Why write a memoir?? Why wouldn't you!

Well, one of the first things I thought of after reading this blog assignment was our lovely summer reading novel, good old Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I know that a lot of you probably don't really want to be reminded of this book again :D but think about this; Thomas gets Grandma a book where she can write out her life story. Aka, a memoir! Thomas describes Grandma's writing and says, "I was so happy for her, I remembered the feeling she was feeling, the exhilaration of building the world anew, I heard from behind the door....everything being, for once, better than it was and as good as it could be, everything full of meaning" ( Safran Foer 119-120). This is a perfect example of why someone would ever decide to write a memoir; TO LET IT ALL OUT! Grandma can't exactly talk to Thomas about all of the struggle and the tragedy that she has experienced. He's still trying to figure out his own life. So the point is that people write memoirs to get things off their chest, to breathe a sigh of relief, to tell people something without actually having to "say" anything.I think that memoirs are also written simply to tell a story. Maybe someone has had a hilarious childhood or any experience for that matter, and they knew that if they got it down on paper, it would crack some smiles. There's a book called All Things Bright And Beautiful by James Herriot, and it's either the first or second book in a series of four. These books make up the memoir of James Herriot's life as a country vet, and if you haven't read them yet you should at least try, because they're super funny! He writes about all of the hilarious things that happen to him while he's curing sick sheep and things like that. People become so much wiser throughout their lives, and writing a memoir is a way to share knowledge, and a way to make people laugh by reading about all the funny and embarassing things that have happened to you.There is a lot of power in sharing a story about yourself with the public. You get to be the teacher, and the one reading the memoir is doing the learning. Memoirs help members of the human race to better understand eachother. The more memoirs there are, the more we will know about personal thoughts, feelings and experiences. The communication of these things leads to a stronger and more closely knit community.