Memoir Essays (Examples)

W. Hollywood. CA 90069 Saturday March 10, 2012 5:00pm
The event details are mentioned below.

Leon Logothetis will tell of how he was tired of his life and unrewarding job and left all of his material possessions and then hits the road with nothing but the clothes he is wearing and five dollars in his pocket. On the way, he relies on the kindness of strangers and the good luck to tide him along the way. Throughout the book and during the lecture, Leon will offer up entertaining offers up tales from his nation-crossing journey in all kinds of conveyances including cars, trains, buses and with truckers. His daily adventures will entertain and captivate the bookstore audience who have all fantasized about what it would be like to just leave it all behind.

xxx

eferences

Koenig, David. "How to Write a Memoir Proposal." Ehow.com. Ehow, 2012. Web. 13 Mar 2012.…

Usually she'd let me sit between the two of them when they cuddled up together on the sofa.
The next morning, mom was at the table crying. "Where's Ross?" I asked.

"Gone."

"Gone to work?"

"No, just gone."

I was angry. I know I hurt her, but I was hurt. "What did you do wrong this time, mom?"

She flinched. "Nothing. He decided to go back to his wife. She went to see him yesterday. Said she wanted to give it one more try. Said their kids missed him a lot. She missed him a lot. I tried to get him to stay. He had told me so many bad stories about her. He said he never would go back with her. but, sometimes you just have to do what you don't want to do. He loves his kids."

"But, he said he loved you and me, too."

"I know.…

They had a little more to worry about their health condition, and nothing more to be frightened about, that is all. One day, my boyfriend had to leave for another country where he had to stay three months. I was alone, at home, and his grandfather moved in with me because he had a heart condition. He was very sick and could not even climb the stairs by himself anymore. In a very short time, he and the other grandfather of them left us. The only grandparent left was his grandmother who moved in with me. After her husband's death she changed completely. She was totally depending on people around her. She couldn't dare to do anything by herself anymore, even if physically she was still all right. Now I was beginning to see the big picture. I hated everything. I hated old age. I hated the situation, I hated…

She says to her renowned teacher she cannot attend class for the day -- but olf usually accepts no excuses. Then, when he hears why, he tells her to remember everything, so she can put it down later. "Dishonest writing is very often mediocre writing," says Barrington and Sebold is honest on the stand as a prosecution witness and later as a narrator of her own imperfect grappling with her experiences.
Sebold's memory yielded, what she was later told, one of the most credible testimonies the prosecutor had ever seen from a violated woman on the stand. But she did not emerge unscathed from the rape. Physically, she was no longer a virgin. Emotionally, she was traumatized. In the last chapter of the book, she chronicles how difficult it was for her to trust men after she graduated, despite the support she received from many sympathetic male students at her…

The cigar workers sought to make themselves heard first through their newspaper and tehn by striking to make people listn to them:
That strike had a special meaning for Puerto Rican workers. An indirect result of that struggle was that many other unions came to recognize the important role that Puerto Ricans can play as workers. It was then that they began to organize Puerto Rican confectioners, bakers, hotel and restaurant employees, and workers in the needle trades. e finally began to enjoy wages and hours equal to those of workers of other nationalities. (Vega 114)

Vega was one of the leaders of the strike and explains the different factions involved and how class politics played a role in the way the different factions divided. Underlying the strike was the desire on the part of this community to be accepted by the larger society and not to be seen as…

memoirs, The Woman Warrior and Angela's Ashes, Maxine Hong Kingston and Frank McCourt, respectively, present unique and complete views of worlds that widely diverge from the sort of lifestyles and experiences that are enjoyed by the average citizens of the United States of America. Part of the most simple reason for this is their "outsider" statues. As an immigrant, in Frank McCourt's case, and as the child of immigrant parents, in Maxine Hong Kingston's case, both memoirs are narratives of lives marked by travel, travail, and cultural differences that haven an enormous and massive impact upon their authors' lives. In the case of Maxine Hong Kingston, she experiences a home life and a cultural heritage that wildly conflicts with the extremely divergent notions afforded to her by the imprinting and socialization process of American society, whereby the social morays of Chinese culture were questioned by western logic and capitalism. McCourt…

He was from a relatively poor family. "There were times," he told me, "when my mom would say, okay, it's your turn to sleep on the couch, you sleep in the chair, and you three get the bed." His poverty embarrassed him, and probably had a lot to do with his dropping out of school. He said that when he dropped out, he worked two jobs. This was not a man who would stay poor, and even though he didn't go on to college or start his own business, he worked in the steel mills, which were booming back then. By the time I met him, he had been there more than ten years and was financially secure. But something else came across in that first conversation too. I realized that he coveted his money. It represented a level of security to him that he could not be without, and…

memoirs and writings of early Israel are confined in the Pentateuch, meaning Genesis through Deuteronomy. Within these pages lies the lineage of the children of Israel or the nation of Israel as it discloses in the patriarchal accounts, the story of Abraham and his sons, Isaac, and Jacob. Chronicled there, the histrionic deliverance of the progenies of Israel from Egypt as well as the founding of the nation's commandments and spiritual traditions throughout their desert voyages. That portion of the accounts concludes with Israel camped on the brink of the land of Canaan, prepared to go into the land taking her position as a nation. From that point, the books of Joshua, uth, and the others take up the narrative and deliver a vibrant picture of the primary centuries of this land's reality.
The Pentateuch partly comes from Deuteronomic work. "The Pentateuch's contents are partly taken from the Deuteronomic work…

Charles Hotel whom had run away from an abusive husband and had nothing left as she lay there alone in fever and despair (295). She describes letters from her father-in-law that describe how they are in the midst of starvation (296). Through Mrs. Chestnut's eyes, we also see the pain of the soldiers who had been returned from the North: "I was deeply moved. These men were so forlorn, so dried up, and shrunken, with such a strange look in some of their eyes; others so restless and wild-looking; others again placidly vacant, as if they had been dead to the world for years" (301).
In Mary Chestnut's own words, she was a "tolerably close observer" of "men and manners." Indeed, society was, as she eloquently surmised, "only an enlarged field for character study" (338). Through her words as recorded through first hand experience, we see that the battle of…

Personal Memoir
"the Move"

Anyone who has ever travelled outside the country they were born in can understand exactly what I felt when I moved from Vietnam to the U.S.A. anyone who has lived in their country of origin since they were born and not travelled anywhere cannot be in a position of understanding me. A friend of mine had travelled to the U.S. For a year and we kept constant communication. She spoke highly of the country and really encouraged me to apply for a visa to travel to the U.S.A. At first I was a bit reluctant but when she continually talked of the opportunities that exist for me there I was more than sure that I wanted to take a shot.

At the back of my mind I still had reservations. I asked myself several questions how will my life be there? Will I be able to…

Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. Specifically it will discuss what, if anything should be done to prevent the participation of youth in international wars? The author was a boy soldier from the age of 12 in Sierra Leone. He talks about his experiences, and makes an excellent case for preventing youth's participation in such violence.
Beah's experiences are horrific, especially for such a young child. He writes, "The bullets could be seen sticking out just a little bit in the baby's body, and she was swelling" (Beah 26). No one should have to experience things like that, especially a 12-year-old. What is driving the fighting in Sierra Leone is the diamond mining, which the rebels want to control. This is at least partly the problem of the government of Sierra Leone, who allowed rival rebel gangs to take over the country and terrorize it for years. The…

Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir
aldie's 1995 manuscript "Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir" provides readers with a biographical account of the writer spending his childhood and adolescence in Lakewood. Lakewood was one of the largest suburban communities in California during the 1950s, when most of the actions in the book take place. The way that the writer manages to bring forward the idea of life as constructed from both the benefits and detriments coming along with living in Lakewood is certainly impressive, as most readers are likely to feel transported into the world that aldie creates for them.

It would be wrong for someone to relate to the book as simply being what its title tries to make it seem. The text is much more than a suburban memoir, taking into account that it provides a detailed story of life in a particularly compelling place and the relationship between the…

Dominant baboons, the most 'confident' members of the tribe, are the least stress-prone. In short, the alphas of the group are cool, confident leaders who are able to relax about the place in the hierarchy. Low-stress, low-testosterone males were also more likely to show affection through social grooming while high-stress, high-testosterone males, just like their human counterparts, were more apt to suffer from stress-related diseases and exhibit aggressive and anxious behaviors (Sapolsky 167).
Sapolsky came to the Kenyan baboon tribe assuming to find some commonalities between the animal kingdom and primates. However, establishing intimacy with the baboons was more difficult than he anticipated, and at first he found himself in the uncomfortable position of shooting darts with anesthetizing blow guns. To compare the stress hormones between the different baboons required Sapolsky to behave almost like the type of big game hunter he despised. First, he had to watch his subjects…

Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia'
Marya Hornbacher's book "Wasted: A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia" is a painful discussion of the life of someone who struggles with this affliction. When Hornbacher was only nine years old, she became bulimic. She was anorexic by the time she was 15, and she battled with the disease all through college. Just 23 years old when she wrote the book, Hornbacher still admitted to battling every day with the disease. She now manages to keep down enough food to maintain a relatively normal weight and begin to repair all of the damage that was done to her organs throughout the years of her starvation.

Hornbacher is still not convinced that she will survive, but she has the desire to live, which is something she didn't possess for quite a while. The book is very moving, but is told in such a way…

Hummingbird
The introduction offers the outstanding metaphors of the hummingbird and the trees, as symbols of a more natural, pure world. Details including the cookies, Baldy, and other people at the coffee shop help to ground the reader. However, the narrative quickly becomes narcissistic. Too much self-reflection isolates the reader rather than drawing the reader into the story. The anecdote drags, and the reader wonders where the story is going and what, if anything, the point is. Nice turns of phrase like "anorexic trees" do not rescue a boring narrative. The dream sequence that comes next, replete with the imagery of falling, could be poignant if explored more in depth. Instead the sequence comes across as a lazy means of rescuing a failing narrative. Like the rest of the memoir it has no purpose, either. The dream sequence is interjected in the middle of two disparate segments of text. Nothing…

Gender, in some ways may determine the difference of the narrative arc in these two memoirs. A male, Tang fought for the cause militarily, while Elliot married an American and traced her associations with the war through her family roots, rather than through her own political involvement alone. Tang shows the war in all of its brutality largely from his own perspective and the perspective of other fighters, while Elliot offers a filtered and more political perspective, as seen through the eyes of several generations of her own family, male and female. She thus gives a balanced and more ideologically uncertain view of the war, never coming to a conclusion whether it was right or wrong. Although disgusted with the aftermath, Tang concludes his memoir, certain that the war was necessary.

Because Elliot involves her family's collective struggles in her memoir more than Tang's partisan narrative, a more balanced and…

Coldest ar: A Memoir of Korea, a novel written by James Brady. This paper clearly outlines the summary of the book and highlights some of the events written by the author in his book. This paper explains Brady's purpose behind writing his masterpiece and clearly defines its theme. Critical analysis of the novel and information about the author are also included.
The Coldest ar: A Memoir Of Korea

The Coldest ar: A Memoir of Korea written by James Brady gives a first person's account of the second Korean war. In the book the author compares the tactical approach of the army vs. marine rifle companies. Serving as a young marine lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps for a year, Brady tells the story by illustrating to his audience the deplorable conditions of the soldiers and the critical experience they underwent, through his analysis and encountering. The author talks about…

The power of the devil over this ripe soul, on the precipice of becoming a known "chosen" soul but born of the good and the evil, his mother being purely good and his birth father being purely evil was complete and as the "friendship" progressed the presence of the devil became almost drug like in its intensity. "He was constant to me as my shadow, and by degrees he acquired such an ascendency over me that I never was happy out of his company, nor greatly so in it." (21) the devil, the narrators close companion uses all of his whiles to convince the narrator to commit murder, first murdering a great preacher and then following it with murdering his father and brother to regain his forsaken fortune.
At no point in the process of character contests does the narrator actually regain his sense of self, or his sense of…

Seamstress: A Memoir of Survival
Anti-Semitism was on the rise in the beginning of the 20th century and reached its peak under Hitler's rule in the 1930s so much so that the Jews weren't even allowed to live. This paper sheds light on the mental, emotional and physical torture that a woman by the name of Seren (Sara) Tuvel Bernstein underwent like many other Jews of her time at the hands of Hitler and his regime. The seamstress: A Memoir of Survival is an autobiography of Sara, her struggle and that of those around her in the concentration camps where they were given a life worse than death.

Spread of anti-Semitism Across Europe:

Sara had left her home in Romania when she was only thirteen against her father's wishes to continue her higher studies on full scholarship in Budapest. Like the rest of Europe here too the Jews were thought…

Anne Roiphe's memoir is stark and to the point. She begins the first chapter with poignant descriptions of her neighborhood, its people, daily activities, and important locations to her childhood. Although what she describes, is beautiful architecture, and sophisticated lifestyles: this is the 1930s, who lives like this? She writes, "All the women had their hair done, permed, dyed, set in curlers, and dried and combed out twice a week, and a lady came to the house to wax their legs and a traveling salesman came to the door with his suitcase of fine linens imports, who knows how, from war-torn Europe." (8) She explains that "Jewish" is not accepted in normal, Episcopalian society; therefore, Jews have a whole section of Park Avenue to themselves with their own clubs, doctors, apartments, grocery stores, and the like. She explains that they don't celebrate Jewish holidays, they don't learn Hebrew, and once…

Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, written by ohn Cleland in 1749 while in debtor's prison, has been called the first pornographic novel. Cleland demonstrated an artful ability to use the writing style of the day, use of irony, and a superficial story of virtue that triumphs over sin to make pornography acceptable enough to be read widely.
The story is written in an autobiographical tone and consists of letters Fanny Hill writes to a friend. Her story begins at age 15 when she is orphaned. She moves to London, and has to find a way to support herself. The path she takes, of moving into a brothel, may have been a common solution for young women without means or relatives during that time. While she is in the brothel she meets a man called Charles and falls in love with him, but after they have lived…

ICHAEL STEIN'S EOIR: THE ADDICT
ichael Stein's emoir

Relationships

Relationships with family

Addiction psychology deals with clinical psychology and involves the collection of data and information to perform diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, and post-treatment assessment of substance addicts. The psychologists and clinicians rely on information gathered by eminent researchers in the field studies and co-relate the symptoms and treatment performed in case study researches. By application of concepts, ideas, treatment interventions, and rehab initiatives, medical professionals try to create value for both the addict and the surrounding environment. Since addictions are broadly categorized into two subcategories, substance addition and process addiction, present study only includes literature based on substance addiction. ichael Stein's book called 'The Addict' assumes the central theme of the paper with an emphasis on 'relationships' dynamics of substance addiction. Empirical research findings from peer reviewed literature will also be described to substantiate the discussion along with citation of…

Personal Memoir
When we were small, my brother and I were sick all the time. Fortunately, it was nothing so serious that we were hospitalized, nor did our family have to significantly alter its lifestyle. Still, it seemed that we were constantly congested, with wheezy coughing fits and runny noses.

Our mother was not a person who panicked. She did not rush us to the doctor, even if one or both of us had such severe nasal congestion that we complained "I can't eben breathe outta by dose." We had elaborate bedtime rituals of Vick's vapor rub being massaged into our chests. Our mother boiled pots of water and we took turns breathing the steam, tented under big bath towels.

Our mother believed that diet played a crucial role in good health. My brother, two years younger than me, wasn't in school when I was in first grade and had…

Memoir: My Mother's Memories of Hurricane Charley
My mother described to me how she felt during Hurricane Charley. The center of Hurricane Charley was located about 30 miles west-northwest of Ft. Myers, Florida, and about 115 miles south-southwest of Orlando.

Hurricane Charley hit landfall on August 13, 2004. My mother recalled the experience of preparing for and surviving the hurricane. Her account echoes descriptions of what victims of other hurricanes, most recently Katrina and Rita, have faced and continue to face.

My mother, however, was one of the lucky ones. She did not have to evacuate, and our house was not destroyed. Still, she says "the trauma lingers, even now. After Charley, my heart goes out to hurricane victims everywhere."

"I felt sad and scared," my mother recalled. "We were all alone in our house, and confused. I didn't have time to board up the windows. I just hoped for…

Memoir #Ottilie aader # Germany
Germany is a recognized industrial powerhouse in the world today. Most of its industrial growth occurred during the industrial revolution in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In her memoir, Ottilie aader documents what it was like working as a seamstress in erlin during this period. This text compares the descriptions presented in aader's memoir with those presented by other scholars to determine whether there any differences and similarities.

Ottilie aader's Memoir

Germany is a well-recognized industrial powerhouse in the world today. Its industrial development, like that of many countries in Europe, occurred gradually over the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This was made possible by the millions of men and women that gave their labor - those who carried the bricks, printed the books, hacked down the coal, sewed the shirt cuffs and collars, and laid down the railroad ties that facilitated the growth of the…

Her cancer and disfigurement distinguish the subject as being in a specific cultural group due for counseling, with many of the strategies used to engage her centering the culture of sickness and its attendant modes of recovery, rehabilitation and return to normalcy. Current logic supports group-based treatment imperatives for those who may be characterized accordingly. For the subject through, as with most any counseling subject, a number of specific cultural and personal features have made this sickness and its consequences a unique experience. e can also see that her perspective and needs have been formed by dimensions such as the subject's unstable economic upbringing; the sense of difference from wealthy suburban children; and an internal portrayal within the family suggesting a retention of the identity of foreigners in a strange land.
The interplay of these multiple dimensions is discussed in the article by Croteau et al. The article quotes several…

Min enthusiastically goes to the Red Fire Farm in order to prove her willingness as a city girl to do the hard work of the proletariat. (52). While there, she meets a similarly zealous and ambitious woman, Comrade Lu, who continually shows off her knowledge of the Party and her own Party credentials. (60-65).
In contrast to deputy commander Lu, commander Yan is not only a model comrade, but a strong, selfless, and compassionate leader. A tall, handsome, "conqueror"-like woman, Yan never tried to prove her credentials as a party comrade. Min remembers, with affection, how Yan would trek alone to the well and carry back two 80 lb buckets of water on a pole, balancing it on her broad shoulders. (117). Yan's presence was so great that she did not even need to tell the other comrades to get back to work.

In a sense, Min looked at Yan…

Autobiographies
A memoir or autobiography can take on a myriad of different literary forms; for both Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway self-reflection is best achieved through the eyes of other people. The impact of Hemingway's A Moveable Feast and Stein's The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas is remarkable: the creation of autobiographical material that is neither narcissistic nor self-centered. The authors achieve their literary feats in part by writing in a straightforward style of prose that characterizes the remainder of their respective canon of work. hat impressionistic elements do add nuance and flourish to Hemingway and Stein's memoirs never becomes purple prose. Moreover, both A Moveable Feast and The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas are constructionist, or constructivist, texts in that the authors assemble a "self" for the reader. The "self" is not monolithic, but rather, pluralistic and multi-faceted. In spite of their rather basic use of prose elements, both…

Apparently, the language is the one to blame for the communication breeches inside the family. On the other hand, the author uses another personal experience, his relationship with his grandmother, who died when he was nine years old, in order to show how they remained close even after he was no longer comfortable with using his native language, but perfectly able to understand it .
Besides public and private sphere, another distinction the author makes on his way to counterattack the program of bilingual education is that between private and public individuality. In making a case against those "bilingualists" (Rodriguez, 338) who "simplistically scorn the value and necessity of assimilation" (idem), he favors the public individuality, arguing that this is absolutely necessary in order for one to evolve and achieve something in society. However, he does not continue to explain the concept of public individuality and how it differs from…

However, she writes that she embarked upon her book to encourage suffering individuals to enter treatment, not to shy away from it, given that without medication she could not be functional.
Jamison's relatively short (240 pages) text is broken up into four sections: "The wild blue younger," "A not-so-fine madness," "This medicine, love," and "An unquiet mind." The book is vaguely chronological, although Jamison dips back and forth in her past, so the reader can better understand the significance of different life events. The book is not pure memoir -- it is a story of her life as a manic-depressive, so every incident is filtered through that point-of-view. To some degree, this can be limiting, for as powerful as the illness may be, it can be difficult to accept that this, more so than any other aspect of Jamison's life, is what defined her existence, beyond relationships, athletics, and her…

He turned out well in spite of the Picketts, and this is certainly something to admire. While the system abandoned him, he never quite abandoned himself, and this is also something to admire. He conquered homelessness, the lack of a known family, and poverty to become a successful player in Hollywood. These are items that I can relate to because his book makes it so very clear how he suffered and how thankful he is for his new, "magical" life with a family and a successful career. Everyone has problems and difficulties, and it is much more helpful to relate to someone who can conquer them. Fisher gives the reader hope, but more than that, he shows how he also took his success into his own hands and changed his life. His life changed when he joined the Navy. He did something concrete that made his life better, and just…

Sledge was instructed during basic training that if fighting "Japs," he should "kick him [a Japanese soldier] in the balls before he kicks you in yours," and was counseled that knives were especially effective fighting the Japanese because of their underhanded tactics. (18) The Japanese enemies were seen as less ethical and more desperate combatants than the Germans, because of their kamikaze warplane tactics. The idea of the Germans as more compassionate adversaries seems ironic in light of the revelations of the Nazi death camps in the aftermath of V-E day, but Sledge's account shows how, at the time, racial views of 'the enemy' permeated even the American side. The eyewitness depiction of this attitude also shows why Japanese-American's patriotism was called into question by the American government over the course of the war, unlike German-American's patriotism.
Sledge's book even contains photographs of dead Japanese soldiers, lying on the fields…

Warriors don't cry: A searing memoir of the battle to integrate Little ock's Central High" by Melba Pattillo Beals. Specifically it will discuss the thesis, themes, and ideas of the book, and include a critique. This book is much more than a memoir; it is an account of hatred and bitterness in American history that should never be forgotten. It should be a must read for any American student, to find out just how important an integrated education was to those who were banned from it. Today we take this type of education for granted, but in 1957, these nine students had to fight hard to achieve it.
There are several themes and ideas in this work. First, the author shows that these warriors have survived and thrived since their years at Little ock's Central High. She shows how the experience brought them together and made such a difference in…

The idea is that imposing a concentration of coursework in reading, writing and arithmetic will make us more competitive with the world and better prepared for the future. According to Robinson, what the policymakers have failed to take into account is that the world is changing faster than ever in our history. He believes that the best hope for the future is to develop a new paradigm of human capacity to meet a new era of human existence. e need to create environments where every person is inspired to grow creatively in order to meet the challenges that lie ahead.
Edward de Bono (2005) notes that not only is the amount of information students learn during the time they are at school very limited, much of the knowledge they acquire while at school is quickly outdated. On the other hand, access to all kinds of information has become incredibly easy.…

Fish Out of Water: The Turbulent Life of Antwone Fisher's Childhood
Finding Fish: A Memoir, is the tumultuous journey of Antwone Quenton Fisher's fairly disturbing life story, as particularly exemplified by the former part of his existence in which he subsisted in a foster home with a rather decidedly dearth of love, affection, and positive attention which is so important to the cultivation of a prosperous life. Despite a neglectful, abusive childhood and early adolescence in such desolate conditions, Fisher was able to rally his self-respect and self-esteem shortly after leaving this foster home, which was largely organized and operated under the auspices of one Mizz Pickett, whereby Fisher was able to eventually enlist in the United States Armed Forces. It was there that he regained much of the rectitude which was conspicuously absent from his early life, and was eventually able to parley that experience, along with his own…

Aria
Rodriguez, Richard. "Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood," an excerpt from. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez: an Autobiography. Boston, Mass: D.R. Godine, 1982. Print.

Bilingual education is one of the issues that have been hotly debated in the last few decades. Though proposed by Hispanic-Americans in the 1970s and '80s, many second- and third-generation immigrants from the south of the United States now have mixed feelings about bilingualism. Some support it as a policy that would help Spanish-speaking and other ethnic American children maintain their cultural heritage and individualism, while others criticize it as something that may block their assimilation and integration into the American mainstream. Richard Rodriguez, the son of Mexican immigrants to the United States, is among the latter group, arguing that children of Spanish-speaking and ethnic immigrants must opt for education in English only; for that is the best way of becoming…

Memoirs are effective forms of writing to use for a number of reasons. As a 20th Century American, one can look upon memoirs as both a telling of a time past and a time present; memoirs show a piece of our history, and thus by extension a piece of one's own identity as an American.
A less effective form of writing is that of social science argumentation, which asks us to believe various results of tests, polls, and studies. While an effective means of persuasion, it is not quite as stirring as that of the 'simple' memoir, or story of our 'own' people.

This paper will examine two writings which have been studied this year- that of Margaret Meade's "Coming of Age in Samoa" as well as Whittaker Chambers's "Witness." These two memoirs show different sides of America, and Americans. Meade's "Coming of Age" speaks of a time when she…

Film -- "12 Years a Slave"
Years a Slave is the true account of Solomon Northrup's life. A free African-American living in Saratoga Springs, New York, with his wife and two children, Solomon was kidnapped and sold into slavery as an escaped slave named Platt. Though Solomon tried to gain his freedom, he was thwarted and cruelly treated by members of America's slavery system. He also saw horrible cruelty inflicted on other African-American slaves and their various adjustments to it. Through the efforts of Solomon and abolitionists, he was finally freed and was compelled to write of his experience and become an abolitionist. The movie is often disturbing but its truthfulness about an actual person's experiences makes it worthwhile.

Body

Mr. Solomon Northrup's Life

Freedom

In 1841, Solomon Northrup is a free African-American living in Saratoga Springs, New York with his wife, Anne Hampton, and his two children, Alonzo and…

The reader can really feel the sense of despair felt when the author's sister left her alone, and when the former attempted to flee the school only to be trapped by the bars of the gate. Furthermore, the author did a fairly credible job of slowly displaying her signs of relief at first finding similar Spanish speakers, and then eventually finding comfort and ease in the new school.
The beginning of the narrative seemed to be a little prolonged, and did not appear to be as necessary as the anecdote about being at the school for the first time. Of course, the author was simply describing the beginning of her first day of school. However, the fighting for the bathroom and the changing of clothes, although detailed, actually seemed to detract a little from the shock of the author being at a new school in a new country. Ideally, this…

Old Breed
In real war, soldiers have been ripped from their families, surviving, sometimes barely, in foreign surroundings. The author of With the Old Breed repeatedly states he "just wanted to survive," (p. 186), which underscores the fact that cinematic versions of war often overplay the elements of honor and pride and downplay the more real, mundane, everyday feelings and experiences. In fact, Sledge notes that he did not want to be "burdened with responsibility" of being a commanding officer. It was better to be a mortarman, because then just surviving would be a victory. Therefore, the "real war" was the reality on the ground, and according to E.B. Sledge, it was "terribly depressing," (p. 180). This paper will demonstrate that the "real war" is to be found in the often mundane and "depressing" experiences of its soldiers, and will also discuss the counterpoint of idealized heroism.

eal war is…

Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, by John Cleland (commonly known as "Fanny Hill"). Specifically, it will answer the question, "is Fanny Hill an unrepentant woman or a contrite woman? It will draw parallels between another fallen woman in "The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders," by Daniel Defoe. Fanny Hill was a highly controversial and compelling novel about a prostitute, written when prostitution was certainly not an everyday topic of conversation. The book was the first to be banned in the United States. Today, it seems tame compared to our modern day versions of sex, but it still tells a compelling story of how women were forced to survive at a time in history when they had little other method of supporting themselves.
FANNY HILL

Fanny Hill" was a highly controversial and compelling novel, first published in 1749, and called the first pornographic novel by some reviewers.…

In fact, one of the principle facets of Moominpappa's character is to introduce didactic messages to his family, particularly to his children. Doing so is part of his job as a father and as the head of a household. Unfortunately, not all of his methods of teaching his family are as entertaining as his memoirs, as the following quotation from Moominpappa at Sea, in which he warns his family of the dangers of forest fires, proves.

He had warned the family. Time and time again he had explained how necessary it was to be careful in August. He had described the burning valley, the roar of the flames, the white-hot tree trunks, and the fire creeping along the ground underneath the moss. Blinding columns of flame flung upward against the night sky! aves of fire, rushing down the sides of the valley and on toward the sea… (Jansson).

The hyperbolic…

However, later she notes the predators can really be either sex, especially when it comes to sex and sexuality. Because she had a fantastic body, some of her female lovers abused her and used her too, and in fact, it was her first lover, "Jan" that said she had a body good enough to model with and earn money.
It must be remembered that Faderman had few choices as a young girl growing up in the 1950s, especially if she was gay. Maury the counselor told her if she was not going to marry, she was going to have to work, so she needed an education, so the attitude was still that a woman's real career option was to marry and have children. Feminist author Monique Wittig writes, "Lesbians should always remember and acknowledge how 'unnatural,' compelling, totally oppressive, and destructive being "woman" was for us in the old days…

Consider the following quotation in which he reflects on the companionship between him and his peers.
ar is brutish, inglorious, and a terrible waste. Combat leaves an indelible mark on those who are forced to endure it. The only redeeming factors were my comrades' incredible bravery and their devotion to each other. The Marine Corps training taught us to kill efficiently and to try to survive. But it also taught us loyalty to each other -- and love. The esprit de corps sustained us (Sledge 152).

This passage provides a very vital means on interpreting many of the different events discussed within this memoir. It also answers a lot of questions in regards to the author's true esteem for war, which does not appear to be 'necessary' whatsoever. It is worth noting that this passage concludes the manuscript, and delivers a sort of insight and value to the book that…

pain when it comes to being different. In both Zora Neale Hurston's essay "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" and Richard Rodriguez's " Aria: Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood" the two writers discuss the differences they come upon that molded their principles and sentiments as they grew older. For Hurston hers was about being of a dissimilar race than her environment. For Rodriguez, his was about being different by communicating in another language. Both felt the effect it had on not just their lives, but also their thoughts as they matured into adulthood.
Rodriguez and Hurston viewed their differences as some sort of handicap. Each author imagined themselves in some way as being handicapped in life, of either not comprehending the language or not comprehending being of a different race. However, both authors found a way to overcome their personal struggles through turning these thoughts and struggles into growing…

Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis
Specifically it will discuss what Kennedy says are the most important lessons that he learned from the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Cuban Missile Crisis took place in October 1962, and almost resulted in a nuclear war over ussian warheads in Cuba. Kennedy says he learned many things from the crisis, most importantly, that many differing views are the key to good deliberation. Today, that idea is often dismissed, calling for a general consensus on a topic, and that his implications for the U.S. Foreign policy in many areas.

Late in the book, Kennedy writes, "I believe our deliberations proved conclusively how important it is that the President have the recommendations and opinions of more than one individual, of more than one department, and of more than one point-of-view" (Kennedy 111). This is a central idea to democracy and our two-party system of government, which…

Memoir of a Public Information Officer: When an Earthquakes Strikes: The First Five Days
On Thursday the 15th of last month, at 7:31 A.M., an earthquake of 5.9 Moment Magnitude struck Southern California. The epicenter was near Santa Clarita, a small suburban community about twenty miles north of Los Angeles along the I-5 freeway. I am the Public Information Officer for the Emergency esponse Office for the City of Santa Clarita. The following is an account of the five days following that earthquake.

I was attending a breakfast meeting with City and County officials discussing items in the proposed budget for our Emergency esponse Office. Over danishes, bagels, coffee, and juice, we were itemized the needs required by my office. The main sticking point was the cost to training more CET (Community Emergency esponse Team) graduates. It is an 18-hour course taught by U.S. FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency). Our…

However, despite the personal successes, he felt personally responsible for the loss and would use the events from ull Run to questions his effectiveness as a military officer.
Next, Sherman would serve under Robert Anderson. Where, he would eventually succeed him and take command of all Union forces in Kentucky. This was important, because Kentucky was considered to be a neutral state in the war, where the Union army was based and there were pockets of Confederate units as well. This would create an atmosphere, where Sherman would be unable to conduct a total war, to defeat the various Confederate elements. At which point, he would complain to Washington about the constant shortages that he would face in achieving this objective, with his army lacking the men necessary to fight a successful campaign to low food provisions / ammunition. This would cause Sherman to be relieved of command and placed…

It is about impression and feeling, about individual recollection. This memoir is a combination of facts about my life and certain embellishments. It is a subjective truth, altered by the mind of a recovering drug addict and alcoholic" (rey 2006).
Defenders of rey were even more explicit in noting that telling a good story and creating a vivid image in the mind of a reader often demands the use of certain literary techniques. Lee Gutkind, in an article titled "The Creative Nonfiction Police" pointed out that even Henry David Thoreau compressed certain elements of Thoreau's famous two years spent on Walden Pond into one for the sake of creating a more compelling narrative (Gutkind 2004). Compressing certain events can be used to create the impression of how an event 'really felt' even if it is not how the event really was, much like how time sometimes seems to slow down…

Source C

Roberts, Rev. Dr. Mark D. "Oprah, James Frey, and the Question of Truth" markdroberts.com.

30 January 2006.

Tone: Moralistic

Claim: James Frey's book is fraudulent and should never have been published.

Purpose: To explain his outrage at Frey's misrepresentation and the publisher's lack of fact-checking.

Important information in the title: Frey's supposedly inspirational and gut-wrenching story was prominently featured on Oprah's book club and became a best seller.

Important info in the background material: The author was published by the same publishing house as Frey, under a different imprint. He states that Frey was treated very differently than he was in terms of the scrutiny to which Frey's story was subject.

Sentence explaining author's claim and how he/she would respond to the prompt: Some things are factual and facts must be honored.

Important parts of the text that specifically show claim/purpose/tone: specifically show claim/purpose/tone: I'm tempted to say…

conservative intellectual movement, but also the role of William uckley and William Rusher in the blossoming of the youth conservative movement
Talk about structure of paper, who not strictly chronologically placed (ie hayek before the rest) - in this order for thematic purposes, to enhance the genuiness of the paper (branches of the movement brought up in order of importance to youth conservative revolt) For instance, Hayek had perhaps the greatest impact on the effects of the movement - uckley and Rusher. These individuals, their beliefs, their principles were extremely influential in better understanding the origins, history, and leaders of American conservatism.

Momentous events shape the psyche of an individual as the person matures. A child grows up in poverty vows to never be like his parents, and keeps this inner vow to become a millionaire. A young woman experiences sexual trauma as a teen, and chooses a career that…

Truth and Fiction:
The Disputed Authorship of the Memoirs of Bernardo Vega

The Memoirs of Bernardo Vega detail the early 20th century immigrant experience of Bernardo Vega, a cigar-maker who immigrated to New York in 1916 and was an eyewitness to the rise of the socialist and labor movements of the era. Although cigar making might seem like a blue-collar occupation, at the time it was considered an art within the Puerto Rican community and the pride of Vega's life. Vega also worked as an editor, bookkeeper, and in other white collar occupations and was an influential intellectual amongst his people throughout the duration of his life. In many ways, Vega's life and career challenge the traditional white-collar/blue-collar divide even though he was very active in the union movement.

Cigar rollers were traditionally read to as a way of passing the time and Vega is recorded as substantially adding to…

Sex, Body, and Identity: How the Language of Metaphor Functions in Various Physically-Challenged Individuals' Expression of Identity and Selfhood
In her memoir aist-High in the orld: A Life Among the Nondisabled [sic], author Nancy Mairs, who writes about how having Multiple Sclerosis (MS) had impacted her self-image, body image, and day to-day life, observes that:

In biblical times, physical and mental disorders were thought to signify possession by demons. . . People who were stooped or blind or subject to seizures were clearly not okay as they were but required fixing

Mairs's detailed, often painfully honest reflections on dealing with (in her case, progressive) physical disabilities, e.g., difficulties with walking, sitting, standing straight; brushing her teeth (capabilities most take for granted) shed light on the myriad physical, psychological, emotional, and other challenges that daily fill the lives of those with physical disabilities. Narratives written by individuals with physical disabilities ranging…

Aytch: A Confederate's Memoir of the Civil War
The Civil War was one of the bloodiest periods in American History. In contemporary times it has also proved to be one of the most glamorized periods of American History. Films such as Gone with the Wind and Birth of the Nation both attest to this fact. However, for serious students of the period, there remains a wealth of real life testimony from battlefield, the words of individuals who suffered and died in the service of both Union and Confederate armies. The memoir Co. Aytch: A Confederate's Memoir of the Civil War, is a Civil War battlefield account that is neither beautiful nor romanticized. It is a real life dramatization of the despair often faced by members of the 'losing' army in that particular conflict.

Aytch began his Civil War experience as a relatively idealistic young defender of the new Confederacy. Early…

hile each of these readings provide useful insights into the character, this study suggests that Gil-Martin represents something more than either the devil or Robert's imagination. Instead, one may read Gil-Martin as the specter of Robert's religious fanaticism, that part of his belief that justifies all of his actions. Instead of viewing Gil-Martin as an evil or "negative" influence in contrast to Robert's otherwise religious tendencies, one may view Gil-Martin as the physical embodiment of those religious tendencies, because it is Gil-Martin that allows Robert to do everything he does, who gives him strength, and who justifies his actions.
Just before Robert meets Gil-Martin for the first time, he is anointed and blessed by ringhim, who uses "these remarkable words" to send him out into the world: "I give him into Thy hand, as a captain putteth a sword into the hand of his sovereign, wherewith to lay waste his…

Todd Quintard: Civil War Doctor, Preacher, Soldier and Friend
Personal Chronology (Todd Quintard was born in Stamford, Connecticut, 22 December, 1824. His father, Isaac, was born in the same house, and died there in the ninetieth year of his age. Todd was a pupil of Trinity school, New York, and he studied medicine with Dr. James . Wood and Dr. Valentine Molt. He graduated at the University of the City of New York in 1847. He afterward removed to Georgia, where he began to practice medicine in Athens. Elliot, 2003) in 1851 he accepted the chair of physiology and pathological anatomy in the medical college at Memphis, Tennessee, and became co-editor with Dr. Ayres P. Merrill, of the Memphis "Medical ecorder."

In 1855 he took orders as a deacon in the Protestant Episcopal Church. He was advanced to the priesthood in the following year, and in January, 1857, became rector…

This writer identifies Auster's abstract techniques and is able to understand that the author introduces a series of elements meant to put across a much more complex account in the second part of the book. The fact that he uses third person to describe himself and his emotions certainly contributes to strengthening his connection with readers. Readers are practically influenced to believe that the author himself is very similar to them as a result of trying to interpret his thoughts.
The writer is right in thinking that the author was not only concerned about providing readers with an interesting account, as he actually wanted to join them in trying to perform a self-analysis process that would enable him to gain a better understanding of how his thinking reflects on him.

To a certain degree, one might be inclined to believe that this writer was partially wrong because he considered Auster…

The struggle with tradition and one's personal history comes to the forefront in two other family memoirs, Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel and Maxine Hong Kingston's the Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. In the case of the former, Ali is thrust into exile because of her unwillingness to conform to her parents' expectations of what is proper for a woman in her native culture. Maxine Hong Kingston experiences similar issues, although the consequences for her are far less extreme.
In my analysis of the issues outlined above, I intend to show how all three writers transform the personal into the political, effectively establishing that the most minute, particular happenings in our lives can indeed have universal implications.

ibliography

Ali, Ayaan Hirsi. Infidel. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007.

Kingston, Maxine Hong. The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts. New York: Vintage ooks, 1975.

Walls, Jeannette. The…

This is rooted in his Christianity. The book provides important insight into Carter's personal understanding of his Southern Baptist religion, and its positive role in making the world a better place and making him a better man and advocate for social justice.
immy, Carter, Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis, (New York: Simon & (Schuster, 2006) states that America is in crisis, not simply in an immediate political crisis regarding the Iraq War. In his most recent prose offering, Carter takes on what he sees are the most serious issues of the present day, including the war, violence at home, and global warming. He criticizes the growing gap between rich and poor and the lack of charity at home and abroad. America also seems out of touch in viewing itself as a global policeman that does not need the United Nations, and America is one of the few remaining democratic…

Small Place," Jamaica Kincaid fulfills Rushdie's call for postcolonial writers to carve territories for themselves within language to overcome their oppression and perceived inferiority. Kincaid achieves this first by writing about what she knows best: the postcolonial environment of her native country of Antigua. In "A Small Place," Kincaid analyzes the way colonialism has impacted the development of social, cultural, political, and economic institutions in Antigua. The author emphasizes her personal experience on the island. In so doing, she carves a niche in the "small place" that is the island. With a special focus on the tourism industry, Kincaid achieves Rushdie's call for a focused territory that can be used to overcome oppression and perceived inferiority. "A Small Place" is also about social structures and hierarchies, including gender, race, and power. Language becomes the most powerful weapon to be used against the continued oppression of people living in a postcolonial…