[1] William Gass addresses the topic of uniqueness versus universality in relation to autobiographies in “The Art of Self.” Gass asks, “What makes me unique? No; what makes me universal; what serves my reputation; what does not embarrass the scrutinizing, the recollecting self” (Gass, 50). He argues that one distorts their story so that it appears more attractive and acceptable because their priority is who they are remembered as by the public. Therefore, he states that autobiographies are, in a sense, fiction, with their main purpose being to tell a unique story. He questions the believability of autobiographies early, arguing that many people have lives that are so dull and uninteresting they feel they must “perform some feat… in order to …show more content…
He continuously repeats that he lives in a “split-level ranch-style” (Earley, 5) house. Initially, it is unclear why he repeats this fact so often but after closer examination, it becomes obvious. In the same way, there is no unique drama found in Earley’s life on the surface, and no intimation of any sort of struggle until half way through the text. This enhances the belief that his life is completely ordinary. Yet, as the repetition of “split-level ranch-style” (Earley, 5) house is analyzed, it is clear that Earley is implying that something much deeper and dark lies within this home, hinting his universal life is also …show more content…
Watching the Brady family allows Earley to escape from the complexities within his reality. His desire to be a part of the Brady family is made evident as he intertwines his life with their fictional life. He says, “Shelly had a crush on Bobby Brady; I had a crush on Jan. Jan had braces, I had braces. Jan had glasses. I had glasses” (Earley, 9). He is trying to determine his compatibility with their family based on similarities between himself and members of the Brady Bunch. Next, he says, “Their daddy was an architect. Our daddy lived in a trailer in town with a poster of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner on the living room wall. The coyote held the Road Runner firmly by the neck. The caption on the poster said “Beep, Beep your ass.”” (Earley, 9). Here, the reader learns there is something less than desirable occurring within Earley’s real life. The fallacy within his ordinary family is shown by this comparison of Mr. Brady the architect, to his father, whose description gives off a bad connotation. In addition, the fact that his father lives in a trailer shows that Earley’s family is broken. He states, “I lay in bed at night and imagined being married to Jan Brady but having an affair with Marsha. I wondered how we would tell Jan, what Marsha and I would do then, where we would go. Greg Brady beat me up. I shook his hand and told him I deserved it. Alice
Despite the efforts of the community to make the ranch feel like home, Josey struggles with this transition. It is too similar to the life he once had. Josey tries to adjust to this community, however, he is reminded of his family and his untimate pursit of vengeance agaist the men who killed his family. Josey recognizes that this ranch is a symbol of a new life, but in order to enjoy this he must first take of what is important to him. Josey is a wanted man and the longer he lingers around this community without killing off those men after him, he puts their life in danger. This is one of many honorable acts of Josey. He knows that he man not live on to see the further development of his new community, but he is still willing to fight for the sake of avenging his family and saving their lives.
Within this existential consideration, Richardson (2000) finds autoethnography as a writing style - combining the readable style of autobiography into the ethnographic approach - which may produce something that will make it off the shelf. If relevant research is what is intended to be produced, then its readability must be a primary
In this memoir, James gives the reader a view into his and his mother's past, and how truly similar they were. Throughout his life, he showed the reader that there were monumental events that impacted his life forever, even if he
In “Fault Lines” (1993), Meena Alexander’s autobiography utilizes multiple examples of rhetorical devices to describe her sense of identity, or more importantly, the shattered pieces of herself. She describes this process by comparing and contrasting the aspects of who she is as a person as opposed to what she once dreamed to be. She wrote her story to explain how hard her journey was in order to express how much it took out of her as a person “What might it mean to look at myself straight, see myself?”. (3) Her ambivalent tone can be targeted towards those who are still trying to figure out their sense of identities themselves, and how much it takes for a person to question themselves to find out who they are.
In Tobias Wolff’s novel Old School, the narrator, a young and aspiring writer, plagiarizes a story that he views as his own in order to win his high school writing competition and impress his hero, Ernest Hemingway. “Summer Dance,” the story that he plagiarized—where “nothing was okay”—ends with the words, “Everything’s okay” (p. 125). The narrator’s truth, complicated and elusive, proves a challenge to admit as his own. As he considers writing someone else’s story, the narrator realizes how concealing his identity compromises the value of his writing and places his personal truth in question. The narrator uses others’ stories as an outlet for personal reflection, self-expression, and self-discovery without realizing
To understand what Couser refers to as “particular way of writing one’s life” a close examination of the origin and the meaning of the word ‘memoir’ is necessary. The word has its origins in French and it derives from ‘mémoire’ meaning ‘memory’. Coulter elaborates that “ … being based on memory rather than research, a memoir will necessarily be very different from a formal biography. It will be, or resemble, a reminiscence, consisting of personal recollections" (Coulter 19). Because of this aspect of the memoir he then explains, “In turn, this creates the expectation that the narrative may be impressionistic and subjective rather than authoritatively fact based” (Coulter 19).
3. I felt that The Age of The Literary Memoir Is Now by James Atlas has had an impact on me as a writer because the introducti...
The descriptions of Quoyle provide us with a character who has so many flaws and struggles, that he is unable to live a normal life like those around him. Quoyle’s problems started at childhood, and the narrator provides us with vivid images of his childhood. “Raised in a shuffle of dreary upstate towns” and “survived childhood” show us that it was not easy for young Quoyle. With these descriptions we get an image of how his childhood was harsh through Quoyle moving around through different towns in bad areas. The narrator continues on to Quoyle’s later life and shows through repetition the amou...
July 28 the jurnee is harder than I thot it would be. I thot that the jurnee wood be kwik and easeer then deelin with Dr Nemur bein grouchee. I want to go back. I want to go back to New York but evrywun hates me. Miss Kinnian even cried when she saw me. she must hate me beecaws who cries when they see sumwun they liek. I bet they even got a more better janiter at Donegan's Plastic Box Company so even if I do go back ill be out of work. maybee they secretly don't hate me and want me to come back. but who wood luv me enuff to want to see me. or spend time with me. If my own mom cudnt love me then how cud anywun else. I miss Algernon to but im never gonna see her again beecaws shes ded. Algernon was a very good frend. even tho she was a mouse. maybee they all will be hapee to see me again. maybee I will go back.
Her motherly instinct can make her seem weak and shallow, but in reality it’s one of her strongest character traits. Brady can tend to overextend himself, putting him into situations that may threaten his health. Mrs. Brady keeps him in check. After arriving in Hillsboro, the town prepares a picnic for Brady to enjoy, before he begins to eat, she reminds him, “. . . it’s a warm day. Remember, the doctor told you not to overeat” (23). While these comments may seem like incessant nagging, they come from a place of unconditional love and worry. Mrs. Brady takes on this role of “mother” so well that her husband refers to her as mother frequently. After Drummond...
Who would have thought that writing about yourself could actually have an effect on others? This is actually the case with many autobiographies in history. Take Benjamin Franklin’s The Autobiography for example; in this piece, Franklin describes his own attempt at self improvement. He lists several virtues he was going to attempt to obtain, but he wasn’t successful in becoming the perfect man he had set out to be. However, this work of literature would prove to be very effectual. Benjamin Franklin’s The Autobiography had an effect on both himself and society especially through the ideas of industry, justice, and order.
Throughout this entire book I couldn’t help but think of my own life, my family, my world. Abram describes his house in the absences o...
An autobiography is a story written by the author and describes his or her life experiences. The autobiography written by Benjamin Franklin and Olaudah Equiano written by himself are two autobiographies that are very similar and kind of different from each other. Both authors tell readers about their journeys whether they were good or bad. The authors give off a strong sense of imagery, which makes the readers feel as if they were actually there.
“In my estimation a good book first must contain little or no trace of the author unless the author himself is a character. That is, when I read the book I should not feel that someone is telling me the story but t...
Carlisle, Janice. “The Mirror In the Mill on the Floss; Toward Reading of Autobiography Discourse”. Studies in the Literary Imagination. Vol 23:Issue 2. [EBSCO] Masterfile Premier 1990