When thinking about the genre of short memoirs there are several aspects to consider. Thus, ensuring the reader’s expectations are met and the writing is easily recognizable as a memoir. Therefore, I have decided to focus on the specific conventions that work to enhance and further the overall purpose of the piece, and ultimately to fulfill those expectations. In order to determine if the work that I created is worthy of being considered a short memoir, I chose to use the following memoirs “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie and “Salvation” by Langton Hughes for comparison.
First, I believe the content of a memoir should be told from the perspective of the first person. Thus, there should be a significant amount of reference to “I” throughout …show more content…
While I think for some authors the purpose can mean affording them a form of therapy as they work through their deep-seated issues in their writing. However, fleshing out thoughts is not the only purpose as many memoirs are trying to teach the readers about a particular lesson that can be learned from their profound experience. For example, Alexie explained that after being targeted by imprisoning attitudes he was able to break the mold trough reading books as he stated “I read with equal parts joy and desperation. I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life” (3). Thus, while his memoir may have allowed him to work through troublesome issues it also was embedded with a lesson for others to learn from. The memoir by Hughes was less straightforward as the reader could easily understand what he endured. However, his story also served to illustrate how to cast the importance of religion upon others, especially children. The point being that I believe writing a memoir is a selective process in which the writer chooses to speak an event that can connect to the reader on a deeper level. I believe I was also able to achieve the same effect in my memoir as I was telling a story from life. However, my purpose was to convey the message in a manner that …show more content…
I learned through specific examples that while it was important for me to share my story, it was equally important for me to recognize and employ these aspects in order for the audience to consider my writing a memoir. Thus, allowing the ability to more easily recognize and analyze this particular genre going
First, I believe the content of a memoir should be told from the perspective of the first person. Thus, there should be a significant amount of reference to “I” throughout …show more content…
While I think for some authors the purpose can mean affording them a form of therapy as they work through their deep-seated issues in their writing. However, fleshing out thoughts is not the only purpose as many memoirs are trying to teach the readers about a particular lesson that can be learned from their profound experience. For example, Alexie explained that after being targeted by imprisoning attitudes he was able to break the mold trough reading books as he stated “I read with equal parts joy and desperation. I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I was trying to save my life” (3). Thus, while his memoir may have allowed him to work through troublesome issues it also was embedded with a lesson for others to learn from. The memoir by Hughes was less straightforward as the reader could easily understand what he endured. However, his story also served to illustrate how to cast the importance of religion upon others, especially children. The point being that I believe writing a memoir is a selective process in which the writer chooses to speak an event that can connect to the reader on a deeper level. I believe I was also able to achieve the same effect in my memoir as I was telling a story from life. However, my purpose was to convey the message in a manner that …show more content…
I learned through specific examples that while it was important for me to share my story, it was equally important for me to recognize and employ these aspects in order for the audience to consider my writing a memoir. Thus, allowing the ability to more easily recognize and analyze this particular genre going