Response to On Going Home Essay -- Personal Essays

According to Joan Didion's essay "On Going Home", continuing changes in life makes it almost impossible to remove memories of one's past. Especially when one has been away from a previous home, which that person was raised, then return to that same home a number of years later. In a home which family and friends shared memories of events, news, gossip and situations, whether it be bad or good. Old artifacts and various family heirlooms in the home that stimulates a memory of those old times when used. Surrounding areas of that old home are remembered just as well also. Being in a new home makes the old memories even more missed. These may be the strongest influences in why memories are kept and remembered. When someone is away from their original home, meaning a home that the certain person was raised and grew up at, there is no doubt that the home will be missed. It would be forgotten but only at a certain extent. An extent that things will be remembered about that home every time someone relates something to it. But when a person is returned to that old home, like Didian, the memories are even more apparent than while away from home. Didain was overloaded with memories that were once forgotten. These memories are forgotten, and then quickly aroused with a simple touch, sight, smell or sound. People have different relations with memories and how they conceive them, but Didian makes it very apparent that these memories about a home that is missed and forgotten exists inside of us all. Physical items such as family heirlooms, "teacups"(Didian 373), or the condition of a house are strong reminders of past memories. Instead of a thought trying to relate one thing to another, an object can have it's own history. ... ...missed. Too much remembrance will definitely impair judgment and living conditions of one's present life. It should be very private and for one's thoughts only. Remembering past places once lived at and how much different the weather, conditions and surroundings were. People that a person used to interact with now will never have even remotely the same conversations that the same person used to with old family and friends. A piece of clothing, an eating instrument or even a musical instrument that were remembered will somewhat relate to an event that happened in the past. Just a few examples of how memories will never be forgotten. Memories will always be remembered, sometimes forgotten but always revived as a person's life changes. Works Cited Tropp, Sandra Fehl and Ann Pierson D'Angelo, editors. Essays in Context. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.