The Importance Of The Past In The Dew Breaker

The Past, an ever growing pool of time, is always biting at the heels of a person. It reminds him of what they have done wrong, done right, or when he did nothing. For most people, recalling the past leads to loose ends and blanks where memories should be. No matter how much a person may want to return to the past, it is not possible. It is lost forever. These forgotten moment lead to uncertainties and confusion in the present, and chaos in the future. Forgetting the past leads to spirals, spinning downwards as people look to what they have lost. They retrace their steps hoping to find a sliver of who they are and what may become of them. In the poem, Itinerary, Eamon Grennan shows how an individual searches through his past, but can never return to it. Through the poem and with a personal experience I will explain how individuals deal with uncertainties in their pasts.

After Jack has grasped the truth that every man has a long heritage of deeds both noble and sinful—deeds that have lessons to teach and consequences to give in the present day—he finds himself able to tell Anne “how if you could not accept the past and its burden there was no future, for without one there cannot be the other, and how if you could accept the past you might hope for the future, for only out of the past can you make the future" (Warren 461). The “burden” of which Jack speaks refers to the accountability of man for his past, to the

Being stuck in the past can have negative effect on your outlook on life. In this case it causes Leah to hold herself back, “‘Will I

Memories are important, they are a personal record of our past experiences, and could be called the history book for our life. In the poem "The Heroes You Had as a Girl", author Bronwen Wallace tells the story of a woman who meets her high school hero later in her life, reflects on her memories of him, and ultimately decides not to talk to him. The effect that this topic has on everyone is the knowledge that we can be captivated and let our memories control us, and by knowing that our memories hold that much power, it may make it more mentally efficient to make accurate, and personal decisions in a fraction of the time. The topic and overall meaning that this idea holds convey a message that resonates with the idea that memories are in fact the central hub of our decision making. People remembering memories can affect their perspective on their lives to such an extent, that they prefer to immerse their mind in their past memories rather than the current reality.

this chapter, shows how the past played a significant part in the present and affects it.On the

A main theme of this book, is the importance of living in the present, instead of dwelling on the past. Many of the characters in this novel carried a nostalgic perspective on life, and it influenced their attitude towards the present. It was very common for the characters to tell stories from their past. Jim often relates incidents in the present, to things that happened to him in the past. Jim is not the only one focusing on the past, however. For example, Peter, one of the Russian immigrants, has a very romanticized idea of the past, which causes him to have a depressed attitude towards the present. Jim observed this on one particular meeting, “Once, while [Peter] was looking at Ántonia, he sighed and told us that if he had stayed at home in Russia perhaps by this time he would have had a pretty daughter of his own to cook and keep house for him.” Peter allowed the idea of ‘what if I had...’ to interfere with his future. Because of the adults "what if" attitude, the teens of this novel have a sense of urgency in their lives. They witness how nostalgic the adults, and they themselves, are becoming, and come to a realization. The good days are the first to pass, and the most fleeting. Jim takes this as an excuse to be nostalgic on the past, a past he was not even there to witness. He looked at the wilderness of his new home, and fantasized about how wonderful it’s past was, “Beyond the pond, on the slope that climbed to the cornfield, there was, faintly marked in the grass, a great circle where the Indians used to ride. Jake and Otto were sure that when they galloped round that ring the Indians tortured prisoners, bound to a stake in the centre; but grandfather thought they merely ran races or trained horses there. […] The old figure stirred me as it had never done before.” Jim looks at the past with wonderment - it is a place that was much more ideal than his present. Unlike him,

Yet the past is always brought forth with the present. The “ghosts of his past” (Mizner 309) are symbolic of mistakes made and forever embedded in life. One could say time heals wounds however time does not erase wounds. One can see this reference to time in the way Helen’s sister the legal guardian of Honoria nearly has a breakdown when she thinks Charlie is still the same as he once was (Mizner 314-315). The details of her sister’s death are

Have you ever thought about the past and wanted that same thing to happen again or wanted to make sure that it would never happen again? Often in a work of Literature characters who are coping with trauma attempt to both repress or revive the past. This trend ends up being expressed in the two novels, A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. To repress the past a character would try to prevent what had happened from happening again while reviving the past would be to bring back what had previously happened. In A Streetcar Named Desire the main character, Blanche DuBois who is a teacher ends up moving from Mississippi to live with her sister, Stella Kowalski, in New Orleans and eventually has problems with Stella's husband, Stanley Kowalski. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close the main character, Oskar Schell is dedicated to finding the lock that fits a key that his father who had died on September 11 at the World Trade Center had given him. The trend of both repressing and reviving the past when coping with trauma is evident in A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer when Oskar Schell in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close tries to find the lock that matches a mysterious key and Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire has to be reminded of her past by her brother in law Stanley.

The boy and the father have strong morals demonstrating a high level of authenticity, especially in a world where morality is extremely uncommon. To be ‘authentic’ means to genuinely be yourself. Although, as presented by Existentialism, one cannot be their true self until one has defined themselves. First, one must create their authentic selves, then they must live according to that (Varga). The father and the boy have strong principles to do what is right, even when their fellow survivors have completely abandoned morality altogether. At times, the father struggles with following said principles, however, he then justifies his actions which are purely for the safety of his son. This depicts that the father will do anything and everything to assure that the boy lives. The father expresses that “He knew only that the child was his warrant. He said: If he is not the word of God God never spoke” (5). When a man holds a knife to the son's neck, the father does not hesitate to kill him. Although this is

What is the significance of our memories of the past? The significance of our memories of the past is to comprehend our true personal identity, in the short story “Where the world began” Is a revelation of memories Margaret recalls in her life growing up on the prairies. The memories of the past play in front of her like a movie, furthermore. The past shapes her personal identity and gives her a sense of belonging. Without recalling memories of the past, our personal identity wouldn’t fully develop because our personality develops because of the past.

As Charlie struggles to become emotionally independent and tries to form a deep bond with Alice, his memories shed light—for him and for us—on why this development is so difficult for him. Memories of his mother, Rose, instilling sexual shame in him arise when Charlie is experiencing this shame in the present. Likewise, Charlie’s memories of being mistreated for his disability arise concurrently with his attempts to determine his new status in society. Charlie’s increased intelligence enables him not only to recall things he has forgotten but also to understand the context of thoughts that earlier confused him. Charlie can see his past more clearly than he saw it while he was living it; in effect, he is learning about his past life as vividly and quickly as he is learning about his new life.

Jonathan Safran Foer explores the power of memory in order to illustrate the cyclical nature of history and the way in which emotional trauma transfers through the generations, revealing that attachment to memories can be empowering but also confining. Foer illustrates the cyclical nature of history through the short-lived birth of Zosha’s baby and the miraculous birth of Brod, both of whose

If I don’t speak I have no past. Except the nothing, the emptiness. My brother’s memories are not mine, so I have to break into the silence with my own version of the past. My words. My whistling in the dark. His story freeing me, because it forces me to tell my own. (Wideman p. 739)

Secondly, restrictions placed on history in society affect one’s decisions, morals, and emotions. Very early in the novel, the reader learns that the citizens of the World State grow up learning to disregard their history and past, in order to focus on progression in the future. In chapter three, Mustapha Mond is seen teaching a lesson about history to a group of boys, Mustapha Mond says, ““You all remember, I suppose, that beautiful and inspired saying of Our Ford's: History is bunk. History," he repeated slowly, "is bunk”” (29). Society is taught to ignore history because if the citizens understood what happened in the past, they would not be willing to invest their trust in science and progress.

things we might do can affect our past,and destroy our thoughts religion also the things we need to understand the past world.Also in the text (Freedom Walkers) we judged people by their skin tone and we have to look back to have that never happen again.We just think of ourselves and what we do now and do not appreciate people who fought for what we don’t pay no attention to like when the said there were protest in the text(Freedom Walkers).just like (Jo Ann