Memoirs are something that are set in between two styles of writing; biographies and novels. They combine the aspects of each to produce something that is completely different. In auto/biographies the facts are reported, the events told, and a life captured in a pile of paper. Everything is a real event and things are told as they happened. This has a certain power because the reader knows that the subjects are actual events happening to actual people. It can bring the reader closer to the story because they can relate much easier. A memoir has the same idea but it takes the events and focuses in on them to a greater deal. Things are told how they generally happened but can be slightly exaggerated and enhanced to add more meaning to the story. This still gives the reader the powerful connection to reality that a biography gives but with a more palatable story and writing style. More fun, same events. This small element of fiction is what relates it to the novel. Novels are all fiction which gives the writer more power to make an impression on the reader but because readers know that the events are not real they may not feel the same way about the book as they would if it had been a memoir. Memoirs have so much power because of this ability to combine small amounts of fiction with a great deal of fiction. They give the reader something that they could not get from any other style of writing.
Authors may have many reasons for choosing to write a memoir over some other style of writing.(Or just writing at all.) Often times it may be because of their proximity to major events or their position in them. The author can tell a story from up close and this gives it some of the power of reality spoken about above. They may want people to know what they saw in addition to what the news saw and what the government saw. It gives the reader a new viewpoint that they may not have previously had. Also, an author may write a memoir because they feel something important, meaningful, or downright amazing happened to them. In Richards case it was growing up in the South in such a different way than most blacks did. He felt that he had a story to tell about his life, so he told it. Many people have amazing experiences and don't choose to tell the world about them. Many do tell these events in the form of memoirs and this gives their event a chance to show itself to the world. It give the author a chance to show what happened to them. They may be showing us to express a point or a need for change. It may be a way to remember the past or those long gone. Or it may be a way to just tell a good story to the world. Memoirs are written because something happened and someone has something to say about it, whether its events big or small, private or public, memoirs are here to tell a story.
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3 comments:
I like how you said it was somewhere in between a biography and a novel. It was also good how you said that there are certain elements of fiction and non fiction in a memoir. It was helpful and made it easier to understand that when you related your post to Black Boy, that was really good!
I totally agree with your mention that memoirs are a mixture of fiction and non-fiction, and that this intrigues readers. It is always interesting to know that a story really happened, and the little non-fiction part often makes the story more relatable and meaningful. I also liked how you pointed out that authors write memoirs because they believe they have a story worth telling, because otherwise why would you even decide to write a memoir? Super interesting post! Nice work!
I love your explanation of the differences between a memoir and autobiography. Though I already know them, it was a very clear and easy to understand. That's pretty hard to do, since their differences are hard to see. Here's a question: which would you rather read, a memoir or autobiography?
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