Adult Memory Control

"My memory is now under the control of the person I now want and strive to be, and so rarely under the control of the facts." (18, Passing for White, Passing for Black)


When reading the article, I was struck for some reason by this line. Piper was describing her feelings towards journals she kept since age 11 after she reread them. What I want to discuss or explore is  this issue or idea of being caught in between worlds it is reflected as an adult. When Piper reread her journals she says she was astounded by her chasm between her present perception of the past and her actual past events. What she was describing here reminds me of the characters of Symptomatic. Greta, being an older woman, didn't look at her past the way Piper did. The social awkwardness and rejection of being biracial in the past affected Greta to an extent where she couldn't properly come to terms with her identity as an adult. Therefore using the narrator as a scape goat; in a way living her life through the narrator. Her memory remained under the control of her past, of the person that was marked by the negative aspects of being biracial. Her memory was controlled by the facts of her past; the facts of how she was mistreated by others. This lack of acceptance within Greta drove her sanity off the roof.Piper on the other hand, understood the facts of her past, the facts of the actual events of the past and decided to control them by the accepting her self as a biracial woman as an adult. She chose to associate her memory with the new woman she wanted to be.