A memoir is an account of facts and experiences about the life of an individual. The word memoir comes from the french "mémoire" which means "memory". Memoirs are narratives usually told from the first-person point of view (the author is the protagonist) telling us about an experience that makes the reader reflect upon a speific theme.
Memoirs have a couple of main elements that are essential, these are: Narrative (it is told as if it was a story), Truth (but it contains factual and true information), Voice (first person point of view), Theme (they focus on a specific theme or part of the life of a person, not on the whole life), Answers (it reflects upon action and asks questions so than then answers can be provided).
An idiom is when a phrase is used, but is not physically appropriate and not happening. Hitting the sack means to fall asleep, not actually hitting a sack :)
The theme of Excerpt from A Daughter of the Sea is to never give up. When Lien and Shani discover that a pilot whale is in danger of beaching itself and dying, the two girls and other members of the Biology Club decide to keep the whale from beaching itself until help arrives.
