(I wrote this in 6th grade… bare with me)
Reality vs. Memory
Are Things What They Really Seemed?
In a Separate Peace, many things seem to become something they weren’t before. Some things seem to grow, others to shrink, some to become more important, others to lose their significance. And although they may not physically change, their mental image may warp into something they’re not. As our minds gain wisdom and knowledge, they also grow and change opinions and perspectives. Important events and new found discoveries alter our thought process, and change how we think and feel. Reality is made up of our memories, and in turn our memories are created by a past reality. Both play on each other, and by trying to piece together our memories and our present day self, we try and create an image of the life we live.
Many examples of a place or thing becoming less or more important than in the past exist in A Separate Peace. When adult-Gene returns to Devon, he desires to visit two places more than anywhere else; the tree and the First Academy Building’s stair case. Both of these sites are highly significant to Gene’s history at Devon. These are the sites where Finny changed Gene’s life. The tree, where Finny broke his leg the first time, seems to have become “the old giant that tuned into a pigmy while you were looking the other way.” In his memory, the tree was a menacing giant that towered over the river, seemingly waiting for the chance to drop someone from its branches. Now, when Gene comes back to Devon, the tree seems weary from age, enfeebled and dry. His memories contain fear of the tree, because of the events that happened around it, when in reality he has no real reason to fear it. His memory of the tree as being a monster has been changed because he has grown to learn otherwise.
The Essay on Global Warming: Could Things Get Better Before They Get Worse?
Global Warming: Could Things Get Better Before They Get Worse? April 13, 2012 Global warming could make things a little greener and a little rosier, according to new research. But these conditions may not last very long. These new findings have been published in the journal Nature Climate Change this week. Within, evidence is shown that plants may experience a period of great growth and may ...
Another site of reminiscence is the marble stairs in the First Academy Building. If I asked you to think of stairs, I think some people would say, “what about them?” others would think, “AHHH! Stairs means exercise!” (That would be me…).
But to Gene, these particular stairs mark the down fall of Finny. When he re-visits them, he realizes that even through all of the years that students trampled them, they did not have much of a scratch. He realized how hard they were along with the realization of what kind of damage they could and did do if someone happened to fall down them. He senses how powerful and silent they are and fully appreciates how strong and unchanging hey also are. He put together pieces of his memories and the present to broaden his life experiences, even if just by a little.
Even I have had an experience where I find my memories and reality was different. I was born in Florida and lived there until I was six. A few years ago, I went back to see all of my nursery friends and were I used to live, stuff like that. When I went back to my old house, it seemed so dark and foreign. Although this was probably partly due to the fact that the new owners didn’t do any yard work, it still seemed so small and overgrown. I remember it as a reasonably sized front yard with a huge oak tree in the front, a garden to the side and an orange tree in back. Now the huge oak tree didn’t seem so big, and he orange tree had lost most of it’s charm. The beautiful garden was gone and my mother’s roses were missing from their pots along the walkway. It was actually pretty sad seeing that the house that I had loved so much had become so different, and the worst part was that it not changed in a good way. My memories of this house were warm and welcoming, but this house looked like the kind of house your friends dared you to sneak into on Halloween. It now seemed so small. While all it probably needed was a little yard work to make it look similar, it still seemed very different to me.
The Essay on Satis House Appearance Pip Reality
There are many common, familiar clicks about illusion versus truth. "All that glitters is not gold" and "Things are seldom what they seem" are the most universal hackneyed phrases, but they do not cover entirely every aspect of appearance versus reality. In Charles Dickens' novel, Great Expectations, there are several differences between the illusion and the truth. The appearance of certain things ...
Humans have the amazing ability to be able to remember certain things that we don’t have to remember. We can remember the good, the bad and the in-between. We learn from our memories and use that knowledge to create a better future. We create our reality based on our past. Reality and memories are intertwined to the point that one can not change with out the other changing also. They have affected our past, affect out present and will affect our future. Memories seem to be just along for the ride when they actually help us create our reality which helps us understand ourselves and our lives.
