“A unique recounting of events not so much as they have happened but as we remember and invent them.”(hooks 33)- is understood by bell hooks, to be an autobiography. In Writing Autobiography bell hooks writes about the struggles of writing about her past but through this she recollects memories from her childhood. She grew up with five sisters and one brother in a southern black segregated community. Her childhood, she explained, to be “a way to recapture the richness of southern black culture…Black southern folk experience was the foundation of the life around me when I was a child.”(hooks 33) She values these factors in her childhood so highly because the rest of her life she has been in a predominately white environment.
One specific memory of her grandma, Baba, making her friends introduce themselves by telling their name and their values is vividly remembered by bell hooks and she states the importance of that tradition. She also explains how the senses directly connect a person to their memories. For example the sound of an oncoming train evoked a childhood incident involving her father’s car being stopped on a set of train tracks. She also reveals how the memory of embraces with a loved one are easily remembered and often triggered by scents, feeling, or sight. Her mother had a Hope Chest and her goal was to feel the same comfort of remembering the past from reading her autobiography as her mom did with her Hope Chest. She broadly explains that by saying, “The longing to tell one’s story and the process of telling is symbolically a gesture of longing to recover the past in such a way that one experiences both a sense of reunion and a sense of release.”(hooks 33) She strongly values the art it takes to tell a story of your life, and all the details that are required to somewhat accurately dictate your life. Throughout the essay all bell hook’s scattered memories and recollections tie into her autobiography. She rescued the girl she forgot about and she strongly conveys the importance of remembering one’s past and carrying your individual stories with you.
The purpose of this autobiography is to tell the story of bell hooks’ life from her perspective. That is the essence of an autobiography in general but she writes her autobiography in a different style than most I have ever read. Her style and purpose are the two rhetorical concepts that I think are important concepts in Writing Autobiography. The style of her writing is like a story you would verbally tell. She has those added in details that don’t necessarily correlate to the main point making everything easier to understand and relate to. “I felt that I was not concerned with accuracy of detail as I was with evoking in writing the state of mind, the spirit of the particular moment.” (hooks 33) This goes hand in hand with the idea that her autobiography is just a big story, and who knows what is actually true or what may be altered due to an unclear recollection of events. I think she focused on events and then she tried her hardest to remember the specifics but when details lacked she just added other details and made the story more interesting. I think that type of style is the easiest to personally relate to. It seems as though she just writes how it comes to her, she doesn’t dwell on making sure things are in the right place and structured perfectly. Her writing is so easy to read because it feels so natural. It almost is like reading a journal entry or diary entry when it’s the writer’s most raw form. This style is not usually recommended for formal works like this but she clearly wanted her life to be conveyed on an informal level. I think this makes her seem more interesting and a better writer because she gives the audience what they want. She gives them all the information but actually makes it enjoyable and easy to read. One more specific thing I really enjoyed about how she wrote her autobiography is she never listed the standard facts about her life. She didn’t start off saying her full name, place of birth, family details, date of birth, and all those other “important” facts. She just started right off with a story and that’s all her autobiography is, a collection of stories that tell the needed information. Each individual story tells the reader something about her life, and it allows the reader to have more room for interpretation. Since the reader doesn’t know all the information about her life right off the bat, they can infer or guess different things about her and it pushes them to continue to read to find more information.
The purpose she tries to instill in the reader is the importance of holding on to your past. She makes multiple references about how valuable our past is and to treasure it. I think she conveys the message that our past is a key to our present and our future. She mentioned that by writing her autobiography she rescued the young girl she lost after her childhood. Everyone has a story and bell hooks essay encourages the idea of everyone telling their own story. It’s the same reason that almost everyone has started a journal or a diary at one point in their life. These are tools to remember your life and what you did that day. Along with most people I have had multiple attempts at keeping a diary/journal the follow through is usually where I fail. It become almost a chore to sit down and write about your life, but it is awesome to go back and read entries and different events. I believe bell hooks would promote journal writing and other various ways of keeping track of memories. (megan ude.cu.liam|7manodcm-dlanodcm#ude.cu.liam|7manodcm-dlanodcm)
"One more specific thing I really enjoyed about how she wrote her autobiography is she never listed the standard facts about her life. She didn’t start off saying her full name, place of birth, family details, date of birth, and all those other “important” facts." —I totally agree with this statement. Standard facts like that aren't nearly important when getting to know someone compared to the more unique and personal things.
I really enjoyed your essay. I like how you discussed the uniqueness of her story because that was a very important part of the essay. She did not take on the normal autobiography style, but created her own. I believe hooks wanted the reader to focus on style, which you did well.
Style is indeed a major concern for hooks; if you ever get the chance to read more of her work, I think you'll find it well-crafted and engaging.