jonathan safran foer's everything is illuminated

Other memories influence not only one person, but a whole generation, like war. Memories are carried along a life time and are passed over to the following generations to keep them alive – sometimes they are only very personal memories, which are passed on to the next generation. Children are shaped by their parents either in a good or bad way, people can learn from other family members, friends, society, historical events and the memories passed on to them by older generations, so that they become who they are. But one should not forget the teaching effect of past events for the future generations.

Answers like that they heard over and over again as the question of identity is the basic interest in digging for memories. In Rosenzweig’s and Thelen’s survey about popular history making a factory worker from Indiana said that he is searching for his past “o find out why I am like I am” and “to find out what direction we were coming from and what direction we’re heading” (Rosenzweig Thelen 1998, 45). Most of them are interested in finding where they come from, meaning not only their nationality but also the religious community and culture they originally come from and their family heritage. A few start to write a journal or diary to remember things, which happened to them or others.

While recollecting their past people have different motives for their searching, some just want to find their own roots creating a family tree, others are more interested in their national identity and the history of the country they live in.

Many also collect anything related to the past, which includes everything one can imagine – from photos, personal belongings of family members to antique china or souvenirs from places reminding them of past events. During their work on popular history making Rosenzweig and Thelen discoursed, that a high percentage of the people, asked about their experience of handling past and heritage, visit museums or historic sites to find a path back to their ancestors or national identity. Also attending history class in school, watching television programs about the past or reading books with that topic are a way of learning about the personal heritage. Some go through family photos while listening to their grandparents telling stories about the past, others take photos and videos themselves to preserve their own memories. One can recognise that a lot of people try to keep their memories of the past alive – in one or the other way. The past might be gone but the memory of it will stay alive in peoples minds, history books, museums, and in the developing society as well. The haunting ghost of history can be found everywhere in our existence. Memory is important, letting that memory be sufficiently ambiguous and open-ended so that others can inhabit the space, can imbue the forms with their own memory. 2.1 Pilgrimage – Displacement in Place and Timeĥ.

Jonathan safran foer's everything is illuminated