Reflections on Memoirs - Essay Example

Reflections on Memoirs The memoir is a powerful thing that can reveal more than just a history. The remembrances of an individual can open the heart and soul of a memory, rather than just state the facts and list the events. Perspective is drawn from the way in which a memory is remembered and the revelations of how that memory had an effect. In reading the work of Paul Auster, the lack of knowledge of the man, but only of the details that surrounded his father, revealed something of his relationship that was poignant and real. Cornelius Eady reveals how writing a memoir can be done in many forms and the feelings and effect of a time can be revealed in order to understand the way it has impacted the present. Persepolis further shows how artistic creation can reflect memory in new a interesting ways. Marjane Satrapi brings to life her childhood memories, tied with important events in a way that speaks from her unique perspective as a child. Memory and the way in which a memoir are constructed connect the personal perspective to the events of time. The work of Paul Auster reveals the way in which family does not always find a way to connect to one another. The way in which Auster remembers his father is shown, not through an understanding of his father’s emotional context, but through the revelations that come from looking at his things and imagining what they represented to him. Auster uses his memories about his father to reveal something of him. While one can never remember what someone else was thinking, the evidence of their life can show many things about them. The way in which the house was used as a metaphor for his life also provided a metaphor for his relationship with his father. A pervasive emptiness can be felt through reading the work. The life of his father is not something he directly understands, but it is only through an understanding of the evidence of his life that he is able to come to some conclusions. The interesting thing about this type of perspective is that it might not fully reveal anything that is true. The house may not have been where his father truly lived, where the real evidence of his personality resided. It may have been in a locker at a gym, in the trunk of his car, or even at his place of work, but the only evidence Auster can use is the evidence he sees. The emptiness that he attributes to his father may have been the reflection of Auster’s feelings about his father, rather than a truth. I once found letters that my father had written to my mother. I too had felt that my father’s life was empty, but when I read those letters, the only evidence I had of his love for my mother, I was given a whole new perspective on my own family. My father’s emotional core was never evident in his home, even though he loved his home. The evidence that I had was very similar to the evidence that Auster had available to him - until I found those letters. Those letters revealed a passion for life, and specifically for my mother, that I had never attributed to him. As I read Auster’s work, I was struck by the similarity of our situation. While he had evidence of a horrible truth of his father’s life, I found evidence of an emotional nature, giving me something that Auster didn’t have. I was able to understand the difference between the perspective of truth and the actual truth. While Auster had to depend on his perspective, the letters that I found provided a framework in which to understand my father’s emotions. In contrast, Cornelius Eady clearly reveals his own feelings and emotions about the events that he writes about. While Auster’s memoir is reflected through the evidence of his father’s life, thus revealing something of his own, Eady uses his own life experiences to educate others on the impact of events within history. As he speaks about the Susan Smith murder of her children and how she blamed in on a black man, he is able to convey the frustration of stereotyping black men as violent and cruel. He reveals himself in contrast to the cultural perspective of stereotyping black men in order to defy this imposed, perceived threat that through skin color alone has brought a distinct oppression. The work is highly emotionally charged and the impact of his experience is strong. Marjane Satrapy, on the other hand, brings the events of her childhood in Iran during the late 1970’s and 1980’s to light through the eyes of her childhood mind. The emotions are simple, the way a child would feel them about childhood events, without any volatility, but rather through the simple feelings of how the impact was brought to her life. As an example, the work she does about the veil shows she and her friends were not happy about having to wear them, but that it does not stop their play, but rather becomes a tool of play. The faces of the girls are frustrated, yet not torn or broken (Satrapi). One can almost see their eyes rolling and the shaking of their heads, but then the spirit of the child taking over as they used it as a bridle, a jump rope, or a place to hide. Using this type of referencing, the time period is opened up and personalized, showing the impact of events that happened around her. Emotions within memoirs are limited to the person who is experiencing them. The interesting thing about a memoir is that the emotional content can be restrained as it does not always show a fully developed sense of how the events impacted the world. The impact is centrally located on the individual, from whose perspective all of the content must be drawn. Even in the work of Austere, who was examining the life of his father, one can see that the emotions are not restrained and without a strong voice, as it is only one voice that is being heard, that of Austere. The same is true for Satrapi as she expresses the way in which the events impacted her life, leaving the emotional content a bit dry as it would be from the perspective of a child who cannot fully process the sorrows and joys of a time period. The exception, of course, is Eady as he develops a discourse about the cultural impact of his pain. Because he comes from the perspective of a full understanding, he is able to more fully convey his experience. The lack of fully developed emotions has a great deal of value in providing revelations about the lives of the writers, as does the sociologically developed emotional argument that Eady makes. The way in which the emotions are somewhat absent is just as important as the ones that are available to the writer to express. Memory is a strange thing as it shifts and molds around the many ways in which the emotions of a time affect the memory of the time. As in the example of the veil for Satrapi, the joy of childhood is revealed as the girls run about with high energy, using the veil as a toy, with the contrast of their reactions as they sit in a row, repressed, and annoyed by the experience. Any terrible consequences that women experienced by not wearing the veil are not evident, only the two aspects, one of repression and the other of the breaking free of that repression. Understanding the effects of emotions in context to experience is a valuable tool that I will use when I approach my own writing. It seems far easier to write about the full emotional development of an event, rather than the tightened perspective of one individual. However, the power of personal experience provides a framework in which to more fully understand the things that happen within a life. Whether the emotions are tightly bound and without a full understanding of them, or whether they are fully realized and put into cultural context, the way in which they create a commentary impacts the way in which the writing reveals something of the writer. Works Cited Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis. Barcelona: Norma, 2009. Print. Read More