REMEMBERING Memory is an abstract painting Eugenia Collier

REMEMBERING “Memory is an abstract painting” ---Eugenia Collier, “Marigolds”

Personal Experience n n We are truly experts on only one thing— ourselves. No one knows us more intuitively than we ourselves. Memories are abstract; when recreating a memory for others, we must make the abstract concrete with laser focus.

Lifeline For nearly a year, I sopped around the house, the Store, the school, and the church, like an old biscuit, dirty and inedible. Then I met, or rather got to know, the lady who threw me my first lifeline. n Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings n n Consider Diction: 1. What is the dictionary definition (denotation) of the verb sop? 2. What is a lifeline? How is Angelou’s use of the word different from its usual use? How does this diction affect your understanding of the sentence? n Consider Syntax: n How does the structure of the sentence match the intensity of the subject?

n “Champion of the world. A Black boy. Some black mother’s son. He was the strongest man in the world. People drank Coca-Colas like ambrosia and ate candy like Christmas bars. Some of the men went behind the store and poured white lightning in their soft-drink bottles, and a few of the bigger boys followed them. Those who were not chased away came blowing their breath in front of themselves like proud smokers”

How? n n Use of Detailed Observation: Effective remembering essays build on observing strategies. Writers recall sights sounds, smells, tactile feelings, tastes. Writers use ACTUAL or RE-CREATED Dialogue.

Creation of specific scenes n n Instead of describing the outcome of an important event or action, writers re-create an event by setting it in a specific time and space. Usually, in an essay, this occurs with one specific event within a limited time frame. Thus, the event, such as the one that precipitated your lifeline, can be recreated with laser-sharp focus.

Use of Important Changes, Conflicts, and Contrasts n The main idea or dominant impression in autobiographical writing often grows out of changes in people or places, conflicts between people, or contrasts between the past and the present.

Connects Past with Present n Often, the main point becomes obvious when a writer connects his past to the present, because, essentially, if we fail to learn lessons from our past, we fail to grow as individuals.

Creation of Main Idea or Dominant Impression n The details, specific scenes, accounts of changes or conflicts, and connections between past and present should point to a single main idea or dominant impression for the passage as whole.

Shaping your essay n n n Chronological order—follow the time Conflict resolution—You have a problem and take a path to solve it. Comparison contrast—Always. There will always be a tug between the person you were and the person you are.

n Image—Look for key images and provide laser focus. Once you have an image that evokes your feelings or experiences, you may be able to use it several times to organize and shape your essay.

Tone and Voice n Tone is the writer’s attitude toward his or her subject. In a remembering essay, a writer may write with a nostalgic tone, or a bitter tone, or a philosophical, accepting tone. Voice is the writer’s personality as revealed in the essay. In a remembering essay, writers sometimes use an adult voice, reflecting on their experiences, or sometimes a child’s voice. A writer’s voice may be emotional, conversational, and colloquial, or it may be impersonal and detached. Tone and voice overlap, but together they help recreate the attitude and personality of the writer.

I was once silly. I was once brimming with confidence. I once had a personality that shone, a personality that couldn’t be ignored. I thrived in my own little world, my childhood innocence where all that really mattered was beating the boys at sports and being able to climb up the towering green slide on the playground. Those were the days when I was whole, untouched by the monster that is the judgments of others. Untouched by the slender figures on the cover of Vogue.

n I remember my last day of fourth grade as though it were yesterday, walking out the room, waving at Mrs. Harding as I left, saying “Good-bye Mrs. H. See you next year. I hope. ” Little did I know, it was the last time I would ever see my first mentor again. The next year, she lost the hard-fought battle with leukemia. The last thing I ever told her, those measly nine words, haunted every waking minute for the next two years. I had allowed someone very dear to me to leave this world without letting them know how much they meant to me. I had taken her for granted, a mistake I vowed never to make again. But the true extent of the impact on my life was not apparent until later, when I began pushing people away, fearful of letting anyone too close, terrified of being hurt again.

Here is a sample intro n n Devastated and alone, with my depression quickening into my broken heart, I was numb, and the vodka wasn’t to blame. The October chill finally had descended upon the hellish, unnatural heat of the South, and I turned on the heater of my apartment. Thus, I provided the incubation for the flea eggs that lay dormant in the vents, and I awoke, itching vigorously all over my body; the bastards had even descended into my arm cast. I took a shower and held my arm to the shower head, trying to kill the bloody vampires, but they refused to die. Finally, I used a wire hanger to relieve the itch, and the excess blood from my self-inflicted wounds seemed to satiate them. That’s when I heard the bells, those damn ringing bells that woke me every Sunday morning at 10: 00 AM, disturbing my nightmares, but this one morning, they just called to me, inviting me out of my darkness with the din of light. Those bells, which I had always cursed, invited me to my lifeline—Jesus.

Finishing the essay n Now, it is clear there is a tragic story here, which will be accompanied by flashbacks to something dreadful that happened once long ago, which will ultimately culminate in the finale’—the religious conversion, thus the story will come full circle.

But… n The image is provocative enough that it captures your attention.

Assessment n Essay will be evaluated based on the 6 Traits of writing.