Memories of a Cachique

Yes, I am continuing the short story about that "Okinawa woman." Her name is Margaret.

Only I am adding a few things into the mix.

The woman, in whose head I practically threw everyone into, is actually someone of mixed race. I want her to be part Asian, part Native American. (Initially, I wanted to put a regular Native American into an Asian setting. There was an account that I read a year back, I believe, of a Native American soldier fighting in the Vietnam War, which inspired this. Now, I'm planning to keep her in America in terms of the setting, and have her born in Japan). This mixture of peoples, I feel, will give a bit more depth and complexity to her own character because part of the frustration she will have builds on this clashing of cultures, in her surroundings and within herself.

In terms of relating this story back to class topics, I would like to pay close attention to the qualia of my female protagonist, particularly to how her qualia, based on her sense of perception, shows not only her fragmented sense of identity, but also her fragmented sense of cognition and thought. I plan to develop some more of her thoughts in order to show that she's not exactly mentally well (I'm want her to have the warning signs of the onset of dementia from end-stage AIDS) and how this impacts those around her--her family especially, as well as her friends.

This is something that I want to explore in what will be an average day for her, told through her perspective, her husband's perspective, and her best friend's perspective. I will also include a third-person limited perspective to distance the reader from the inner conflicts that each of these characters will have, which will hopefully bring the reader closer to having a more objective view of the action that will occur.

Questions on consciousness that I plan to dramatize:

How does one start to construct memory (and preserve/adapt one's sense of self to the present circumstances) once one starts to lose his/her ability to "remember" what got he or she to this point in his or her life? What fears are attached to this? How do those fears influence these processes?

Here are some motivating questions for you:

Do you believe that having multiple perspectives is beneficial to telling Margaret's story (and the story of those around her)? Should there be more than what I have planned to add?

Is there too much on Margaret's plate? Should there be this identity conflict on top of the dementia that she has (she's not going to know she has HIV until the end)?

What other questions do you see coming up related to consciousness (based on what's here)? Or is that too loaded to ask for?

Tell me what you guys think.