Autobiographical Significance: Pairing Description and Reflection

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 Analyze 
Use the basic features.

Two ways that writers show the autobiographical significance of a remembered event are to describe the person or place, creating a dominant impression, and to provide past and present thoughts and reflections on this person or place.

ANALYZE & WRITE

Write one or two paragraphs analyzing Lam’s use of description and reflection to create autobiographical significance:

  1. Skim paragraphs 3–4, 7–8, 11–12, and 21–22, noting descriptions, bits of dialogue, and other details that give you a sense of the character and history of Lam’s father. What dominant impression do you get of his father, and why do you think that he is drawn to the historic battlefield?
  2. Now review paragraphs 9–10, 17, and 22, where Lam shares his thoughts and reflections about his father, both at the time of the battlefield visit and in later years. What do these reflections add to the dominant impression, and how do they help you better understand the significance of the visit, a significance underscored in paragraph 23?

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