bell hooks Reading Response

Before You Read

1. I think an autobiography is the written down version of your life/story. Important information in one is major events in that persons life and their main bio. 

Summary

bell hooks explains in the article "Writing Autobiography" the ways to write an autobiography. hooks is directing this information to others writing autobiographies. She explains what needs to be put in them and some of the tools she used while writing. hooks uses examples from he own autobiography to explain her reasoning's. She includes that writing her own autobiography helped her discover things and find closure from her childhood.

Synthesis

bell hook's article "Writing Autobiography" relates to Allen, Malcolm X, and Alexie. In Allen's "The Inspired Writer vs. The Real Writer" she explains the difference and discovers pretty much everyone is the "real writer." hook represents the "real writer" very well because she is writing her autobiography for a reason, and it wasn't perfect at first. hook relates to both Malcolm X's "Learning to Read" and Alexie's "The Joy of Reading and Writing:  Superman and Me" because both of these articles are actual autobiographies. You can directly find the tips and examples in hook's article, but you can use Malcolm and Alexie's articles as pure examples of writing.

Question

AE.5. If I were to write an autobiography now I would use the present time discourse community. I am in college and it's the time of my life, why not write about it? I would include examples from my past if need though.

Thoughts

I thought this article was very nice for people seeking information on how to write autobiographies. Though I am not looking to write an autobiography, hook gave great tips/tools to use while writing. hook also gave helpful examples from her own autobiography.

Dialectical Notebook

Response	Quotation
I like this quote because it shows how she was so into the idea of writing her autobiography, how important she thought it was.	“I wanted not to lose the vividness, the recall and felt an urgent need to begin the work and complete it” (177).
This is a good tip showing that you want to write both what you remember and what actually happened.	“There were many incidents that I would talk about with my siblings to see if they recalled them” (178).
I love this because it is her expressing how great it was to let it all out.	“It was the act of making it present, bringing it into the open, so to speak, that was liberating” (179).
This is a meaningful quote because it expresses to the reader how much you can get out of writing. It is kind of a recollection.	“Writing the autobiographical narrative enabled me to look at my past from a different prospective and to use this knowledge as a means of self-growth and change in a practical way” (180).