Mirror Image – Lena Coakley

Alice was the first person in the world to survive a brain transplant. She was involved in a terrible accident and the only way to keep her alive was to place her in Gail Jarred’s body. She used to have the same copper red hair and freckles as her identical twin sister has. Her new body has large dark brown eyes and portrayed to have a lean, athletic body. Alice has mixed emotions about everything that has happened to her. In her new body, she feels more confident due to her new appearance but she is also confused and uncomfortable about all the changes in her life. This drastic change causes her to feel insecure and confused about her identity. By the end of the story, Alice is unsure on whether or not she is truly still herself. PLOT

The two most significant plot events in this story are the birthday party and when Alice encounters Mr. Jarred for the first time. When the family are celebrating Alice’s and her sister Jenny’s birthday the author presents flashbacks to show how strong the bond used to be between the two sisters and it was also the time when Jenny reveals her insight on all her sister’s changes and explains them to her. The significance of when Alice meets Mr. Jarred is that he helps her with the stuggle of finding her identity. She realizes that what identifies her isn’t her body or brain but her soul.

WRITER’S CRAFT
This short story uses an allusion and metaphor to compare the Alice in this story to the Alice of another story, Alice In Wonderland. They both have similar journeys of self discovery. Symbolisms the author uses are: earlier in the story, Alice recalls a statement that her father once made was that eyes symbolized a mirror of the soul. But the biggest symbolism is that the whole story demonstrates the inner struggle people have with finding their identity and their place in the world.

THEME
The theme to this story is that what really defines our identity is not our body or our brain but our soul. The best supporting evidence to this theme was when Mr. Jarred looked into Alice’s eyes (the mirror of the soul) and didn’t see her his daughter.This event solved her unsureness on whether she was really still there and that her body didn’t contain her identity.