Balancing Me & I in 1st-Person Stories & Memoir
Remember, your narrator's character is both passive and active
The cartoon action-hero model of human independence is a fallacy. No matter how celebrated by American myth and legend, not to mention the Enlightenment, the lone hero never truly rises or falls alone. Even the most extraordinary individuals are the product—for better and for worse— of their parents, families, teachers, observations, opportunities, and events over which they exert zero control — as well as of the decisions and actions for which they claim sole credit. All characters, in other words, are both passive and active participants in their stories. And both modes matter.
Hello Loreates,
Belatedly, I’ve been listening to Michelle Obama read the audio version of Becoming. It’s wonderful on countless levels, but one craft detail stands out to me: the deft movement throughout the story, back and forth, between acting and witnessing. I’m not sure I’ve ever noticed this 1st-person shifting so clearly before, probably because few authors pay such close attention to its significance. Michelle Obama is an educator, a community organizer, a leader, a mom, and a First Lady. She understands that all action is predicated on observation, that everything we witness affects everything we do and believe, and that each of us is the product, to a large extent, of conduct and people we have observed. Over and over again, her book shows the pattern of cause/observation-and-effect/behavior that constitutes growing up, or Becoming. The very title embodies the twinning of the relatively passive Being + the more active Coming to engagement with oneself and the world.
I want to dive deeper into this concept, not just for the benefit of memoirists but also for fiction writers, especially those writing in 1st person. When you think of it, the balancing act between observing and acting applies to every character on the page, just as it does in real life.
Write on!
Aimee
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