Why is the Memoir a Useful Genre? (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, I am Malala, and Broken Circle)
A memoire is described to be “a record of events written by a person having intimate knowledge of them and based on personal observation.” This genre generally gains mass respect and validity because of the personal connections and accounts they explain. Because of this, the memoire is a useful genre for addressing human rights violations in a colonial context. Personal accounts of events (violations) that occurred provide the reader with actual situations to connect with. In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Broken Circle, and I am Malala, we make connections with each of the storytellers which help us understand the travesties that occurred to them in events of colonialism.
In a colonial context, the three memoires we tackled in class addressed human rights violations similarly. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl covered such topics under the focus of results of the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade (which was colonialism in action). It focuses on the deep roots of racism and the institutional construction of it. This memoir focused on racism and unequal acceptance.
Broken Circle surrounds its ideologies and colonial influences on the direct effects of the people. These effects more commonly understood by human rights activists are referred to as the genocide of first nations peoples in Canada or then known as the direct effects of colonialism. Although human rights activists are the only people whom refer to this national travesty as a genocide, under the pretenses of human rights we are able to call it just that. Colonialism occurred here because of how the church and state worked to execute residential schools as a must for all native children. This memoir also focused on racism and unequal acceptance as Incidents.
I Am Malala focused on more modern concepts of colonialism and its entirety. The main human rights violation under the scope of colonialism being that of education. Being the most recent form of colonialism that we read this semester, I am Malala provides prevalent example for how colonialism is still violating human rights codes and conduct. In the memoir, it explains how Malala was oppressed by her sex and not given equal opportunity.
Each memoir addresses the topic of colonialism in a horrific manner, making its mass amount of flaws prominent to the reader. With the memoir we are capable of seeing the raw emotion linked with such travesties that occurred. Personal observation and accounts that are written through intimate knowledge grasp very serious concepts and hold validity through such emotion. Their validity seems more real than that of a textbook because of the personal connections that can be made through the use of a character.
