The literary genres of memoir and essay have a few things in common. A memoir is a personal account on something about or from your life, while an essay is your point of view on a subject. Therefore, they both evoke personal feelings or views through the author's writing. Memoirs have the difficulty of being "under the umbrella of nonfiction" so everything that is written tends to be judged critically as to whether or not everything is hard facts. As humans, we tend to add pathos into what we think in order to get those who are listening to us, to agree or sympathize with us on our point of view. So, in a memoir (which is filled with personal feelings and accounts) you can probably expect some slight exaggerations to get their point across. However, if memoirs could be categorized specifically into essays, their would be no contradictions on whether things were true or not because essays are the author's point of view with infusions of emotions. The article from "The Guardian" is an interesting mixture between these genres.
"The Guardian" is an essay about this guy who writes little "memoirs" on postcards for random people who request it. The author of the article, Kate, got her postcard about her life made and she notes that, "the postcard doesn't sum up my life, but what got me to where I am now. It's a
snapshot of a moment." Her postcard is a little mini-memoir for her to reflect back on when she feels the need. Her point of view throughout the essay supports this guy's efforts to bring to life the defining moments in peoples' lives. Hmmm... I wonder what the highlights on my postcard of my life would be?
The Guardian
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