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Jimmy Santiago Baca's Memory

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People have certain places that really stick in their brain. When they smell a certain smell or see a specific thing it reminds them of that place. Memory is influenced by a variety of factors; feelings, thoughts, people, actions and so many more. Certain places can live on a person's memory because of sensory details.
Jimmy Santiago Baca was in prison for about 10 years of his life. It was his safe place, his get away. He got a full 3 course meal, a nice bed, a place to be “free”. “I could see the main tower from where I sat, and the wind in my face gave me the feeling I could grasp the tower like a cornstalk, and snap it from its roots of rock.”(12-17) In Cloudy Day, Baca aloud the character to feel big and out of this world. When the wind gets in his face he feels like he’s on the top of the this world. Baca remembers these places through the sensory detail. “The wind plays it like a flute, this hollow shoot of rock. The brim girded with barbwire with a guard sitting there also, listening intently to the sounds as clouds cover the sun.” (17-23) The way wind blows and how the clouds cover the sun, allows the character to feel unharmed and peaceful. …show more content…

It has the ability to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimuli has ended. “ It acts as a kind of buffer for stimuli received through the five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch, which are retained accurately, but very briefly.” (Sensory Memory). Memory works with sensory details, it is the largest reason why and how people can remember certain things. Like the when you smell BBQ, it reminds you of the time you had a party with BBQ. “. Smell may actually be even more closely linked to memory than the other senses, possibly because the olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex (where smell sensations are processed) are physically very

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