preview

Response to On Going Home Essay

Decent Essays

According to Joan Didion's essay "On Going Home", continuing changes in life makes it almost impossible to remove memories of one's past. Especially when one has been away from a previous home, which that person was raised, then return to that same home a number of years later. In a home which family and friends shared memories of events, news, gossip and situations, whether it be bad or good. Old artifacts and various family heirlooms in the home that stimulates a memory of those old times when used. Surrounding areas of that old home are remembered just as well also. Being in a new home makes the old memories even more missed. These may be the strongest influences in why memories are kept and remembered.

When someone is …show more content…

Some of these items might even share some memories with other family members and generations. These items may be lifeless, but they do hold significance in people's lives and fill their life with memories.

A memory wouldn't be a memory without some sort of background. In Didian's essay, recollections of rivers, mountain roads and ranches are described. These settings are a person's surroundings and habitat. The biggest thing in one's memory would be the location where you would live. So immense that the simple human mind hardly has the capacity to remember every detail of. Instead, it is only remembered as a place where once lived. Only the things that are significant to the person, like an oak tree or a riverbed, which holds some memory like an important event in that person's life are stored in one's mind. People live in different areas which is a strong influence on how each individual memory will differ from one another and also how unique memories can be. If physical items, people, events fail to remind someone of ones past, the location of where that person grew up will definitely jog ones memory.

Imagine moving to a new area for the first time after living in at a single place the majority of a life. That place will undeniably be missed. Adapting to the new area might be difficult due to homesickness. One might think of places long forgotten

Get Access