Memoirs: I

Was Born.

Presented by:
Alek, Laurissa,
Tarun, Zayd

What is a Memoir?
The Call to Write describes a memoir as a
collection of moments.

What is a Memoir?
A memoir is how one remembers ones own
life (Two 1). Gore Vidal

What is a Memoir?
William Zinsser also has his own take on memoirs:
A composition of your memories or your familys
memories

What is a Memoir?
A collection of memories or moments
An interpretation of ones experience or experiences
A record of a familys history

Why are Memoirs Written?

To keep track of the past
To be responsible and draw
attention to events
To understand how the
authors life has intersected
with their world

Who Writes Memoirs?

Politicians
Celebrities
Athletes
People with troubled
childhoods
People who have survived
trauma
People with a story

Audience of Memoirs
Depends on the type of memoir
Should not be everyone
People who connect to the topic of the memoir

Structure of a Memoir
Introduction (Before)
Body (Story)
Conclusion (After)
Include narration and reflection

Tips for Memoir Writing

Focus on one idea or one part of your life
Discuss other people as well
Cause the reader to look at the situation
from your perspective

More Tips for Memoir

Writing
Use fictional elements
Evoke emotion but not a sense of pity
Set yourself apart
Be critical of yourself at times

Analysis of Walden
Discusses a certain
event in his life
First person point of
view
Storylike
Feels personal or
intimate

Analysis of A Long Way

Gone
Discusses a certain memory
Feels personal
First person point of view

tor
y
of
a
Me
mo

How was it
Developed?
-

Latin Root Word: Memoria

memory, remembrance

Earliest recordings: Julius Caesar and

Libanius

Evolution of
a Memoir
Ancient Roman

18th Century

21st Century

20th Century

Personal exploits

Documenting history

Legacy

Contro
versie
s
-

A Million Little Pieces

Fiction vs. Truth
Purpose

Major Figures
Figures that had an impact on the world
through their memoirs
Henry David Thoreau
Why he wrote a memoir?
Quotes

objectives of henry david

thoreau
Make his readers find their own unique path.
Supported everyone who wanted to do something different.
Influence the people around him to do what they loved.
Appreciation of the world, nature.
What he did to come to where he was

global impact that walden

had
Audubon Society for the protection of birds and wildlife in 1896.
Brought about change in that, people began doing what they
wished to do.
His appreciation of nature provoked John Muir to note the over
grazing in the Yosemite valley and take action.

Malala yousafzai
Who is she?
Shot in the head by Taliban
Campaign for education, equality and peace for every child

Objectives & global impact

Inspires the youth of today to take action
on current issues
Sparked a dialogue about childrens
education
Malala Petition
UN & the Millennium Development Goal
2
Taught the youth to never give up

Sub-genres

Personal Narrative vs
Personal Narrative
Memoir
Autobiography
Memoir
vs Autobiography
Story of ONE specific
event

Story of many events

with the same theme

Account of someone's
whole life

Experience/thoughts/
feelings

Reflection

Dates/specifics

Does not go beyond

Goes beyond a narrative

How is a memoir different

from an autobiography?

Unlike autobiography, which moves in a dutiful line from birth to fame,

memoir narrows the lens, focusing on a time in the writers life that was
unusually vivid, such as childhood or adolescence, or that was framed by war
or travel or public service or some other special circumstance (Zinsser,15).

Political Figure Memoirs

Excerpt from Hard Choices
Mom measured her own life by how much she was
able to help us and serve others. I knew if she
was still with us, she would be urging us to do the
same. Never rest on your laurels. Never quit.
Never stop working to make the world a better
place. Thats our unfinished business (Clinton,
488).

Travel Memoirs
Excerpt from Eat, Pray, Love
Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.
You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and
sometimes even travel around the world looking
for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the
manifestations of your own blessings. And once
you have achieved a state of happiness, you must
never become lax about maintaining it. You must
make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward
into that happiness forever, to stay afloat on top
of it (Gilbert, 254).

Pain Memoirs
Excerpt from A Long Way Gone
I have never been so afraid to go anywhere in my
life as I was that day. Even the scuttle of a lizard
frightened my entire being. A slight breeze blew
and it went through my brain with a sharp swoop
that made me grit my teeth in pain. Tears had
begun to form in my eyes, but I struggled to hide
them and gripped my gun for comfort (Beah,
112)

Love and Romance

Excerpt from Beautiful Ruins
Memoirs
The dying actress arrived in his village the only
way one could come directlyin a boat that
motored into the cove, lurched past the rock jetty,
and bumped against the end of the pier. She
wavered a moment in the boats stern, then
extended a slender hand to grip the mahogany
railing; with the other, she pressed a widebrimmed hat against her head. All around her,
shards of sunlight broke on the flickering waves
(Walter, 1).

Food Memoirs
Excerpt from The Devil in the Kitchen
Apply the cooks brain and visualize that fried egg on the plate.
Do you want it to be burned around the edges? Do you want to
see craters on the egg white? Should the yolk look as if youd
need a hammer to break into it? The answer to all three
questions should be no. Yet the majority of people still crack an
egg and drop it into searingly hot oil or fat and continue to cook
it on high heat. You need to insert earplugs to reduce the horrific
volume of the sizzle. And the result, once served up in a pool of
oil, is an inedible destruction of that great ingredientthe egg.
Maybe thats how you like it, in which case carry on serving
your disgusting food (White, 104)

Six Word Memoirs

Examples:
He caught me, then dropped me.
The way out is always forward.
Passionate cookie cutter. Lovemaking between sheets.
Relearning their truth, Deaf and blind.

Citations
"7 Mistakes To Avoid When Writing Your Memoir." The Creative Penn. N.p., 14 Mar. 2012. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Beah, Ishmael. A Long Way Gone Memoirs Of A Boy Soldier. N.p.: Shang Hai Yi Wen Chu Ban She/Tsai Fong, 2008. A Long Way
Gone. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
"Beautiful Ruins." Beautiful Ruins. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Bianco, Marcie. "8 Ways Malala Has Made the World Better for Women." Mic. N.p., 10 Oct. 2014. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
Charleston, LJ. "How to Write Memoir." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 23 July 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Clinton, Hillary Rodham. Hard Choices. Simon & Schuster, 2014. Print
Dias, Chelsea. 10 Ways Malala Yousafzai Has Changed the World. Mic. N.p., 23 July 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2015
Genzlinger, Neil. "The Problem With Memoirs." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Jan. 2011. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman's Search for Everything across Italy, India and Indonesia. New York: Viking, 2006.
Print.
Gilmore, Leigh. Pain Memoirs and Sequential Reading as an Ethical Practice Project Muse: n. pag. Web. 2015.

citations
Madrigal, Alexis C. Thoreaus Walden Is 156 Years Old Today, but Relevant as Ever. The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 09 Aug. 2010. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
Milde, Rob. Second Rough Draft: 3-5pp. Draft of Memoir. 2002. English Department, Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond, KY. Website.
"Palimpsest: A Memoir Paperback September 1, 1996." Palimpsest: A Memoir: Gore Vidal: 9780140260892: Amazon.com: Books. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
Roiphe, Katie. "How To Write a Good Memoir." This Is How You Write a Memoir. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Sambuchino, Chuck. "How to Write a Travel Memoir | WritersDigest.com."WritersDigest.com. N.p., 09 Sept. 2010. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Shmoop Editorial Team. "Walden." Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
"SMITH Magazine Six-Word Memoirs." Six-Word Memoirs. Six Words, 6 Jan. 2005. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
Swenson, Jill. "The Many Subgenres of Memoir." Swenson Book Development. N.p., 30 Mar. 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Thoreau, Emerson, and Transcendentalism." Summary and Analysis. Cliff Notes, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
"Thoreau, Emerson, and Transcendentalism." Thoreau's Reputation and Influence. Cliff Notes, n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.

citations
"Two Possible Definitions for Memoir." Two Possible Definitions for Memoir (n.d.): n. pag. Two Possible Definitions for Memoir. Web.
14 Oct. 2015.
Walter, Jess. Beautiful Ruins: A Novel. New York: Harper, 2012. Print.
Waxman, Barbara Frey. Food Memoirs: What They Are, Why They Are Popular, and Why They Belong in the Literature Classroom
National Council of Teachers of English: n. pag. Web. 2008.
White, Marco Pierre, and Marco Pierre White. The Devil in the Kitchen: The Autobiography. London: Orion, 2007. Print.
William Zinsser. "How to Write a Memoir." The American Scholar:. N.p., 12 May 2015. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
"World Wide Waldens - Putting Thoreau's Words Into Action - Meet Thoreau: Henry's Global Impact." World Wide Waldens - Putting Thoreau's Words Into Action
Meet Thoreau: Henry's Global Impact. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2015.
YouGov. Hard Choices: Whats in a Political Memoir Title? YouGov: What the World Thinks. N.p., 11 June 2014. Web. 14 Oct. 2015.
Zinsser, William. Inventing the Truth: The Art and Craft of Memoir. Mariner, 1998. Print.