any time? Where was I?” She tries to find an identity for herself. She describes herself as “I am a woman cracked by multiple migrations, uprooted so many times." She suffers from existential crisis and questions her existence.
