The Art of Memoir and The Ghost of Christmas Past

LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif. - Dec. 11, 2013 - PRLog -- A century or so before the modern memoir was born, a half century before Freud articulated the role sub-conscious and unconscious memories play in the human personality, Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol. Every Christmas in most towns across America it’s staged again as a celebration of the meaning of the Christmas season. As important as that theme is, I believe it also serves as a literary example of the power memories play when they are reframed through the prism of present experience, a process that has become the deep well of imaginative strength of the contemporary memoir. It's story line is relevant to today because it’s psychologically rewarding to see Scrooge experience his journey of self-discovery.

Self Discovery as an Art Form

When writing a memoir we embark on a similar journey of self-discovery in ways that are profoundly similar to what Scrooge experienced. The genius of Dickens as an author was that he developed this realistic portrait of this process of well before Freud was born, before the role of memories were widely understood and considered common currency in understanding the self.

Scrooge doesn’t visit a therapist because that device wasn’t available to Dickens, so he used what was: the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future. These strange fellows guide Scrooge into one of the grandest epiphanies in all of literary history. This parallels what modern memoir writers do when they remember the early self through the prism of their present self.

Ghost of Therapy Past

When Scrooge is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past he is taken on a tour of his youth, and shown a series of innocent activities he often engaged in. He is forced to view these events from outside the young self. As an objective observer he can now evaluate his attitudes, his behavior, and trace how he became the miser living in the present. When he is shown Belle, the girl he loved and desired to marry, and sees her satisfying life with her children and husband and cozy home, his conscience pushes him to regret and remorse. He remembers his happiness, and he knows what could have been. These governing scenes are now lifted from the purely episodic jumble that makes up everyone’s childhood memories, to significant and decisive moments that shape the person he has become.

Obviously this story has a strong moral imperative the reader was designed to sense and react to. This is not necessarily the affect the memoirist seeks to achieve. But the process Dickens portrays is significant to the memoirist. The process of remembering the past as an outside observer from the present is so realistically portrayed that we can examine its power. This process works in a similar way when writing a memoir. When we look back at early experiences from the perspective of our older, more experienced selves, the seemingly episodic and random memories become organized in a sequence of meaning.

Within each of us are a series of governing scenes that are charged with extraordinarily strong emotional meaning. They are the tap roots of our unconscious emotional lives, but they are often uncritically evaluated. When Scrooge took the tour of his memories with the Ghost, he gained insight through observation and analysis of these scenes. He understood the forces that shaped him; he followed the line of choices that brought him to adulthood.

Healing and Personal Narrative

In Scrooge’s case, he resolved his adult emotions that blocked his growth and he experienced healing and acceptance. For the memoirist, the greatest hope is that these deeply held emotions and pain would find a healthy resolution.

The act of memoir writing itself becomes an act of healing and a journey to wholeness. The past self is united with the present self. In part this is the power memoir brings to the reader and to the writer. Healing takes root through storytelling when the author makes self discoveries. When those discoveries are disclosed in a dramatic narrative this has the makings of a compelling story.

For more information on memoir writing go to www.johndesimone.com

Drama and Reflection

The well-written memoir is a combination of dramatic narrative and reflective analysis of a life that is layered over the physical events of the story. Story alone is never enough. Memories must be lingered over from the perspective of the present. What has been faced, what has been lost must be analyzed and disclosed. This is what makes the modern memoir unique from biography that seldom delves into the deeper waters of a particular stage of a person’s life.

That’s exactly what the Ghosts of Christmas Present and Future did for Scrooge. They forced him to analyze and consider his actions; they lingered over his life till he ferreted out the meaning and implications of his memories. They didn’t allow him to rush on until he gathered the insight he needed for the next step. If it weren’t for the Ghosts the story of Scrooge would have never been written as a short novella.

Ghost in the Story

Memoir writing can be a painful process, one that many authors undertake alone with good intentions. But the journey of self-discovery can be both difficult and overwhelming. The Ghosts guided Scrooge through the governing scenes of his life, asked perceptive questions to aid the interpreting of his observations, and walked him safely through his experiences. He felt his pain, but he survived and came out of the process a better person.

Scrooge could have taken years to figure all this out by himself. But with the Ghosts it only took three nights. Thankfully, there’s always a Ghost (writer) nearby when it’s time to tell a good story.

For more information, go to www.johndesimone.com