The narrator of A Chronicle of A Death Foretold returns to the scene of Santiago Nasar's murder many years later to piece together clues. The villagers rely on their memories of the day's tragic events and of the many himself. What happens to memories as we age? Are memories ever reliable? How might memories distort reality, much like a mirror would do? Use examples from real life as well as from the novel.
Jessica Vilberg
ReplyDeleteThe longer ago something happened, the less likely you will remember the events, and remember them correctly. So when the narrator is asking the people what happened and pulling his own memories from so long ago, they most likely were all (or most were)distorted. When you are trying to pull memories, you tend to change them around to what you would would have rather happened (or would have found more interesting). So overall memories from that long ago are not a lot less reliable than more recent memories, but long ago or not, they can ll be distorted. Mirrors can distort reality because they can be made to make people look thinner (used in stores) or make you look weird for amusement (used in carnivals). Also we can see ourselves differently in mirrors if we want to look a certain way really bad.
Keith Knudsen
ReplyDeleteMemories fade over time. The lens that you see them through grows cloudy as time goes by because if a minor detail or opinion influences it, the memory changes. You will begin to see the memory as what you 'Think' it was rather than what actually happened, or, your mind will manifest a altered form of the memory in order to support what your doubts were about the event.
Tori Miller
ReplyDeleteAs we grow older, most memories tend to fade or become less prominent. this is less likely if the memory is explicit or important. Memories are reliable if it was a memory important in someone's life, then they can remember it with less effort. But effort is still required. I can remember my getting dressed for my first day of school in kinder garden but not my first day of school in the third grade. The kinder garden first day was more important to me than the other. I can't remember it perfectly but it is still there. Mirrors do lie but in a sense of, if i go to the mirror thinking i'm fat then i appear fat in the mirror even if i am thin. This is similar to memories by the way that i can remember situations the way i want to remember them. Like in the novel, where Santiago's mom remembers him as an angelic type of person with a sweet personality. Even though everyone else remembers him in an opposite way, more rough.
Memories can be reliable if it is from, say, yesterday or something close to the actual date of retrieval. But for the most part, memories can be heavily distorted with time. You could morph your memories by self-bias to make yourself look better, or even leave parts out. In the novel, the narrator goes back 27 years-thats 27 years of unreliable memories. You dont know what is the truth and what is morphed to someones belief. Mirrors become broken, blurry, and even distort the reflected image. Like you said in class, they even use mirrors in stores to make you look thinner. You dont know what the actuallity of it really is.
ReplyDeleteMarlena Hill
Shonique Edwards
ReplyDeleteAs we age, our memories usually begin to fade. Only significant events in our lives stay in our memories as we age. This was why certain people in Chronicle of A Death Foretold remembered events significantly, like Divina Flor. She was able to remember the different passes Santiago Nassar made at her, and how stony and cold his hand was when he held her by the wrist. But some other people didn't have as clear of a memory, seeing that they'd had twenty-seven years to forget about it. The memories are like a broken mirror, because they distort the truth, giving misconception on what to believe.
"The trouble with quotes on the internet is that it's difficult to discern whether or not they are genuine...." - Abraham Lincoln
ReplyDelete'AIDs is a product of the fornication of a cactus and Jesus Christ' - Andre Gide
Deleteour memorues are our mostly our happiest times we remeber or the bad tragic times. they do not fade they stay with us though we might not realiize it yet they are distorted by the present and we tend to either over exaggerate or under exxagerate what really happened at the evnt in time because we feel as though its to boring to tell or thats its to horrific to even describe or remember like wwII for exampole im prety sure noone wants to remember such an event. mirrors are a representation of our memories and as time passes the mirror cracks and makes it extremely difficult to tell between actuality and tall tales.
ReplyDelete-Brandon Bernard
Kristien Salisbury
ReplyDeleteWell obviously the memory becomes different as it gets older. Also as it is happening you may catch something that others didn't. For example: The people interviewed couldn't agree on the weather. We also learned in psych that our mind can make up things. For example you have a list of words like hot, frigid and things about the weather but not the word cold your mind could put that word in like it was actually said. So whoever remembers the murder may tell a different version of the story every time they tell it. Their mind may put in a small but specific detail that didn't actually happen. Which is like that fitting room mirror example you used in class.
McKenzie Johnson
ReplyDeleteMemories are reliable to an extent. The restrictions of our memories are a mystery because everyone has their own extent to what they can and can't remember really well. In the case of the novel the memories of the townspeople are probably a lot less reliable because it has been so long and time has allowed them to heal. Like a mirror an image can only last so long in your mind before it goes away and is lost to never reappear in the same space again. For example you may remember what you ate for lunch but you can't remember what you ate at the your 1st birthday.
Giovanna Sutherland
ReplyDeleteMemories aren't a reliable source to get information especially after 27 years. Overtime it deteriorates and becomes obscured. Old memories come to us in pieces and they are often mixed in with what we want to believe happened and with our imaginations. So many times a memory is an unintentional lie that can't be helped.
I remember the first time I rode a school bus. I was so terrified. I couldn't find a place to sit and every one was starring at me. I thought it smelt bad. That happened three years ago. The bus ride probably didn't happen like that and I'm pretty sure my memory is mixed in with the memory of some movie I watched.
Stephana Reid
ReplyDeleteIf something happened a long time ago, we have trouble remembering exactly what happened so we try to piece together fragments of what we do remember with things that we just make up. In a Chronicle of A Death Foretold, the townspeople couldn't remember exactly what happened on the day that they killed Santiago Nasar, so an answer about how the weather was that day couldn't be trusted because its hard to remember something after 27 years. Memories distort what really happened like mirrors in a funhouse do. In a funhouse the reflection is distorted to show something that is completly different.
Tay Brown
ReplyDeleteAs we age memoried may become distorted. Some people may tend to believe things as they remember them. For example when everyone was trying to remember the day Santiago died nobody could exactly recall what the day was like or what took place so they tried to piece the days events in order... like you would if trying to put a mirror back together.
Veronica Wallace
ReplyDeleteOur memories do fade over time. We can't remember every little thing that has ever happened to us, we couldn't hold it all. But is shown in the book when they are debating how that weather was that day, know one can remember, and how do you know who's right? Also for example, we cant remember anything from when we were baby's, this shows how our memories can fade and when "make things up" that we don't truly remember.
Onecia Burton
ReplyDeleteAs time goes on, memory can become distorted. You tend to "remember" things how you wished or wanted them to be, but in actuality you don't recall the correct events. Thus, you construct your own memory. For instance, in the novel, no one can agree on what the temperature. Memory changes over the years.
Memories fade. Over time, memories may become distorted, the pieces may start to fade or change, or things that you haven't thought of over the years may come back to you. In the novel, the narrator is trying to solve a murder mystery that occurred 27 years ago. As he questioned people, he began to realize how distorted everyone's memory of that day was. For instance, some people thought it was a pleasant day, and some said it was a shitty day. Memories can not be reliable. People tend to remember what they want to. Sometimes our reality is not what we remember or want to remember.
ReplyDeleteAndie Sifontes
Mickale Foard
ReplyDeleteMemories fade as we get older and our brain will try to put in fillings where the gaps are to make all of our memories make sense. Memories can truly never be reliable because of it's ability to morph and change what we want it to be. Mirrors in store make people look skinnier then how they are....probably why people on facebook take all their pictures in dressing rooms although just like that memories will distort themselves to fit them or what they want to be. Honestly reality is nothing but a group of distorted futures trying to become a solid future that makes sense;