Literary Nonfiction Review Memoirs, Personal Narratives, & Autobiographies Created by N. Guerra Modified by: C. Cordova

What is an Autobiography? An autobiography is a TRUE story about someone’s WHOLE life and is written and narrated by the person it’s about. Making Connections: Have you ever read a book or seen a movie about a real-life person? Explain. Think-Turn and Talk! Teacher’s Notes: Examples-movies-Abraham Lincoln;

Making Connections: Biographical Movies

What is a Memoir? A memoir is a TRUE story about PART of someone’s life and is written and narrated by the person it’s about. It could be just about their childhood, their adolescent (teenage) years, their adult life, or their life in old age.

What is a Personal Narrative? A personal narrative is a TRUE story about ONE EVENT in someone’s life, like their first time experiencing something, facing a fear, being successful at something challenging, or overcoming an obstacle. Personal Narratives follow the story mountain diagram. These are like your small moment stories. Making Connections: Has your teacher ever asked you to write a personal narrative? Explain. Think-Turn and Talk!!

Why is this genre called “literary” nonfiction? “Literary” means “qualities of literature”. That means that even though autobiographies, memoirs, and personal narratives are TRUE like nonfiction texts, they have qualities like fiction, such as: Themes 1st person Point of View Figurative Language A narrator/ protagonist Setting Author’s Purpose Narrator’s /character reactions to events Plot (personal narratives) Narrator experiences changes Reflection/ Lessons learned Time period is the past Text structure is chronological/ sequential So, literary nonfiction is REAL like expository text, but looks like FICTION? Interesting!

Point of View

What literary qualities did Cisneros use in the excerpt “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark”? What is the setting? What is the point of view? Did the author use figurative language? Did the narrator react to an event? How does the narrator feel? What is the theme? What is the text structure? Teacher’s Notes: Setting-narrator’s bedroom; POV-1st person; Figurative Language-”crumples like a coat” & “flowers shaped like spears” (similes); narrator reacts to her father’s grief; narrator understands how it would feel to lose her father; themes: death, love, family, grief; text structure-chronological Let’s discuss as a class!!!!

Example of a Memoir: The House on Mango Street CPQ: How is this text like fiction? “Your abuelito is dead, Papa says early one morning in my room. Esta muerto, and then as if he just heard the news himself, crumples like a coat and cries, my brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and don’t know what to do. I know he will have to go away, that he will take a plane to Mexico, all the uncles and aunts will be there, and they will have a black-and-white photo taken in front of the tomb with flowers shaped like spears in a white vase because this is how they send the dead away in that country. Because I am the oldest, my father has told me first, and now it is my turn to tell the others. I will have to explain why we can’t play. I will have to tell them to be quiet today. My Papa, his thick hands and thick shoes, who wakes up tired in the dark, who combs his hair with water, drinks his coffee, and is gone before we wake, today is sitting on my bed. And I think if my own Papa died what would I do. I hold my Papa in my arms. I hold and hold and hold him.” Chapter titled, “Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark” Teacher’s Notes: Read CPQ first. Instruct students to focus on CPQ. Read excerpt aloud to class. Use next slide to answer CPQ.

What literary qualities did Soto use in the excerpt from “The Jacket”? What is the setting? What is the point of view? Did the author use figurative language? Did the narrator react to an event? How does the narrator feel? What is the theme? What is the text structure? Teacher’s Notes: Setting-school; 1st person POV; Figurative Language-”buzz-buzz” (onomatopoeia), “guacamole-colored” (imagery), “like loose flowers” (simile); Narrator reaction to event-narrator was laughed at; Narrator’s feelings-embarrassed; theme-embarrassment; text structure-chronological Let’s discuss as a class!!!! Personal Narrative

Example of a Personal Narrative: The Jacket CPQ: How is this text like fiction? “We paraded out into the yard where we, the sixth graders, walked past all the other grades, to stand against the back fence. Everybody saw me. Although they didn’t say out loud, “Man, that’s ugly,” I heard the buzz-buzz of gossip and laughter I knew was meant for me. And so I went, in my guacamole-colored jacket. So embarrassed, so hurt, I couldn’t even do my homework. I received C’s on my quizzes, and forgot the state capitals and the rivers of South America, our friendly neighbors. Even the girls who had been friendly blew away like loose flowers to follow the boys in neat jackets.” ~Excerpt from “The Jacket” by Gary Soto

What literary qualities did Keller use in the excerpt from “Story of My Life”? What is the point of view? Did the author use figurative language? How does the narrator feel? What makes this example so different from the first two? What is the text structure? Teacher’s Notes: 1st person point of view, fig. lang.-”lifting the veil” (metaphor), “like a golden mist” (simile), narrator’s feelings-fearful of writing her autobiography; differences-no clear setting; provides dates and background information; sounds more “expository”; text structure-chronological Let’s discuss as a class!!!!

Example of an Autobiography: “The Story of My Life” CPQ: How is this text like fiction? “It is with a kind of fear that I begin to write the history of my life. I have, as it were, a superstitious hesitation in lifting the veil that clings about my childhood like a golden mist. The task of writing an autobiography is a difficult one. When I try to classify my earliest impressions, I find that fact and fancy look alike across the years that link the past with the present. The woman paints the child's experiences in her own fantasy. A few impressions stand out vividly from the first years of my life; but "the shadows of the prison-house are on the rest." Besides, many of the joys and sorrows of childhood have lost their poignancy; and many incidents of vital importance in my early education have been forgotten in the excitement of great discoveries. In order, therefore, not to be tedious I shall try to present in a series of sketches only the episodes that seem to me to be the most interesting and important. I was born on June 27, 1880, in Tuscumbia, a little town of northern Alabama. The family on my father's side is descended from Caspar Keller, a native of Switzerland, who settled in Maryland. One of my Swiss ancestors was the first teacher of the deaf in Zurich and wrote a book on the subject of their education--rather a singular coincidence; though it is true that there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.” ~Excerpt from “The Story of My Life” by Helen Keller 1 2 3

What does “Fictional Adaptation” mean? Fictional adaptation means to take a TRUE story’s facts and use them to make fiction. For example, The Diary of Anne Frank is TRUE and considered a MEMOIR. In class, we’re going to read a FICTIONAL ADAPTATION of that memoir because someone has taken the TRUTH from Frank’s MEMOIR and turned it into a PLAY. As you know, a play is considered fiction.

Can speeches, which are considered nonfiction, have literary elements like fiction? Absolutely. Speeches use literary elements all the time, particularly literary devices, such as figurative language and imagery. Speeches use literary devices to help appeal to audiences. For example, Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech is FULL of literary devices.

Example of a Speech with Literary Devices I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. ~Excerpt from “I Have a Dream” by MLK Teacher’s Notes: The underlined sections are metaphors with imagery.

STAAR Standards For teacher use. (6.7, 7.7, 8.7) Reading/Comprehension of Literary Text/ Literary Nonfiction. Students understand, make inferences and draw conclusions about the varied structural patterns and features of literary nonfiction and provide evidence from text to support their understanding. 6.7A (Supporting)-identify the literary language and devices used in memoirs and personal narratives and compare their characteristics with those of an autobiography. 7.7A(Supporting)-describe the structural and substantive differences between an autobiography or a diary and a fictional adaptation of it. 8.7A(Supporting)-analyze passages in well-known speeches for the author’s use of literary devices and word and phrase choice (e.g., aphorisms, epigraphs) to appeal to the audience.