Memories Shape Personal Identity

1636 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: How past experiences shape our identities

Memories Memories are symbols that are used to demonstrate the progression from the past into the development of one’s current personal identity. Furthermore, personal memories serve to investigate one’s thoughts. Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro are 21st century works that reflect on the use of memories to enhance personal thoughts by impacting perspectives. Addressing and reflecting on thoughts and feelings towards previous events creates and alters perspectives. In Native Guard, Trethewey develops a perspective on her past and history through her memories, and in Never Let Me Go, Ishiguro uses Kathy’s memories to develop her actions and decisions. Both, Tretheway and Ishiguro, demonstrate that a memory portrays a symbol that serves to reflect on the past in order to develop personal identity.
Memories symbolize letting go of the past and initiating a new life; consequently, developing one’s personal identity. In Native Guard, Trethewey implies the impatience for a new life in “The Southern Crest” when she says, “The rails humming like anticipation”(Trethewey 5). By using personification, Tretheway emphasizes that a new life rings in one’s mind while reflecting on the past. …show more content…

In Native Guard, Trethewey demonstrates that the past contributes to forming personal identity by reflecting on previous events to form stronger beliefs and perspectives. Ishiguro portrays that memories contribute to the process of self growth and understanding. Both works of literature demonstrate that “memory is at the heart of the way most people think about personal identity” because memories generate the idea of existence through the processes of the past (Klein, Stanley 1). Through the use of memories, Trethewey and Ishiguro demonstrate self-awareness, deeper perspectives, and the permanence of memories within the process of developing one’s

Show More
Related

  • John Perry A Dialogue On Personal Identity

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    Personal identity, in the context of philosophy, does not attempt to address clichéd, qualitative questions of what makes us us. Instead, personal identity refers to numerical identity or sameness over time. For example, identical twins appear to be exactly alike, but their qualitative likeness in appearance does not make them the same person; each twin, instead, has one and only one identity – a numerical identity. As such, philosophers studying personal identity focus on questions of what has to persist for an individual to keep his or her numerical identity over time and of what the pronoun “I” refers to when an individual uses it. Over the years, theories of personal identity have been established to answer these very questions, but the

    Read More

  • The Influence of the Past in Maestro by Peter Goldsworthy and Stick Figures by Tan Shaun

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    The past dictates who we are in a current moment, and affects who we might become in the future. Every decision people make in lives has an influence on future, regardless of how minimal or large it is. Some decisions people decide to make can have dire consequences that will follow them for the rest of the life. Moreover, even though if someone would want to leave any memories from past behind, however it will always be by his side. Specific memories will urge emotional responses that bring mind back to the past and person have no choose but to relieve those emotions and memories again. Nonetheless, certain events change people and make them who they are, but at the same time, some wrong choices made past haunts us. This essay will discuss the role of the past in novel Maestro, that was written by Australian author Peter Goldsworthy in 1989 and also in Tan Shaun's story Stick Figures which was included in book called "Tales from outer suburbia" and published in 2008.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The End Of Remembering And Kathryn Schulz's Evidence

    1049 Words  | 3 Pages

    Joshua Foer’s “The End of Remembering” and Kathryn Schulz’s “Evidence” are two essays that have more in common than one might think. Although on two totally different topics, they revolve around the central point of the complexities of the human mind. However, there are some key elements both writers have contemplated on in differing ways.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Turning By Tim Winton

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through this short story we are taken through one of Vic Lang’s memories narrated by his wife struggling to figure out why a memory of Strawberry Alison is effecting their marriage and why she won’t give up on their relationship. Winton’s perspective of the theme memory is that even as you get older your past will follow you good, bad or ugly, you can’t always forget. E.g. “He didn’t just rattle these memories off.” (page 55) and ( I always assumed Vic’s infatuation with Strawberry Alison was all in the past, a mortifying memory.” (page 57). Memories are relevant to today’s society because it is our past, things or previous events that have happened to you in which we remembered them as good, bad, sad, angry etc. memories that you can’t forget. Winton has communicated this to his audience by sharing with us how a memory from your past if it is good or bad can still have an effect on you even as you get older. From the description of Vic’s memory being the major theme is that it just goes to show that that your past can haunt or follow you but it’s spur choice whether you chose to let it affect you in the

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Julia Alvarez's In The Time Of The Butterflies

    1872 Words  | 4 Pages

    Memory is both a blessing and a curse; it serves as a reminder of everything, and its meaning is based upon interpretation. In Julia Alvarez’s In the Time of the Butterflies Dedé lives through the memory of her family and her past. She tells the stories of her and her sisters lives leading up to their deaths, and reflects upon those memories throughout her daily life. Dedé lives on for her sisters, without her sisters, but all along carrying them with her throughout her life, never moving on. Dedé lives with the shame, sadness, and regret of all that has happened to her sisters, her marriage, and her family. Dedé’s memories serve as a blessing in her eyes, but are a burden

    Read More

  • Never Let Me Go

    1340 Words  | 3 Pages

    Kathy is engaged in the difficulty of understand life in order to comfort themselves, even if she has to lie in order to discover the truth. Kathy speaking about her life when she is older, signifies that she wants to be felt important and have her own impact to others lives in some way. In depicting the dynamics of memory, Kathy rewrites their past so they can have access to her identity. However, memory can be twisted so easily that she hides the failure in her life by bending the truth of what happened. Ishiguro explores the profound effect of memory in a manner in which it shapes one’s life as well as how humans subject events incoherently.

    Read More

  • Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    “If the human race didn’t remember anything it would be perfectly happy" (44). Thus runs one of the early musings of Jack Burden, the protagonist of Robert Penn Warren’s All the King’s Men. Throughout the story, however, as Jack gradually opens his eyes to the realities of his own nature and his world, he realizes that the human race cannot forget the past and survive. Man must not only remember, but also embrace the past, because it teaches him the truth about himself and enables him to face the future.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Remember By Joy Harjo

    772 Words  | 2 Pages

    The poem, “Remember”, by Joy Harjo illuminates the significance of different aspects in one’s life towards creating one’s own identity. Harjo, explains how everything in the world is connected in some way. She conveys how every person is different and has their own identities. However, she also portrays the similarities among people and how common characteristics of the world impact humans and their identities. Harjo describes the interconnectedness of different aspects of nature and one’s life in order to convey their significance in creating one’s identity.

    Read More

  • Reflective Essay: Growing Up In Memory

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    As I have been reading memoirs about memory for this class, each essay made me recall or even examine my past memory closely. However, the more minutely I tried to recall what happened in the past, the more confused I got because I could not see the clear image and believe I get lost in my own memory, which I thought, I have preserved perfectly in my brain. The loss of the details in each memory has made me a little bit sentimental, feeling like losing something important in my life. But, upon reading those essays, I came to realize that remembering correct the past is not as important as growing up within memory. However, the feelings that were acquired from the past experience tend to linger distinctly. The essay that is related to my experience

    Read More

  • Memory And Past Affecting Personal Identity

    129 Words  | 1 Pages

    I think that memories and past shouldn’t factor our identity. This has to do with two issues about personal identity; the role of the memory and the testimony if the past. Our identity can be cause by a bad memory and past but that should not affect our identity. If a person is a mean person in the past, but they are trying to change that should not affect their identity. Memories and past should not change individual identity. In the story of the Bourne he suffer from amnesia as he was trying to get his memory back he was getting flashbacks of his past. His flashbacks were not good he was a bad person that killed people. By him being a bad person it didn’t affected his identity.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Backyard Blues By Natasha Trethewey

    822 Words  | 2 Pages

    Part I is particularly anecdotal, with many of the poems relating to the death of Trethewey’s mother. The first part begins with an epitaph from the traditional Wayfaring Stranger, which introduces the movement of the soul after death, and the journey towards the ‘home’ beyond. In “Graveyard Blues”, Trethewey examines the definition of “home” as a place of lament, in contrast to the comforting meaning in the epitaph beginning Part I, and the significance of the soul’s movement after death. The ‘home’ described in the epitaph is a place of comfort and familiarity, where the speaker returns to their mother. In contrast, Trethewey describes the ‘home’ she returns to after her mother’s death as a hollow place, the journey back to which is incredibly

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Memories In The Giver By Lois Lowry

    867 Words  | 2 Pages

    Memories are one of the most important parts of life; there is no true happiness without the reminiscence of pain or love. This concept is portrayed in "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. The story tells of a 12 year old Jonas who lives in a “utopian” society, in which civilization coexist peacefully, and possess ideal lifestyles where all bad memories are destroyed to avoid the feeling of pain. Jonas becomes the receiver, someone who receives good and bad memories, and he is transmitted memories of pain and pleasure from The Giver and is taught to keep the secret to himself. The author shows one should cherish memories, whether it be good or bad, as they are all of what is left of the past, and we should learn from it as to better ourselves in the

    Read More

  • Discuss the Role of Memory and Recollection In Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let me Go (2005)

    2451 Words  | 5 Pages

    The essence of memory is subjective (Lavenne, et al. 2005: 2). In Never Let Me Go memories are formed in the mind of ‘Kathy H’ which emanate her subjective views. These relate to her own emotions and prejudices as an outsider, a clone, experienced through the innocence of childhood, and the deception of adulthood from the institutions of ‘Hailsham’ and ‘the cottages.’ Which allude to Kazuo Ishiguro’s ow...

    Read More

  • Movie: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind stresses the importance of memory and how memories shape a person’s identity. Stories such as “In Search of Lost Time” by Proust and a report by the President’s Council on Bioethics called “Beyond Therapy” support the claims made in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

    Read More

  • Past experiences shape identity

    1955 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many believe that whatever situations have happened in the past should be left in the past. To others, the past holds a special place in their hearts because it has helped in shaping the person they have become today. One should always appreciate his or her ancestors and the struggles they have gone through throughout history such as slavery in order to bring us to where we are today. Though negativity can affect past experiences one should not dwell on it, but learn to move forward and look for the positive aspects of life. Without the past there wouldn’t be any great myths, any personal memories, and nothing for our future generations to learn from. Past experiences also helps people to learn from their mistakes in the past so they will know not to repeat them. One should also remember the good memories that the past has brought forth and should learn to appreciate them and the people who helped us to gain them. (Maya Angelou, author of the excerpt “Mary”, Zora Neal Hurston, author of the essay “How it feels to be colored me”, Gwendolyn Brooks, author of the poems “Sadie and Maud” along with “We Real Cool”, and Annie Proloux, author of the essay “The half Skinned Steer”, proves that through past experiences, whether negative or positive, the memories or struggles that people have encountered influences the way that people live their lives in the future and helps in shaping the individuals identity.)

    Read More

More about Memories Shape Personal Identity

Open Document