What is the importance of Photographs?

The photographs that Grace finds inside Eleanor’s suitcase represent the implicit duty that Grace feels to pursue the truth of the agents’ fates. Upon first finding the photos, Grace notes that having them feels “too intimate, wrong” but at the same time “dark and beckoning” (18). Grace frequently feels torn about her pursuit of the truth, at times feeling as though it “wasn’t her business” (54) and at others feels “a sense of ownership” (113). The photos represent a connection between the women across time, distance, and circumstance, speaking to the larger connection of women through the difficulties, social or otherwise, they faced.