Legacy and Memory: How Call Me Athena Preserves the Past

Defining the Thematic Claim

In Call Me Athena, Colby Cedar Smith weaves a story that interrogates what it means to remember and be remembered. The novel’s central thematic claim emerges from the tension between personal loss and the enduring nature of inherited stories: memory is fragile and can be consumed like a brush fire, yet legacy survives through deliberate acts of storytelling, object-keeping, and imagination. Smith’s own family history—a grandmother who lost her memories to Alzheimer’s, ship manifests, blurred photographs, and oral traditions—forms the scaffolding for this exploration. Rather than offering a fixed record of the past, the book argues that legacy is not about factual accuracy but about emotional truth and the act of passing a story forward.

Symbolic Foundations: Brush Fire, Manifest, and Photographs

Three key symbols in the narrative anchor the theme of legacy and memory. The brush fire appears in the opening poem as a metaphor for grief. Mary describes how a cinder grows into an uncontrollable blaze: “Once the spark grows, / it has a will / of its own.” This image mirrors the way memory can disappear—not gradually, but with sudden, consuming force. Alzheimer’s, which erased Mary’s own recollections, operates similarly: a small forgetfulness spirals into total loss. The “useless bucket” in Mary’s hands evokes the helplessness felt by those who watch a loved one’s memories vanish. Yet the very act of writing the poem preserves this moment of helplessness, transforming grief into art. The fire becomes a symbol not only of destruction but also of what remains after—the ash that holds traces of what once was.

The RMS Olympic manifest functions as a tangible link to ancestors. Smith includes a photograph of the actual document listing her great-grandparents Giorgos and Jeanne. The manifest is a bureaucratic artifact—a list of names, ages, and destinations—but it carries immense emotional weight. Smith notes that her own first name, “Colby,” appears on the document in the porter’s handwriting, which she interprets as a sign she was meant to write the story. Here, the manifest represents a fragile bridge between past and present: it is both an official record and a personal talisman. The fact that Smith alters the ship’s sailing date in the novel (moving it from 1920 to 1918) reveals that legacy is not about strict historical fidelity but about honoring the spirit of a journey.

The third symbol is the blurred photograph of Mary as a child, described in the Author’s Note. Smith recalls her great-grandmother Jeanne’s disappointment because Mary’s wiggling foot ruined the image. Yet the photograph survives—imperfectly—and becomes a cherished record. The blur symbolizes memory’s inherent instability: we never have a perfectly clear picture of the past. What we preserve are fragments, often flawed, yet still valuable. Smith reproduces multiple family photographs in the novel, each one marking a moment that might otherwise be forgotten.

Character Connections: Mary, Giorgos, Jeanne, and the Author

The character of Mary Skandalaris is the emotional center of the legacy theme. In the novel, she is a young woman in 1934 Detroit grappling with grief. But the real Mary—Smith’s grandmother—was a gifted storyteller who held rooms with her humor. Smith writes the book “mainly for my grandmother Mary,” who became a successful businesswoman in the 1950s and defied gender norms. Mary’s struggle with Alzheimer’s before her death underscores the theme: even the most vivid memories can be erased. Yet Smith insists that “her stories live on—in our memories and in this book.” Mary’s character embodies the paradox of legacy: she loses her own memory but becomes immortalized through a narrative crafted by her granddaughter.

The great-grandparents, Giorgos and Jeanne Skandalaris, are strangers to Smith—she never knew them. Their journeys from Greece and France are reconstructed from “a few historical documents, research, travels to Europe, and stories.” This reconstruction is an act of memory by proxy. Smith imagines their experiences, filling gaps with empathy rather than evidence. Jeanne, a French immigrant, and Giorgos, a Greek immigrant, represent the diverse roots that shaped Mary’s identity. Their presence in the ship manifest ties the novel to a documented past, even as their personalities are invented. The author becomes a custodian of their legacy, blending research with invention.

The author herself, Colby Cedar Smith, is a character within the metatext of the Author’s Note. Her decision to write the novel arises from a felt obligation: “At times, the story became so strong and insistent that it felt like my ancestors were whispering in my ear, telling me what to write.” This spiritual dimension of legacy—the sense that the dead are speaking—elevates the act of writing to a form of reverence. Smith’s inclusion of her own name on the manifest reinforces her belief that she was chosen to tell this story. Thus, the novel becomes an extension of the Skandalaris lineage, a living document.

Contradictions and Complexity

The theme of legacy and memory is not presented without tension. Smith openly admits in the Author’s Note that she “changed the actual events quite a bit.” This raises questions about truth and responsibility. If memory is unreliable, can a fictionalized account still serve as a legacy? Smith answers implicitly: legacy is not a transcript but an essence. The emotional truths of poverty, immigration, and the fight for independence are preserved even if specific dates or names are altered. The Alzheimer’s narrative introduces another contradiction—Mary forgot her past, yet the book claims to represent her memories. This paradox is resolved through the idea of communal memory: what one person cannot remember, others can hold. The family oral traditions passed through Mary’s siblings and children become the raw material for Smith’s reconstruction.

The brush fire metaphor also complicates the theme. Fire consumes, but it also clears ground for new growth. Grief may destroy, but the act of writing about grief creates something lasting. Similarly, Alzheimer’s erases individual memory but does not destroy the memory held by descendants. The novel itself is a product of that cyclical process—loss gives way to creation.

Legacy in the Author’s Note: A Case Study

The Author’s Note serves as the most direct statement on legacy and memory in the book. Smith describes how she never met her great-grandparents and relied on fragmentary sources. She includes photographs of Mary at different ages—age 18, age 21, and age 92 hugging her great-granddaughter. This visual timeline illustrates the arc of a life that might otherwise be forgotten. The photograph of Mary wiggling her foot, considered a failure by Jeanne, becomes a beloved artifact precisely because it captures Mary’s restless energy. The note also reveals that Smith wrote the book after Mary’s memory was gone, making the act of writing a posthumous gift. The final line—“her stories live on—in our memories and in this book”—declares the thematic resolution: legacy is not passive inheritance but active preservation.

Study Questions and Answers

1. How does the brush fire metaphor in Chapter 1 relate to the theme of memory loss in the novel?
   The brush fire represents the uncontrollable nature of grief, which parallels the erosion of memory caused by Alzheimer’s. The cinder that grows into a blaze mirrors how small forgetfulness can escalate into comprehensive loss. The “useless bucket” symbolizes the helplessness of those who witness a loved one’s memories disappear. However, the existence of the poem itself shows that art can preserve the experience of loss.

2. Why does Colby Cedar Smith include the RMS Olympic manifest and family photographs in the Author’s Note?
   These objects serve as tangible evidence of the family’s past. The manifest documents Giorgos and Jeanne’s immigration, while the photographs capture Mary at key life stages. They ground the fictionalized story in real history and demonstrate that legacy can be carried through physical artifacts, even when personal memories fade.

3. In what ways does the novel suggest that legacy involves both truth and invention?
   Smith explicitly states she changed historical events. Yet the book aims to convey emotional truth—the struggles of immigrant families, the fight for women’s independence, and the pain of loss. The concept of “listening to the voices” of ancestors suggests that imaginative reconstruction is a legitimate way to honor the past. Legacy, then, is not about factual accuracy but about preserving the spirit of those who came before.

4. How does the character of Mary (the grandmother) embody the tension between remembered and forgotten stories?
   Mary was a gifted storyteller who entertained her family with tales of her youth. However, Alzheimer’s erased her personal memories. Smith writes the book for Mary, using the stories Mary once told as a foundation. Mary’s own memory loss becomes the very reason the stories need to be fixed in writing—otherwise they would be lost forever. She is both the source and the absence at the heart of the novel.

5. What does the blurred photograph of Mary as a child suggest about the nature of memory and legacy?
   The blur symbolizes memory’s inherent imperfection. Jeanne considered the photograph a failure because Mary moved, but the family preserved it anyway. This choice suggests that flawed records are still valuable. Memory is never completely clear, and legacy does not require perfection. The wiggling foot becomes a cherished detail, representing Mary’s lively spirit—a detail that a perfectly sharp image might have omitted.