Today, I will talk about the notion autobiography.
So, I will begin by defining this notion.
In my opinion, an autobiography is a real story tells(told) by a person who have(has) lived this event or this(a certain) set of event. It’s a self report life writing.
This year, we studied different autobiographies.
Now, I propose we look at a question : « How an author can pass a message ? »(use quotation marks"")
Fistly(first), we will talk about the personal feelings of the author.
In fact, the author, the narrator and main character are the same person. Like Marguerite in the first text « I know why the caged bird sings »(use quotation marks) by Maya Angelou. Here, Marguerite is in the church and has to recite a text. But she forgets sentences because she start to think of other important things. She thinks of her dreams of becoming white. she(begin sentence with capital letter) has shame because she has forgotten his text, but also a feeling of sadness (an she also feels sad) because she is not always(remove) white. The prologue begins by the first person « I ». The point of view is internal. So, the author recounts his memories, what he lived.
Secondly, we will see that the author is honest with the reader in recounting the events.
The years that have passed between the time the events took place and when the author recounts the memories can be many and may laed to the information being distorted or broken. Despite of this, the author tells the truth, he is honest with the reader. It is based on the memory. For example, in "A significant event," the author described the moment he began to lie with detail. He is sincere with us because he says it's events that marks an important point in his life. With distance, he becomes aware of the impact of this revealing moment.
So the author selects the useful memories for his autobiographical project.
Finally, the author can support a cause by telling the story he lived. This cause can be slavery as in (missing something) "I am a slave" by William Wells Brown. He presents this period of his life as a loss of freedom and a total dehumanization.
Furthermore, this cause can also be seen as a fight against racism. As in "I know Why the Caged Bird Sings" here, the girl Marguerite critical racism. She is ill in his skin(sick of her skin?). Thanks to her history, we understand that racial abuse is not a good thing.
Both authors want to show the truth, the reality of past events, they want to change things because even today these two phenomena still exist in our society.
To conclude, we can see that autobiography is used to pass a message to readers because the narrator uses his personal feelings, he is honest and sincere and he defends a cause. He tries to touch the reader. The author can share his experience and inform or report. The author can write to justify a given subject. Or write to analyze its own evolution. The author may also want to leave a trace of his life.
