Memories can be as short-lived as the moments that created them. The recollection of events and the deterioration of memories over time is a constant process that cannot be stopped. This inevitable passing of memory is fused to the inevitable passing of human life. Emily Davis’s still life photograph of wineglasses is reflective and fragmented, allowing the image to act as a metaphor for this fleeting aspect of memory through its own memory-like qualities. The photograph is also symbolic of the transience of human life through the use of the traditional symbol of the wineglass, ultimately serving as memento mori.
The word reflection refers to the production or return of an image that is created through light or through thought. This connection to the act of remembering is set up by Davis through the presence of actual reflections within her photograph. The surface the wineglasses sit upon is reflective which creates a duplicate set of wineglasses. Light is picked up within the lustrous crystal of the glasses and they partially reflect within each other. The light bouncing of...
In “What is Evidence,” Trethewey refers to her mother’s name “as abstract as history”(). This idea demonstrates that not only her life, but also her past is complex. Her mother was experiencing grief, and the man attempted to kill her mother. This memory shapes her identity because it creates an image of her mother for her. It develops her understanding of what was happening and why it was happening, which allows her to develop her character in more of an understanding form towards an aspect of her life which was tragic. Tretheway also demonstrates the permanence of memories through “Photograph:Ice Storm.” Through this poem she demonstrates that photographs symbolize more than just a picture, the symbolize a memory which portrays the impact on identity through something so permanent. The impact of an event being permanent portrays that a memory is a large contribution to personal fears and developments. Ishiguro provides a different approach to the symbolic meaning of memories. Memories can symbolize an important, content aspect of life. Kathy realizes this when she reflects on her past: “the earlier years—the ones I've just been telling you about—they tend to blur into each other as a kind of golden time, and when I think about them at all, even the not-so-great things, I can't help feeling a sort of glow”(). Kathy’s reflection on her past blinds her to realize that the permanent impact of memory can also be created in a positive form because the clear reflection on the past can help develop personal identity by becoming grateful for what has happened in the past. Walton says, “Kathy thinks she’s telling the story of how fortunate and privileged she was and of her relationships, but she’s really telling the story of an alternate world where clones are living their short lives to help other people live longer ones”( Her
Where are the memories of our pasts held? In scrapbooks full of photographs, or perhaps written on the pages of a locked diary? Picture though, something as simple and ordinary as a closet full of clothes. Think about its contents, where they have been worn, what they have been through, the stories attached to each item. The nameless protagonist of Diane Schoemperlen’s short story Red Plaid Shirt does this as she recalls a snippet of her past life with each article of clothing she picks up. Red plaid shirt, blue sweatshirt, brown cashmere sweater, yellow evening gown, black leather jacket…each item has a tale of its very own, and when combined they reveal the full story of the main character’s life.
Memory is one of the overarching themes of this narrative, and within that we identify one of the first examples of dual experience. On one side of the coin lies what indeed happened—Being in distress, becoming intoxicated, driving away while gazing through binoculars in a truly reckless manner, and all while coping with a devastating loss. Now exploring the other side of it, as in what we wish to remember—the narrator says this in regards to what he
Poetry is a part of literature that writers used to inform, educate, warn, or entertain the society. Although the field has developed over the years, the authenticity of poetry remains in its ability to produce a meaning using metaphors and allusions. In most cases, poems are a puzzle that the reader has to solve by applying rhetoric analysis to extract the meaning. Accordingly, poems are interesting pieces that activate the mind and explore the reader’s critical and analytical skills. In the poem “There are Delicacies,” Earle Birney utilizes a figurative language to express the theme and perfect the poem. Specifically, the poem addresses the frangibility of the human life by equating it to the flimsy of a watch. Precisely, the poet argues that a human life is short, and, therefore, everyone should complete his duties in perfection because once he or she dies, the chance is unavailable forever.
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
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
Identity and personhood is highlighted in Deryn Rees-Jones’ poem ‘The Memory Tray’. The narrator invites you into her world, depicting small, intimate and personal objects that ultimately allow you to see her more than just a human being. You understand that the narrator is evolving into
Reflection, as explained by Moon (2013), is the process of looking back on an event or experience and thinking about it and learning from it. Reflection, which is learning through experience, is not a new concept. As humans, we naturally reflect on our surroundings and experiences on a day to day basis in order to make sense of them. (Norman, Vleuten and Newble, 2002). In a professional context, reflation is vital for a practitioner to learn and improve their practice. By using their own experiences, practitioners are able to analysis, and in turn, adapt or improve specific areas of practice
Everyone has memories. Memories may be recollections as well as fragments of moments or occurrences. Be it good or be it bad, a memory can have an everlasting effect on the everyday lives of an entirety of people, or even on that of an average person; some memories may contain the power to create fears or even spark anxieties, while other memories may help to inspire or to encourage those to do things that he or she might not find themselves partake in otherwise. Here, there will be shown several ways by the means in which memories can be of both positive and negative effects when it comes to the impacts they create on the lives and actions of people who remember. Two literary works that will be used throughout this paper are Ray Bradbury’s
Gently swaying back and forth in an old wooden rocker, I take a break from my journaling. While listening to the creaky hum of the tired oak thumping out a blue song, I think about the art of writing, painting with my words, and wonder what hampers my creative practice. A foreboding sense of unworthiness floats into my consciousness and I ask myself why do I feel this way. Rifling through my thoughts a fog wraps around me like a blanket not for comfort but instead to shield the feelings of inadequacy. I take a deep breath and inhale the reassuring sage scent of our family room. I press on in this process of self-discovery; an old black and white photo sitting on a shelf captures my eye. I see an image of myself as a smiling, confident child, which stirs uneasiness within. Following the muddled whisperings in my mind, I return to the day in the snapshot and consider what comes to pass.
In his 1917 poem, “La Figlia che Piange,” translated from Italian as “The Girl Who Weeps”, T.S. Eliot explores the relationship between a traumatic, regretful event and the speaker’s idealized memory of it. The speaker describes a beautiful woman standing on a stair posing like a model for a classical work of art. The speaker describes a man who leaves the woman for other, leaving her utterly crushed. As the poem progresses, however, it becomes apparent that the woman exists not in reality, but in the speaker’s memory. In an attempt to cope with the regretful emotions that he associates with the event, he attempts, like an artist, to alter his memory to fit a classical ideal. The creation and interpretation of memory, he discovers, is like the creation of a work of art.
"Fruit and the Memory." The Fruit Pages. The Fruit Pages, 2010. Web. 15 Mar. 2011.
"Vanitas still life with portrait of a young painter " by David Bailly includes such objects as dying flowers, a skull, a painting of musician, musical instruments (recorder, conductor’s baton), statuary of a young, virile man and a young child, a portrait of another young man, and a clean palette hanging on the wall. The meaning behind these articles can be manifold, depending upon one’s point of view, but I think they are all important symbols of the passing nature of vitality and life itself. The flowers, once brilliant and lovely, are now withering in their vase. Music, represented by a man playing a lute in a portrait on the wall and by numerous music related items (a recorder, a conductor’s baton) is itself transient and elusive. Obviously a skull can represent death, but it can just as easily be a reminder of what remains behind. The clean palette hanging on the wall is evocative of a clear start, a new beginning, the option available to us all to begin again, before it’s too late!
A memory is like the blossoming of a flower, it is the creation of a whole new life and entity that comes from essentially nothing. When we create a memory, we also create ourselves, and just like the flower, it is out of nowhere. Humans have the privilege of being able to independently think and verbally express those thoughts, giving us the ability to change who we are based on what we know and remember. In other words, our memories shape and define who we are as people. This idea becomes evident in Joshua Foer’s and Alison Bechdel’s works, “The End of Remembering” and “The Ordinary Devoted Mother,” respectively. In this article and graphic memoir, Foer and Bechdel explore the realm of memory and how it affects self-creation, the limits of
Reflection itself is not an exceptional strategy in writing, and it ends up being a feasible and profoundly successful device. The possibility of reflection can fit a think once again into the past, to think back or to recall; however reflection has an intrinsically more