Introduction The book titled Memory of Silence and written by Uva De Aragon tells the readers a touching story of two sisters who were separated because of the Cuban Revolution that broke out unexpectedly and affected the lives of many Cubans. The main characters of the story are Menchu and Lauri, twin sisters with a common past that is divided by their present life choices, as Menchu remains in Cuba, and Lauri leaves for Miami. Despite the fact that Lauri and Menchu did not talk to each other for the next forty years, they shared identical values and secrets. Throughout the Memory of Silence , De Aragon describes the lives of both sisters and shows that sometimes, reconciling may be painful but still a much better option than remaining silent for a long time. As for Lucy , it was written by Jamaica Kincaid, and it contained a great deal of autobiographical information. Lucy, the main character of the story, leaves Antigua for the United States in search of a better life. She becomes an au pair but quickly starts longing after her hometown and her family because she had never left her mother. Despite the presence of unresolved feelings related to her interpersonal relationships, Lucy is willing to grow both personally and professionally. At the end of the day, Kincaid portrays a rather cynical and close-to-life transition from childhood to middle age, with all of its struggles and challenges. Differences: The Theme of Sibling Relationships in Memory of Silence Even though both Lucy and Memory of Silence contain a great deal of family-related content, the theme of family is addressed in De Aragon’s novel in richer detail. The commonalities and differences characteristic of the two sisters represent an allusion to the Cuban Revolution and how the common past of close relatives could be divided by unprecedented events. The mutual sense of rejection and betrayal that follows the split is what moves the theme of sibling conflict forward and creates more than just a physical restraint caused by Lauri’s relocation to Miami (De Aragon 58). The silence that both sisters keep afterward is what De Aragon utilizes to reinforce the idea that the feelings of abandonment and emptiness cannot be replaced by anything else rather than communication and reconciliation. Nevertheless, twin sisters do not care about reconciliation for at least forty years despite similar achievements. Throughout the novel, Lauri and Menchu long for each other, but the voices of their memories speak louder than their willingness to overcome pride and settle. The circumstances that each of the sisters has to go through represent the complex way of coming to a realization that nothing matters except for the close ones – regardless of how distant they could have become over the years. Lauri and Menchu wanted to know more about each other, meaning that they were interested in studying their inner selves. De Aragon allegorically touches upon Cuba’s past and turns it into a story about twin sisters who decided to stay in silence instead of speaking up and discussing their differences. The siblings are not two separate characters, but rather two parts of a greater whole who were artificially alienated with the help of a marine “iron curtain” (De Aragon 199). The author of Memory of Silence manages to highlight the differences of the Cuban “twins” – the Cuban diaspora and the islanders – while a