The Body Of Memory By Brenda Miller And Suzanne Paola

In the essay “The Body of Memory” Brenda Miller and Suzanne Paola educates the reader about the literary use for memory and carefully elaborates the uses of metaphorical memory, muscle memory, and our five senses. The essay opens with Miller illustrates a vivid description of her earliest memory. The memory tells first hand encounter of Miller waking up from getting her tonsils removed. After finishing the detailed description of her surroundings including the jar holding Miller’s tonsils, she analyzes the recollection of a first memory and delves into the concept that our individual memories embody our entire being. The memories that seem to exemplify ones personality can be translated into literature. Miller urges, as she does many times

How can one show the emotional power of a memory through literature? Miller explains many different ways a writer can express or provoke a memory worthy of writing about. First, she mentions metaphorical memory as a way to add depth to a memory. By inquiring about one’s motivations in the memory, one can write a metaphor to give the make the recollection more complex, thus making the essay one “whose meaning is never clear at first, second, or third glance”(Miller and Paola 2). Muscle memory can also aide the composition of a creative piece. With the memory of muscles through repetitive movements, the writer can use these instinctual movements as a prompt for an original piece. Lastly, Miller provides ways to convey experience through our five senses. When using the five senses to evoke emotion in a reader, the author is “render[ing] the abstract into the concrete”(Miller and Paola 5). Smell is a sense that accesses memories without going through mental processing. The simple scent of asphalt could resurface an intense or intimate memory that could have potentially forgotten. Taste embodies social interaction and comfort. The mind can