Memoirs…Heart and Hurt
Memoirs are books that take us deeper into the author’s world: their joys, sorrows, train of thought, challenges and triumphs. Memoirs showcase the human experiences that are universal despite race, religion, economic status, educational background, country or continent. Emotions of joy, anger, sadness, and fear expressed in feelings such as exhilaration, resentment, heartbrokenness, and anxiety cannot be labelled for only some people. We all have these emotions as part of the human experience. The degree may differ but none of us is exempt, none.
The beauty of memoirs is that the raw emotions are expressed in stories that resonate with readers. The author shares stories of themselves and of other people, therefore making the memoir more impactful. Dialogue in memoirs injects life into the stories giving more details of the theme, setting the tone through the characters and taking the readers through different motions as the story unfolds. Use of dialogue in memoirs breaks down the paragraphs into smaller sentences making the context fascinating. It enables the reader to understand the character through what they say and how they say it.
Memoirs outline resilience and the immovable spirit of a human being beyond what one would comprehend as humanly possible. They offer encouragement, motivation, and the sheer will of the human spirit. The following three memoirs offer inspiration and inevitably have the Maker of the universe at play. They are from three continents, are pertinent to the woman experience, and share a common theme: being hidden for survival
1. Incidents In the Life of a Slave Girl (North America)
2. Left to Tell (Africa)
3. Diary of The Young Girl (Europe)
1) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
Harriet Jacobs comes from a family of four in North Carolina, USA. However, her parents die when she is young, entrusting Molly, her maternal grandmother, who is a freed slave, to take care of her and her brother. Harriet, a mulatto slave is surrounded by family and the effects of slavery at an early age is at bay until her mistress dies. Before she dies, she teaches Harriet to read, write, and sew skills. At the age of twelve, Harriet’s ownership is transferred to the mistress’s niece who is very young, hence the niece’s father becomes her master. When Harriet becomes of age, her tormentor master is physically and emotionally abusive to her. Despite having a wife, her master constantly threatens her that he will have her to himself. To escape her master’s conniving and treacherous ways, Harriet gets involved with another man (Sam Sawyer) which greatly aggravates her master. Harriet has two children with Sawyer. Determined to make her life more difficult, her master plans on selling her children. Harriet escapes and is determined to run away for freedom.
Harriet’s grandmother and uncle built a hiding place above her grandmother’s shed. She is hidden in a corner cupboard built in the storeroom. The shelves are used as a ladder, with a trap door cut in the ceiling and passed up into a space under the roof. It is a tiny space (9 feet long, 7 feet wide and 3 feet high), that allows her to crawl on her hands and knees, at the peak of its sloped roof. It takes her six years and eleven months (eighty-three months) in hiding for her to acquire her freedom. What gives her the spirit to endure is the reassuring sounds of her children's voices downstairs where she makes a peephole to glimpse at them when playing outside. Harriet writes an elaborate narration of the slavery times in the 19th century in her book which was published in 1861.
2) Left to Tell
Immaculee Ilibagiza, a college student from a family of seven is a Tutsi in Rwanda. In 1993, there was fierce fighting between the Tutsi rebels and the government troops who were mostly Hutus. The president travelled to Tanzania to sign the peace agreement to end the civil war and give the Tutsi a role in governing the country as a team. This was not to be, as the plane crashed after being shot, killing the president. The Hutu extremists, blaming it on the Tusti, justifies themselves of taking over the country through military leadership. The Hutu-extremist youth called the Interahamwe, went on a killing spree ordered by military officers. Immaculee recounts her survival story during the Rwanda genocide in 1994. All but one (her brother who wasn’t living in Rwanda at the time) in her family were killed.
A Hutu pastor took the risk to hide six women, among them Immaculee, to save their lives despite the consequences that may have ensued if he was discovered. The women were in hiding for 91 days. They had minimal food and water, crouched in the toilet space (four feet long, three feet wide) whose door was concealed with the pastor’s wardrobe. Keeping absolutely mum, Immaculee trusted in her faith and prayed fervently even for the killers. Despite the numerous times at the brink of being discovered, Immaculee and the other women survived.
3) The Dairy of a Young Girl
Ann Frank, a young girl from a family of four is a German Jew in the Netherlands. Ann’s dad, Mr. Frank, run a successful company. In 1941 the Nazis rounded up the Jews to sent them to concentration camps for execution or forced labor. The Frank family flee where they were hidden by friends who work for Mr. Frank at the work building. The attic, a well-designed hiding spot concealed by a bookcase, had a living space of several rooms including the bathroom. Initially it was just the four, but they accommodated another family of three and a dentist. Ann received a diary for a birthday present in 1942 where she wrote about her experiences.
She narrated the horrors, anxiety, determination of the human spirit of not giving up, her hopes and desires in the unfamiliar world that she found herself. They were all couped up, never went outside for twenty-five months, the total time they were in hiding. Unfortunately, they were captured and taken to concentration camps. Ann’s diary was salvaged and kept safe by one of the friends who helped hide it, in the hope that she would come back. All but one, Ann’s dad, died in the camps. Mr. Frank, the only survivor, came back in Amsterdam after the war with the hope that the others survived only to get his daughter’s true accounts in her diary. He decided to publish it to bear witness to what happened.
Reference
Frank, Ann. 1952. The Diary of a Young Girl. New York: Doubleday.
Ilibagiza, Immaculee. Erwin, Steve. 2006. Left To Tell. Australia: Hay House
Jacobs, Harriet. 1988. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. New York: Oxford University Press
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