Why do people write memoirs? The most obvious answer is that to share their unique journey of life with others. However, it goes far beyond that. By writing memoirs, The writers can also reveal things in their life that they never notice before, some reminisces that become meaningful after time went by, and some decisions that were made subconsciously but profound. The memoir Another Bullshit Night in Suck City written by Nick Flynn tells Flynn’s arduous journey through life, having a father who never shows up and a mother who committed suicide during his time in college. The memoir consists of many fragmented sections: some are about Nick’s father, Jonathan Flynn, and some are about Nick himself. “Why I Write” by Joan Didion and “This Is How …show more content…
Flynn uses many little fragment stories to build up the whole story between himself and his father, and each of them serves as a puzzle piece to their relationship and their life, just as how Flynn himself get to know his father. Every section is a scene, or an image, which is what Didion emphasizes. Using as much sense as possible, Flynn gives special texture to the memoir, making every scene sensible and realistic to readers. When describing the homeless shelter, Flynn writes “inside the shelter the tension is inescapable – the walls exude cigarette smoke and anxiety. The air is thick, stale, dreamy, though barely masking the overpowering smell of stale sweat.” (30) When talking about the absence of fathers, Flynn builds many images of irresponsible fathers rather than talk about the idea: “Even if around, most disappear all day, to jobs their children only slightly understand. Gone to office, gone to shop, men in suits hiding behind closed doors, yelling into phones, men in overalls, reading pornography in pickup trucks…The carpenter. The electrician. They drive to strangers’ houses, a woman in a robe answers the door, they sit at the table about the day ahead.” (23) Flynn is deft at explaining abstract ideas by imaginary scenes. He never explicitly tells his feeling towards his father, but he hides it in the fictitious episodes. In the section “Two Hundred …show more content…
This honesty comes from its unsentimental tone, articulate voice, and blunt wording. Although it is Flynn’s memoir, the way Flynn writes the story seems like Flynn is telling a stranger’s story. He doesn’t add any personal emotions into it, just merely sharing some experiences without any self-pity. The wording is intense and blunt. In “Ulysses,” Flynn writes “All my life my father had been manifest as an absence, a nonpresence, a name without a body” (24). This sentence delivers a depressing and pessimistic mood, using three different descriptions portray his father’s figure in Flynn’s life, and each of them reinforces themselves. The sentences are short and to the point, and some sentences are even fragmented. “Many fathers are gone. Some leave, some are left,” Flynn writes. (23) This sentence style shows the author’s thinking process at the moment, rather than tells a story. Besides fragmented sentences, sections are also unchronological and seem irrelative to each other, attracting readers to read
Throughout the memoir, Night, the best parts of human nature are shown. From the start to the end of the memoir, Elie Wiesel and his dad had supported and never gave up on each other. Near the end, Elie Wiesel had questioned his father’s will, “To have lived and endured se much; was I going to let my father die now,” (105). He could not let his father die, they had faced so much together, they were each other’s strength. Similarly, Calpurnia had support the Finch family throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.
“The boy thought he saw his father everywhere. Outside the latrines. Underneath the showers. Leaving against barrack doorways. Playing go with the other men in their floppy straw hats on the narrow wooden benches after lunch.
First off, Father Flynn is being victimized by the fixated principal Sister Aloysius. She accuses him of inappropriately having relations with a child. Every action Father Flynn makes, Sister Aloysius seems to have a certain reprisal for his decision. Sister James, the history teacher for the 8th graders realizes that Sister Aloysius is adjudging Father Flynn’s opinions and calls her out on it: You just don’t like him!
However, those relationships can still be resurrected on the shifting sands of uncertainty if we decide to reflect upon our mistake. Past can’t be altered, yet reflecting on it and making a difference in present can heal the uncertainties of past and provide a better future. Today I reflect on the text of Don Bailey called “A Few Notes for Orpheus” which tells the struggle between a father and a son, and how their uncertainties
to still keep established pace and tone, which is that calm, disassociated mood. At this point the father, the reader might think, is a construction of the husband’s mind, because the husband had focused on “the idea of never seeing him again. . . .” which struck him the most out of this chance meeting, rather than on the present moment of seeing him (Forn 345). However surreal this may be in real life, the narrator manages to keep the same weight through the pacing in the story to give this story a certain realism through the husband’s
William Zinsser gives specific instructions in “How to Write a Memoir”. He tells you to, ”Be Yourself,” “Speak Freely,” and, “Tell Your Own Story”. This tells writers to tell the whole story through the good and the bad. ”Popular” by Maya Van Wagenen, uses his advice by using her point of view, using small memories from the past, and true storytelling. In William Zinsser’s, “How to Write a Memoir” he states that the writer should “Be Yourself”. In “Popular”, Maya states “For now, Betty Cornell has become my new soul mate, and I am married to every word.
Lastly, the two words the son and the man add to the complexity of the relationship. This shows that the man can’t picture himself being a father, especially after knowing he can’t meet the child’s expectation, but will always picture his son being a child in his eyes. In conclusion the author uses literary devices to add depth and emotion to the complex relationship between the two characters. He does this by changing the point of view throughout the poem from son to father. He uses a purposeful structure from present to future coming back to present to demonstrate with the complexity of the father's
This first connection is narrowed between Tennessee and Tom’s fathers and their lack of interaction. During Tennessee’s life, his father did not have much of a relationship with him since he was constantly working. His father viewed his work as a higher priority than raising his children (“Tennessee Williams”). As for Tom, his father all-together left his whole family behind. Even though both situations are not exactly the same, the big picture encircling both fathers’ lack of interaction between with their children is the
1. In "Good Country People" what is the effect of O'Connor's use of the phrase "good country people" throughout the story, and why is it an appropriate title? Explain. Use of the phrase “Good country people” tells me that O'Connor is giving the impression that people living in countryside are nothing but good. This could be her experience or knowledge of the country people. It is also to built an unexpected outcome, so, the reader will not doubt the intentions of the “Good country people” in this case the confession of the bible salesman, that he is just a country boy trying to make a living. O’Connor chose the bible salesman; it could have been anything but, the bible.
He could imagine his deception of this town “nestled in a paper landscape,” (Collins 534). This image of the speaker shows the first sign of his delusional ideas of the people in his town. Collins create a connection between the speaker’s teacher teaching life and retired life in lines five and six of the poem. These connections are “ chalk dust flurrying down in winter, nights dark as a blackboard,” which compares images that the readers can picture.
The significance is in the main fact that Journals and Diaries are and told from the day the event happens thus they capture not a mere reflection but after thoughts of things occurring. While Memoirs such as this one are told after much reflecting on the significant moment. Both are a step through time. But it is the journal that has the fresh emotions and thoughts of time. One tells more by thoughtful interpretation while the other reflects on current events.
It was there morbidity. This was the real issue between us as it had been between her and my father,”(45). James’s mother is desperate to cure her son of his lies, so much as she doesn’t realize that she is hurting him. James’s mother is distraught and is upset with the fact that he is an outsider and unlike his other siblings. Because his mother does not understand his problem James is yearning to get away from her and find out who he can be without being under the influence of her.
The scene then changes to the narrator’s childhood, a lonely one at it. “I lay on the bed and lost myself in stories,” he says, “I liked that. Books were safer than other people anyway.” The main narrative starts as he recalls a
In enduring these complex emotions, this section was the most remarkable part. One of the first apparent emotions the boy experiences with the death of his father is loneliness to make this section memorable. The boy expresses this sentiment when he stays with his father described as, “When he came back he knelt beside his father and held his cold hand and said his name over and over again,” (McCarthy 281). The definition of loneliness is, “sadness because one has no friends or company.”
The author realizes that his father, who was always cold to him,