Alfred Park English 108 Week 5 paper 4 Memory, space, and identity are three aspects in a life which

make up who we are. The memories of our pasts are comprised of our experiences and decisions. The space which we come from shows part of how we grow up or our starting points. The identities we have made for ourselves or the paths that we have chosen; these make up our personalities and traits, all of these which are outcomes of both memory and space. These three aspects of life together bring us the works and experiences of Edwidge Danticat, Joyce Carol Oates, Judith Ortiz Cofer, and David Sedaris. These aspects are also what make us who we are today. In Cofers writing Silent Dancing, she writes about the memories she has of her parents; the ways her mother would grocery shop and how her father wanted to leave the tenement. Cofer gives us an idea to her identity of how she grew up with by giving us details of the people around her. I accompanied her and my little brother to La Bodega a hole-in-the-wall grocery storeGoyas and Libbys those were the trademarks trusted by her mama, so my mother bought many cans Cofer writes this out of memory to show that even though she grew up away from her home country, she was not missing part of her culture. Her mother did not want to leave the barrio because it reminded her of home, she wanted her children to have at least some part of their culture or heritage in their lives. Not only is it memory that gives us our identity, it is also our space. Cofer writes, There my father found a tiny apartment in a huge tenement, There my father found a tiny apartment in a huge Tenement, The pipes banged and rattled, startling all of us out of sleep Cofer explains her familys financial situation when they come to the States in a way to show where her life here had started. Silent Dancing is written with the memories of Cofers life and space. It is evident she does this in a way to explain her identity, connecting the three aspects of life together to show just who she was and who she became. Westbury Court is written to explain where Edwidge Danticat comes from, and also to detail a traumatic experience she has in her memory. Danticat writes about these two aspects in a way to show

Alfred Park English 108 Week 5 paper 4 her identity, how she grew up and what she is. I didnt know a fire had started until two masked burly men came knocking on my door Danticat continues to write about the fire in detail, of how she was lead pass the burning apartment and outside. This memory she has is followed by other tragic events, but is also brought up later in her writing. The fire was not her fault, she could have just forgotten it and locked it away as something she does not wish to remember, but she shows later when her family reminisces about the apartment that they do wish it did not happen. However, the tragic memory is not all that she writes of, she also mentions about the space she lived in. Danticat writes, subway station through which rattled the D, M, and Q trins every fifteen minutes or so. Though there was graffiti on most of the walls of Westbury Court, and hills of trash piled up outsided She explains where she comes from, where her life had started. Like Cofer, Danticat writes about her identity; showing a side of her life which others might not have known, a memory of her past that, evidently from her writing, has made her to who she is. A similar event such as a fire also took place in Joyce Carol Oatess childhood. Unlike the other two writers, Oates grew up along the country side; her closest neighbors a couple miles hike from her own home. However, unlike Cofer and Danticat, Oates does not share too much of her space, only more about her memory. She writes about the abandoned homes she would explore, and much about the Weidel family. frequent disputes, and tales of Mr Weidels chasing his wife with a butcher knife, a claw hammer, the shotgun, threatening to blow her head off., Oates writes this to show that she has somewhat of an idea of what the Weidel family endured and was like. It is the memories of the hikes to these abandoned homes and of the Weidel family which show a place her life had started, where she comes from. For her identity, these events evidently made her more compassionate for others I believed that I should protect Ruth Weidel, so I told none of the other students about her family. Ruth was the daughter of the Weidel family which had disappeared after the fire Mr Weidel had set on their

Alfred Park English 108 Week 5 paper 4 home. Oates chose to make the attempt to befriend Ruth and at least try to make her smile. Oatess memory and space give us an idea of what her identity is, the events she witnessed in her childhood had paved her path for who she became by wanting to help Ruth in high school. David Sedaris starts his writing by giving us a brief detail of his childhood and family. However, the writing shows that a different space was his starting point. Sedaris writes, I longed for a home where history was respected-and, four years later, I finally found one. This was in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The studio apartment he chose to take with rent was evidently the starting point of his identity. Sedaris wanted a place with history; someplace that, even though rundown, would give an old homely feel. Rosemary Dowd became someone of importance to him soon after, in the writing he says that someone described them as a Bonnie and Clyde duo. Sedaris writes, I'd thought that Rosemary would be sympathetic, but she was sick to death of mental illness, just as she was sick of old people...More depressing still was the thought that I belonged here, that I fit in. A feeling he remembers which gave off a sense of belonging. This idea is strong enough to make someones identity, choosing to be around the people one feels to fit in with. It gives a sense of comfort and molds the identity of a person. Memory, space, and identity are three aspects of a person which seem to associate with each other. The memory one has of their childhood shows what one was able to do at the time. Space shows where ones journey in life starts their history and how they grow up. Identity, personality, and trait are made as a consequence to the choices one makes from start to finish. These three aspects are connected to the each other; the four writings are evidence that their history was at least the starting point of where they have ended up.

Alfred Park English 108 Week 5 paper 4 Reference

Danticat, E. (n.d.). Westbury court. Retrieved November 7, 2013 from, http://plaza.ufl.edu/lacy.hodges/WestburyCourt.pdf Oates, J. (1995, October). They all just went away. Retrieved, November 7, 2013 from, http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1995/10/16/1995_10_16_178_TNY_CARDS Ortiz Cofer, J. (n.d.). Silent dancing. Retrieved October 19, 2013, from http://www2.hawaii.edu/~facoba/readings/cofer.htm Sedaris, D. (2007, July 9). This old house. The New Yorker. Retrieved October 19, 2013, from http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/07/09/070709fa_fact_sedaris