My Grandmother’s Story: Week Two

I’m getting to this late because I’ve had a cold all week and haven’t been able to write at all.

For the past week and a half, I’ve been writing the introduction to my grandmother’s story, which focuses on her parents. Their getting together, in my mind, will be a good way to start and teach the audience about the social mores of Japan. One thing I want to do with the story is insert bits of history and real-life facts as both a way to educate and a way to enhance my story. Delving into the history of settings and events that my grandmother lived in and through would give the story some weight. For example, while I write about my great-grandparents’ marriage woes, I’d intersperse the story with tidbits about divorce and the tradition of Japanese marriage. Another example is I’d write about the trouble my grandmother experienced at home while talking about the reasons they were facing such difficulty. At the time, materials and food were being sent to soldiers, leaving citizens with little to nurture them. Starvation was common during the war. I can also talk about the founding of occupational therapy in Japan since my grandmother was there for that, too.

The effect I want to get with this history is seen in movies like Forrest Gump and the book Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott. The main draw of Forrest Gump is the lovable main character going through so much 20th century history. Ivanhoe is an old fictional novel set in medieval England about a gallant knight in the time following one of King Richard’s crusades. Between fictional bits, Walter Scott ties in history about the feud between the Normans and the Saxons of England, the nature of jousting tournaments and a lot more. This is what I am trying to do with my story. Educate and entertain.