Simran Week Seven: Sharing Memories
At first glance, it seems that memories are personal. Even though people may experience the same event, their different perspectives would cause them to have different memories. Yet, there is a way to share these memories in order to allow others to see them. Now you may be thinking that photos are an obvious choice to share memories with others. However, photos do not tell the complete story of what is happening; they only provide a snapshot of a moment. What people can do instead to share their memories is through their writing. Biographies, poems, and novels allow us to learn about the stories of others. If done correctly, writing not only offers an understanding of others’ stories, but it can also transport us to the scene of the story.
Imagery is a great tool to do this. Through imagery, writers are able to appeal to the readers’ senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. This allows readers to form a clearer picture of the story in their heads. I personally find imagery to be the strongest tool to share a memory. Even though it seems rather simple, there have been many times when I read writing that was so vivid, I felt like I was at that scene myself. Similes and metaphors can also be used to help readers imagine a particular scene, especially since these types of comparisons can add additional nuances that straightforward detail cannot. Writing is also able to offer the audience a better understanding of how the narrator felt during a particular moment. Many memories are associated with emotions, even the simpler memories. For instance, when I remember talking with my friends at lunch today, I remember feeling excitement and curiosity. Unlike movies and photos, writing allows people to understand the narrator's perspective much better since the readers are able to know the reader’s emotions and thoughts.
Using writing to share memories is incredibly powerful. It allows us to have a deeper understanding of history, not only of the events but about the people too. It can be used for scientific purposes since reading the journal of an inventor and scientist can allow us to learn how they came to a discovery, which can then be built upon. Writing allows us to be more educated, more informed, and more inspired.
Image Cited: https://www.istockphoto.com/photos/book-imagination
Comments
I liked how you pointed out how despite how each memory is personal and unique, it is also shared with a lot of other people. I had never thought of it that way before. I agree with how writing is an extremely powerful tool in sharing your thoughts and experiences. I think the reason why people write autobiographies is to let people see their memories from their point of view. The only bad thing about imagery is that people's minds can't necessarily accurately replicate the real image in their head, so people may have different ideas of what really happened. I also like how you said that writing reveals more about the people during the time in addition to the general history, because I believe the most important part of history is people.
I think this is pretty similar to how history teachers, especially AP ones, stress about knowing who wrote the article. As they may be more biased, the point of view that they provide may be different than what another person experienced at the time. It helps for historians to also view images and diaries that history itself has left behind. Writing to record a memory provides one with more sensational thoughts while photographs are more vivid. These allow for someone else to examine and guess the mood of the person when the memory was taken and what they were experiencing.
I agree with you, writing and the techniques within writing are so powerful and they help readers understand the author’s perspective. My favorite literary device is imagery, since imagery is what helps me picture what is happening, how the characters are interacting, feeling, which further enhances my interpretation of the book. It’s as if imagery is like cartoon books, they provide the details and little parts needed to make the book be pictured as a whole.
Sincerely,
Faith Tong
I just know for a fact that Collegeboard would use this blog as a reason for why the rhetorical essay LOL. But yes, I do agree with you that images don't provide the complete picture of the scene (pun intended??) and that stories usually do. This may also not be true because stories usually allow for a "bias" so the listener would only understand an aspect of what happened. For example, if lunch was really fun for someone because their friends were talking about history, it would be a good memory for them. But, if someone doesn't like history it wouldn't be classified as a good memory anymore.
Sincerely,
Mrinmayee
You bring up some very intriguing thoughts! It's crazy how many different perspectives there can be of one single situation/experience. Ask multiple people who went to the same event what happened, and what they say will almost never be completely identical to one another. On the topic of imagery, this is one method to accurately convey the happenings of a certain situation. But then again, the way each individual processes the imagery in their head will also never be the same. We do have the ability to share similar sentiments, though, even if the memories are never unvarying, which is a reason why imagery can be so effective in writing.
-Angel Susantin
I like using imagery a lot. When I used to write cringy stories of my own, I had so much fun using different types of descriptions to evoke certain emotions within my writing. I do think that using imagery can help writers imprint their writing into their audience's mind better, and also adds significance into certain events.