Memoir Essay Examples

Death memoir of Emperor Constantine the great Introduction             I was born on February 22nd 272 in a place known as Naissus in Serbia. My father was the Roman Emperor by then but he later died. I was not the one who was supposed to take the position of the Emperor because there was a…

“Aria,” an excerpt from the memoir “Hunger of a Bilingual Childhood,” accounts for the author, Richard Rodriguez’s, childhood experience with learning English as a second language. Throughout his essay he represents the power of the individual to defeat the language barrier and how he overcame this particular problem as a child. Being torn between conforming…

Richard Riodriquez in his “A Memoir Of a Bilingual Childhood” is recalling his memories about how he felt as a bilingual child in the American society. While doing so and reflecting on these memories, he refutes the idea of “alienating” the bilingual children by educating them through their native language. He presents very interesting thoughts…

The relationship between Eliezer and his father in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel is interesting because of the way the relationship strengthens and weakens over the course of the book. The relationship is also interesting because of the way Eliezer allows others (inmates, Kapos, etc. ) to affect the way he feels towards his…

In “The Glass Castle” we see many different possibilities pertaining to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. We see the father, Rex and one of the daughters, Maureen, who fall victim to Maslow. Then there’s Jeanette and the mother, Rose Mary who have both seemed to achieve self-actualization regardless of their hardships. Traditionally, Maslow’s Hierarchy is thought…

Statement of Explanation – “The night that never happened” I am composing a creative piece in the form of a short story. The intended audience are adults who are unable to empathise with asylum seekers. I am agreeing with the prompt that ‘It is often the vulnerable and powerless, who are unable to avoid the…

The interplay between history and memory is a solipsistic act, where history inevitably relies on memory to maintain its vitality whereas memory relies on history to sustain its immortality. Throughout Mark Baker’s polyphonous non-fiction memoir, ”The Fiftieth Gate” and the thread like idea of the images below, memory is depicted as the panacea that enriches…

Composers represent conflicting perspectives through their own unique experiences and values as their political and social contexts. Geoffrey Robertson’s self styled memoir ‘The Justice Game’ written in the late 1900’s heavily reflects these conflicting perspectives in the ‘Trials of Oz’ and ‘The Romans in Britain’ through the employment of emotive and persuasive language and ridicule…

Soup has many symbolic things in the book but most common one it symbolizes hope. The main character at first at first the character when he first came to the shelter and they offer him food he refused to eat it. He thought that if soup was the only food he could, he would rather…

Jennifer Hudson’s “I Got This” is a personal memoir of her life, from her early childhood to her current life. Jennifer talks about her journey to stardom including her challenges, tragedies, and her triumphs. Throughout the book Jennifer continuously talks about how her weight had kept her from getting the parts she would audition for….

In Dog Years, poet Mark Doty walks his readers through the lives of his two dogs, Arden and Beau—from their wild romps in the beaches to their mournful death. This memoir is a personal meditation on loyalty and friendship and a gripping account on death and loss. Doty is a known American elegist, best known…

In this passage from The Horizontal World, Debra Marquart shows her love for the upper Midwest despite the common negative opinions that most would first think about the region. While others would say that the region is dull and monotonous, Marquart finds her hometown as a place of great significance to her life. By her…

Harper and Brothers in New York first published Black Boy, an autobiography of Richard Wright, in 1945. The Harper Perennial Edition, published in paper back in 1998 runs to 448 pages. There is more than one theme which runs through this work, of course, but the over-riding, end-all, be-all message which the author hammers home…

Some say it’s not what we do but what we don’t do that can truly define who we are. In the tenth chapter, “The Man at the Well”, from Tim O’Brien’s memoir, If I die in a Combat Zone, O’Brien manages to portray one of the most powerful messages throughout his entire journey. It’s about…