PART I – The Critique  - due Monday, December 18th

    A memoir is an account of someone's experiences.  It might be autobiographical (written by the subject) or written by the subject in conjunction with another author.  The memoir might not cover the person's entire life. Often the narrative will focus primarily on the person's experiences in a key event, such as during a war.

    Some memoirs are fictionalized.  They tell a story that has some fictional characters, but mostly relate the author's actual personal experiences.  Tim O'Brien's book The Things they Carried (New York: Penguin, 1991) is a good example of this approach.

    You might find a collection of shorter memoirs.  A good example of this would be David Chanoff’s book Vietnam: a Portrait of its People at War (New York: Random House, 1996).  Chanoff's book is very good because some of the accounts contained in it are rather long and interesting.

I have attached a list of acceptable choice.  You are required to choose only from this list.

Choosing a Memoir: You might consider selecting a memoir that's related to your personal interests.  Or, if you're more interested in a particular aspect of an event or topic, you could read the memoir of a person who has experience with said aspect, or was directly involved in the formation of the feature. Such a book would still be full of personal recollections, but would focus on higher-level, related, ideas.  The accounts of witnesses, as opposed to direct players, would give you, still, a different perspective.

You are writing a book review, or evaluation, of your chosen memoir, which should focus on the book's purpose, contents, and authority.

Before beginning to read, consider the following aspects of the book’s preliminary material:

While reading the book, record impressions and note effective passages for quoting.  Keep these questions in mind:

    As you read, think about the author's purpose in writing the memoir in the broadest possible terms, keeping in mind when the memoir was written and how the intervening time span might have influenced the author’s viewpoint.  What is the public and/or intellectual discussion to which the author could have consciously intended the memoir to contribute – e.g. the human condition, ethical decisions in a totalitarian regime, the nature of the state?  Then think about the more immediate or specific discussions to which the author is contributing (e.g. the nature of communism, fascism, Nazism, the specific experiences of the worker, the resistance fighter, the journalist, the child, the oppressed minority, the politically oppositional observer, etc.).  Does your author provide insights that aid our understanding of a particular historical event or condition?  Does his/her account support or contradict the arguments of historians?

    As you read, ask yourself some specific questions about your memoir as an historical document.  Take notes on your ideas.  NOTE: I am providing you with a long list of possible areas to focus on.  These are general questions that could possibly apply to any memoir.  Decide for yourself which is the most relevant to your essay and what kind of thesis you would find most interesting to prove.  You do not have to answer all of these questions, but you must find some way of constructing an argument that directly addresses the memoir as a historical source.  It will be wise to find a relatively limited theme to focus on.

Examples of questions to ask yourself:

1) What does this source tell us about the society and politics of the regime that the author is writing about?

2) What biases does the author display?  (Please be very careful and sensitive here. To argue that someone is biased simply because they are a member of a group that is being persecuted is ethically problematic.)  How does the writer's experiences, circumstances or background put a specific spin on the story told?

3) What silences are apparent in the account?  What relevant political or social issues are not addressed?  Why might the author have left these things out?

4) How does this narrative of individual experience reinforce or call into question our historical understanding the regime in question?  What is its value, in other words, as an historical document?  How can it help us to reconstruct a specific aspect of the historical period described?  In what ways is the memoir problematic as a historical source.

5) What does the source reveal that other, more traditional historical accounts leave out, take for granted, or generalize vaguely about?

6) What is the significance of the memoir for the general historical period discussed?

7) To what degree is the account supported by the author's own reading of secondary material – or is it really just an account of firsthand experiences?

8) What is the author's interpretation of the problems or events described?

9) What are the most important conclusions the author comes to about the events/problems addressed in the memoir?  Can you confirm or refute these conclusions through secondary research?

Evaluate and make critical comments on the work in support of your thesis.  (Note: “critical” does not have to mean negative.)  Use paraphrasing and quotations sparingly - you should use most of the available space for your own argument.  Quotations are only advisable when they provide direct evidence for a specific argument. (If you are unclear on the skills of paraphrasing, see http://www.utoronto.ca/ucwriting/paraphrase.html.)  Please do not call your memoir a novel!  It is not a work of fiction.

After completing the entire book, you will construct an essay to illustrate your understanding.  Your essay will take the form of a narrative sketch that follows an obvious organizational structure.  Your essay should relate events from the person's life in chronological order. 

Here are the specifications for each section, followed by brief samples in italics:

Section #1: Capture attention first.  (This could be an anecdote, a strong statement, or an interesting aspect of the subject at hand.)  This section should also include the person’s full name and an explanation of who s/he is and what experience influenced his/her life.  State his/her political or social position and his/her likely reason for writing the memoir and its intended audience.  Mention when the memoir was written in relation to the events described.  Introduce no less than three important characteristics about the person that you will highlight/refer to in the body of the paper. From these characteristics, develop a thesis statement about the person and the effectiveness of his/her personal narrative in relation.

Brief Example: Can you imagine being a child coming to America out of war-torn Israel during the 1950s with nothing but the clothes on your back and in twenty short years rising to a position as one of the most outrageous rock and rollers of all time?  That's how it was for Gene Simmons, the tongue-wagging, blood-spitting bassist for the band KISS.  Through his sheer determination to succeed, his complete lack of shame, and his skills as a businessman, Gene Simmons has become one of the most powerful forces in rock history. Although more people probably hate him than admire him, Gene Simmons is a living example of someone who refused to give up on his dreams.

Section #2: This section should contain a topic sentence that relates to the first main characteristic of the person.  (The topic sentence does not have to be the first sentence, but it must appear somewhere, and the overall section itself should prove this topic sentence with examples from the person's life.  Include the person's date and place of birth, a description of the person’s physical appearance (if known) and personality, and an interesting event from the person’s early life that illustrates the first main characteristic.  The reader of your essay should gain an understanding of how well these ideas were conveyed by the author of the memoir you critique, and how relevant they are to the overall text.

Brief Example: Gene Simmons was born Chaim Witz in Israel, where he was raised by his mother. Her original intentions for her son were that he should become a rabbi, and he was enrolled in Jewish schools until the aftermath of Hitler's holocaust forced them to come to America. Even from an early age, Chaim showed an independent spirit, learning English quickly, and falling in love with all things American...especially the girls. Being the only child of a working mother, Chaim had plenty of time to indulge in his favorite activities: going to the movies (especially horror movies), reading comic books, and watching the older girls jump rope in front of the school. He decided at the age of 12 that he could never be a rabbi, but he did have a burning desire to succeed, and he started a variety of small businesses among his classmates and neighborhood friends. He created and sold comic books of his own, as well as trading and bargaining to build his own growing collection of Batman and Superman comics. By the age of 15 he had picked up the guitar and discovered the joys of rock and roll. After seeing the thousands of screaming girls that mobbed the Beatles on their first trip to America, Chaim knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life: He wanted to play in the biggest rock band on the planet. From the beginning, his determination to succeed and his refusal to give up even in the face of impossible odds helped propel him to stardom.

Section #3: This section should focus on the second main characteristic of the person.  Include more interesting events from the person’s life and your explanation of why this person is worthy (or not worthy, depending on your opinion) of having published a memoir (i.e., the contributions he/she has made to society.  Why has his/her life made a difference to this world?)  It will be necessary to utilize strong transitions during this part of your essay. 

Brief Example: As well as being extremely determined, Gene Simmons (as he was soon to be known), had a complete lack of fear and no sense of shame. He was never concerned about who he might offend or what his critics might think of him. Part of what makes him an interesting character in rock history is how he does not seem to fit into any of the usual categories. For example, whereas many rock stars of today are more famous for their addictions to drugs and alcohol than they are for their music, Gene Simmons has never used drugs or alcohol, and he is extremely critical of those who do. His most "dangerous" addiction is to chocolate. On the other hand, he is well known for his insatiable appetite for female companionship--having dated many famous actresses (including Cher)--and his refusal to get married and commit himself to only one woman. He is an ironic mixture of conservative and liberal values that make him difficult to categorize. Given this, it is no surprise that before he started up the outrageous, make-up covered band known as KISS (one of Gene's favorite words), he was a public school teacher! Gene Simmons completed college in New York and worked as a sixth grade teacher during the day while cobbling together the musicians who would soon become the "hottest band in the world." When the band decided to put on the make up (a calculated risk that led to immediate criticism on the New York club circuit) and stage the most outrageous rock show in history, his teaching job had to go by the wayside. He proudly admits that his reasons for pursuing fame and glory were selfish, almost as if to needle his critics, but despite his self-indulgent behavior, he is unquestionably a hard worker. The band toured almost non-stop for the entire decade of the 1970s, producing eight now-classic rock albums, including one of the best-selling live albums in history: KISS Alive. Gene's complete lack of concern for what the critics said helped catapult him to the top of the rock industry, but it was his skills as a savvy businessman that has kept him there for more than 30 years.

Section #4: This section should focus on the third main characteristic of the person.  Include an explanation of how the person changed over the course of his/her life and any events that may have contributed to this change.  Also include an explanation of how the person’s life or the book ended, your personal response to the person’s life and experiences, and your CRITIQUE on the effectiveness of his/her written account in relation.

Brief Example: Although KISS has not created any new music since their Psycho Circus album in 1998, Gene Simmons is as successful as ever. He has produced or financed numerous records for other bands, including Van Halen and Keel and he is currently expanding his empire into the world of magazine publication and movies. KISS has also had one of the top-grossing tours in four out of the last six years, with their Reunion Tour, Psycho Circus Tour, Farewell Tour, and the recent tour with Aerosmith, as well as a two-night stint playing with (get this) the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. As always, KISS merchandise is a hot item, with recent KISS-opoly games hitting the market as well as the KISS casket--for the fan who wants to rock and roll into eternity. Concert sales of t-shirts and apparel are also at an all-time high. Although it might seem that much of this financial success is due to the band's managers, it is actually Gene Simmons himself who is behind it. He has managed all of the band's financial affairs and deals since the reunion tour, and he clearly has a hand in all official KISS merchandising. Gene has two children with his long-time love (that he still refuses to marry), Shannon Tweed, and his family lives in a mansion in California where he is said to be a loving father. His mother still attends all the band's New York shows, where she always gets a front row seat. Although many revile him for his success, Gene Simmons has clearly lived up to his wildest dreams, and in doing so, he is living the American Dream.

Section 5: This section should address the rhetorical and syntactical strategies of the writer.  Explore the effectiveness of his/her writing in delivering an adequate portrayal of the subject.  Discuss the specific language as well as devices used to illustrate the desired tone for the piece. 

Section #6: This is your conclusion. Briefly review the characteristics you discussed in your essay and your thesis statement.  To conclude, sum up the lesson we can learn from this person’s life. 

Brief Example: Love him or hate him, Gene Simmons is an example of the success that can be achieved by refusing to give up on your dreams. Although his dreams are not my own, I can't begrudge him his success because I know he has taken many risks and worked hard for what he has. His determination, fearless nature, and skill as a businessman are qualities to be admired even if the results are not what many people would aspire to. Every time I see a KISS t-shirt or a piece of merchandise with Gene Simmons on it, I can't help but smile when I consider what I know about Chaim Witz, that little kid from Israel who made his dreams come true.