Different Perceptions of the Past

Everybody recalls the same incident in various ways: memorization can be influenced by a person’s emotional involvement, his attitude to what is happening, and moreover, his memory. To study how different people react and remember the same story, it is important to take as an example and analyze this topic in practice. Therefore, it is important to note how a person’s perception of the past is formed.

The first described story tells about a thief who broke into the house of the closest relative of the interviewees. Uncle Salah is the brother of the victim of the crime, therefore, he knows more details. His version of the story is full of emotional color, as he sincerely worried and feared for his brother. The second interviewee, judging by the story, was in another country, thus, he heard it only from Uncle Salah, and not from the first person of the victim, consequently, his story is more generalizing and formal. The main difference is that in the first case, the person remembered that his relative attacked the thief because he was afraid for his children (Forbes 36). “So your interpretation of the is entirely your interpretation.” – the author of the article confirms that the perception of the story depends on the individual (Borland 335). The stories are similar in that they focus on how a thief got into their relative’s house. It can be concluded that the first story is full of emotional coloring, since the interviewee was a close person.

The second story describes the reaction and memories of two people about a brother who died of leukemia. Uncle Salah, being the closest relative of the family, was directly present at these events and clearly remembers how everything went. He told about the very first days of the child, indicated that he was initially weak. Thus, it had an emotional impact on him: he remembered the smallest details, for example, about how the boy’s parents and the boy himself felt (Lively 56). Uncle Gamal said that he was in Egypt at that time and was not aware of the boy’s illness. Moreover, for him it was a distant topic that he did not feel and did not delve into. He recollected much less details, he described rather not Khaled’s medical history but the fact that no one notified him about it (Borland 335). Among the similarities in both stories, it is important to note that the main meaning is preserved. Consequently, both people perceived and remembered the event correctly and told it without any false facts.

Thus, memorization is the process of entering information into memory. Usually emotionally significant information is captured, colored by vivid experiences, necessary for a person to build his life. After analyzing two stories and how they were remembered by two different people, it is evident that several criteria affect memorization. Firstly, the level of closeness of a person with the main character is one of the main factors of memorizing information. Secondly, the criteria for memorization can be attributed to the emotions experienced during the event.

Works Cited

Borland, Katherine. “‘That’s not what I said’: Interpretive conflict in oral narrative research.” The oral history reader. Routledge, 2002. 334-346.

Forbes, Scott. A Natural History of Families. Princeton University Press, 2005.

Lively, Penelope. Oleander, Jacaranda: A Childhood Perceived. Penguin UK, 2006.