I have always indulged myself in literature, and enjoy the power that pen on paper has.That is why I became an English teacher at Stuyvesant High School in New York; the job that makes me truly happy. I am writing because I feel a need that I have to. I believe it is my job to educate the youth of our future of the past that once was. I also believe I need to write it so that I don't forget my own strife in my own past. The mind slowly fades throughout time, and I don't want my life story with many messages to give, to die along with my mind.
It has been stated that I remember everything to extreme clarity. " His prose is so clear a reader can smell the raindrops." (O'Haire, Daily News). These memories may appear strong now, but they were stronger when the memories were younger in my past. They were as clear as a nickel back then,and a little time can hinder one's memories. The reason I write is so that people may gain strength through my pain and strife. I want people to truly indulge in life, and really take a moment to just pause their busy lives and be thankful for what they have. I want people to remember the suffering that my family and I had to endear, but also the strength and courage it also took to survive it. My story is about faith, courage, love, and spirit, and how others can truly help you pull through. There are so many messages that can be pulled from my life, and I hope that they affect people in the similar ways that they have affected me. My words of wisdom are there to encourage people to find their way out of the darkness, becasue I did. If I could make it out and have a bright future ahead of me, than I know this can be the same for others.
I also write for the sake of my family. I believe that throught their pain and sufferings, that they deserve to be remembered. My poor Mother went through so much pain and suffering, and I believe it is my duty to let her caring soul never be forgotten. In fact, I could not write this memoir until my mother passed away because it was just too painful for me to write about this. My mother and I did have some rocky times. I slapped her and made her cry when I drank my first pint, and I know that I forever hurt her feelings. I know how much I may have hurt her feelings, and I know that during this time of struggle, she did everything that she possibly could for us. I write for my family because thay should never be forgotten.
I write also to keep the past alive. I want people to know that this did happen, and that is wasn't a made up fictional event. It is very important that I keep the past a reality so that the one's who suffered tremendously and lost their lives are remembered as well. Losing siblings was a horrific and unbearable event, but also with keeping the past alive, I incorporated humor in my writing so that it was easier to bear emotionally. I also had the point of view as a young child, and my perception of events were different than if from an adult's. I sometimes laughed at things that were serious, but that is how people got by during the depression. I also wrote with certain devices such as parallelism and symbolism. I used parallelism in my writing to emphasize the negative affects of drinking on my father. I used this device because it strengthened the response I wanted to draw from my readers.
I also freely incorporated the Irish culture in my writing so that readers would feel the music tastes, dressing styles, and irish diction of the time where I lived. It makes the book feel so much more realistic when i used exact diction from the Irish culture. People did not speak well, they were under educated, and they spoke differently from how Americans spoke. I want my readers to truly experience the mood and feel as if they were right in Ireland! I also wanted my readers to experience the musicality stles of the Irish. I did this by reciting the words from numerous Irish jigs. " Anyone can see why I wanted your kiss,
It had to be and the reason is this
Could it be true, someone like you
Could love me, love me?" (McCourt, 23). I felt that music is a very important cultural element not only to the Irish, but also to set the mood and tone of the memoir. Many of these songs are jolly so people could be strong and live through their hardships. This particular song phrase is alos a from of parallelism that I incorporated in my memoir. Many times I referenced it when talking about the marriage between my mother and my father. Using certain elements like song stanzas and parallelism make my book very deep and moving. It also helps the reader feel like they are in Ireland right now as they read!
I write for many reasons. I love to write, and I enjoy expressing myself deeply. However, I write to keep my family forever remembered and also so that the past is kept alive and never broken. Most importantly, I write so that I can move my readers and bring them confidence and faith in themselves. I want people to know that your environment doesn't predestine your abilities in your future. That is why I write.
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3 comments:
Dear mr. Monk, well, I have got to hand it to you, you completely singed my every word! Unfortunately, I pulled a lot of research from my grandmother who was an english teacher... and also, I happened to do a lot of research on the web. If Mccourt didn't like to write, then why would he write a book in the first place? A novelle book that had such intracate design? I citated my work because I am not Mccourt and I would not want to plagiarize, and I feel as though I would have. I also citated so that readers could go back to the text and see why I was writing like McCourt because I wrote his actual text! McCourt didn't have a unique "writing style" like Foer did, so I could not write visually. However i used parallelism because thta was a literary style that McCourt used. I did have good grounds of why i wrote why I did. And if i am differeent than yours, it doesn't mean mine is wrong per say. None of us are the real McCourt!
Kabunky,
Understand that what I say on my blog or anyone else’s blog should never be taken as an insult to character or intelligence. Even if I sound unforgiving in my discourse, know that any criticisms I make are meant, in my heart, to be constructive. I say this because some critics closer to home have characterized my criticisms of your post as being too harsh—criticism, no matter what the intentions or feelings while in creation, can be demeaning to one’s spirit if presented in the wrong light. That is why I deleted my comment. I stand by my arguments and criticisms presented there, but with concerns to time I cannot reconstruct them to be of gentler nature and repost them—neither do I feel I need to. You know what I have said and now you know what I meant—you can choose to take what you want from my criticism.
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