Neil Genzlinger The Problem With Memoir Analysis

My reflective thoughts on Donald Murray's "All writing is Autobiography", are easily aligned with this work as it continuously offered textual examples to the reader from fiction and non-fictional viewpoints, as to the fundamental notion that all writing is autobiography. Murray without a doubt creates an argument about the affect a person's experience shape the outcome of any work a writer may produce, in which I agree. For example, Donald Murray's poem "Black Ice" is written with an autobiographical voice, although most details did not take place-- he admits, but the poem continued to bring forth an organic rhythm of story telling without any hints of small truths while Murray injects the extra influencing details. Murray

William Zinsser is the person that wrote “How To Write A Memoir ”. William Zinsser gave us some advice to write a memoir. These specific advices are “Be Yourself”,” Speak Freely”, and “Think Small”. In Bad Boy, Walter Dean Myer memoir uses Zinsser advice but not in a exact way Zinsser wrote his memoir. Zinsser give us suggestions such as “Be Yourself” , ”It Your Story”, and “Think Small”.

In Zinsser’s “How to Write a Memoir” he gives you three pieces of advice, be yourself, speak freely, and think small. I’m going to be comparing these three pieces of advice to my memoir I’ve read ”Guts”. I will be writing at least 5 paragraphs minimum for my essay. Now that I told you what I’m going to be doing, lets get right to it!

Imagine a memoir with skillfully alternating chapters between two characters that have distinct differences. It 's what sets James McBride 's chronicle from your average, everyday book as this story as he packs a healthy amount of content such as issues of race, religion, and identity into one paperback. Published in February 1998, it maintained the New York Times bestseller list for over 2 Years, won the 1997 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Literary Excellence, was an ALA Notable Book of the Year, and has sold more than 1.5 million copies. It has been published in 16 languages and in more than 20 countries. It is an autobiography that sort of strays away from the common formula, however it still retains the core welcoming feeling you get when you can relate to the characters. McBride recognizes what a wonder his mother is when she raised 12 kids and gets her to open her secretive past.

Memoirs, and writing in general, reveal a truth about the author. Oftentimes, said truth is revealed intentionally. Universal truths such as struggle, endurance, and agony help authors influence their audiences. These truths cause the readers to become cognizant of and appreciate the authors. It is a writer’s duty to write from the heart—to write about the good and bad sides of a story. Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood fails to use universal truths and instead presents a very superficial presentation of its author’s life. J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis display the unconventional upbringing of Vance in order to give the audience a better understanding of the writer. Pure honesty

Depending on the time period and context, memoirs can have several purposes: to tell a story, to make meaning of an experience, and to reflect or teach. For example, in Engle Margarita’s memoir entitled “Enchanted Air: Two Cultures, Two Win”, the author’s purpose is to tell an interesting story about she is a person who grows up of two different cultures -- Cuba and California. She also makes a meaning of her experience -- how important influence is the two countries had brought to her growth. He/she achieves this purpose by using the following elements: memories & meanings and self-reflection.

What makes a good story intresting is, being able to connect it to a person’s self in a way that might inspire other people. Jerry Waxler had 8 reasons to read a memoir. Inspirations based on life experiences and loss is one of the many good reasons to read memoirs. This means that, taking past or current experiences a person may have encountered and use that as inspiration for anybody. In memoirs like The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, American Born Chinese, and The Color Purple, there are many examples in which readers can encounter many inspirations in the stories and relate back to many of their own life experiences as well as losses.

The genre of memoir has many literary qualities those are unique only to memoir. Compared to other genres, memoirs are memories that are vividly narrated by the author which are focused on the relationship of the main character. A memoir’s narrative comes from the author’s memory, which is written very descriptively. In the book A List of Things That Didn’t Kill Me by Jason Schmidt, the author recalls a memory of his child life where his father and his gangs are busted in the middle of taking drugs. It said,” The uniformed police started to make their way into the house. (15)” This particular memory of Jason is portrayed in a child’s point of view, and was illustrated very clearly with his own thoughts and feelings as he was trying to comprehend

With a plane, I’d escape away. I chose this for my 6 word memoir for multiple reasons. First and foremost I really enjoy flying. I use to be in the Civil Air Patrol where I got glider lessons and ended up soloing a glider. Nowadays a just fly for the enjoyment of it. The second reason that I put is that I love adventures that are unplanned. It’s not that I don't enjoy school but I hate getting into a routine and during the school years that's all my life feels like. There’s no real excitement.

I have recently read “A Clack of Tiny Sparks” and I am astonished at the amount of detail that what you have encompassed in this memoir. The general implication of this memoir was that although you are happy now, you wonder how things would turn out if you had embraced you sexuality sooner. However, the encounters you have in environment, provides readers with an understanding of why you kept your sexuality a secret. The indirect way of telling your story leads readers a need to uncover how you feel and what you were thinking in that moment. Your main tool for doing this was using substitution and other characterizations to convey these feelings and thoughts.

Every story has more than one side; stories give insight into a person's life because of the experiences they have encountered. If one cannot share their story we will not know the individual holistically. I concur with David Brook's ideas about the apparent dangers of a single story. One's story needs to provide a laconic view of the person entirely.

I picked this certain six word memoir, because my family means everything to me. I look at family as if I didn't have them I would have nothing. They're my lifeline. I would not let anything happen to my family. I protect them as much as possible. My cousin Avery had cancer at the age of 7 and it hit my family hard. That is why I chose the picture I did, because I wanted to show that even though some family's do fight sometimes, we can still come together for something we are all passionate about and someone we all value as a family.

There is a lot to say about a person and it seems very easy when someone else is the narrator or writer of that story. I have learned to admire all the writers out there that at some point in their lives, decide to write an autobiography. Writers have the ability to be storytellers, to create magic with their words and to inspire us to be imaginative; but it must be tough to sit down and tell their own life story. I have to confess that with the same passion I admire them, I cannot help but wonder: what inspired them to write about themselves? How did they start? Did they question the worth of the words as they typed them? Did they judge themselves in the process? How many times did they think about stopping? Did writing about himself or herself

My altered views of personal writing and self-disclosure have changed the way I read, write, and teach personal essays. I’ve gained a heightened awareness of the power of personal essays that disclose – the way we can gain valuable insight and access to empathy, the impact of voices that may otherwise be silenced, the true connection that comes from identification and understanding when we read the words of someone who has similar experiences, thoughts, hopes, dreams, or pain. There are long-term – and likely very important – effects of the personal writing that we will be writing today and reading tomorrow. At a time when personal narrative holds such power – power to persuade, to illustrate, and to garner traffic on websites – it’s vital that we start having a different conversation about the personal essay. And in the new conversation, I argue, we have to start with disclosure.

A collection of memories from a person’s life, assembled in a book written by themselves, is called a memoir. I have been lucky enough to be able to preview a large collection of memoirs recently, and although I found many that I wanted to read later, I looked at a few in particular, and there was one that really stuck out to me. Some titles I investigated were Boy: Tales of Childhood by Roald Dahl, Mao’s Last Dancer by Li Cunxin, and The Courage to Compete by Abbey Curran. I have read Boy: Tales of Childhood before, but the others I had not. The Courage to Compete by Abbey Curran looked fairly interesting, so I decided to give it a try. Now, it is important to note that a memoir is different from an autobiography in a few ways. For one thing,