Friday, April 12, 2019
The Fiftieth Gate Essay Example for Free
The Fiftieth Gate EssayThe interplay between register and retrospect is a solipsistic act, where archives inevitably relies on retentivity to maintain its vitality whereas memory relies on history to sustain its immortality. d nonpareilout Mark Bakers polyphonous non-fiction memoir, The Fiftieth Gate and the thread like idea of the images below, memory is depicted as the panacea that enriches history as it provides diverse individual perspectives on the diachronic outcome of the holocaust. However, the biography also adduces the complications that memory might suffer, thereby revealing the inadequate omniscience of history. Baker envisages the conception of interweaving memories on elucidating historical evidence. In Gate 38, the fairy tale quality of this gate symbolises how memory can centre with historical evidence to provide a more profound range of information. When Baker recites his dream to Genia, he uses the metaphor of a river of wine that has turned to blood rep resenting the connection between an individuals memory , in this case Bakers memory of his childhood story, and detailed history of the Holocaust which the bighearted historian, Baker, had obviously studied.However, Genia recognised Bakers dream as a childhood story book of account with a different ending. This representation demonstrates both how individual memories validate each other and how history is revealed through its interplay with memory. Baker further explores how memory provokes and vindicates history in his non-fiction biography. Typical of the whole memoir, gate 39 constitutes a multifarious types of textual forms portraying the ambiguity of history and its inability in unfolding the pasts conundrums without the aid of memory.Baker delineates this notion by examining the prewar historical document, his most treasured photograph of his family interpreted in 1946 stating that althoughThe photograph transcends time. There is nothing to suggest it is 1946 ergo illustrati ng the obstruction history faces in arriver the absolute truth. Moreover, Baker depicts using rhetorical questions what the historical document failed to answer, Does not the photographer know that in two months my grandmothers smile will be erased forever ? Whereas the impact of incident on his mothers memory it was a holiday be private road I re portion putting on my surmount dress deliberately evokes the clarity of particular memories in supplying the answers. Thus, the limitations of history are revealed by delving into stars memory, as memory provides a more complete portrait of a historical event. On the other hand, despite memorys contiguous interconnection with history in being its nurturing essence, however it endures multifaceted intricacies which hinder history from absolute truth.This duality of memory is represented by the binary of Genias personality I am your victim , not your oppressor. Baker depicts the extremes of Genias personality, between depression and up heaval through ellipsis, That was me then. Nothing to look at nownothing to seeruins and in her inversion of cause and effect about her original period of depression I remember now. The breakdown, it was because of you. This dual nature of ones memory provokes memorys bewilderment, hence revealing the imperfection of history.Additionally, memorys visitation in passing the test of athanasia manipulates the inadequate omniscience of history. Gate 41 recounts Bakers attempt to find out Benjamin Kogut, a survivor who saved Yossel , Bakers father, as a means of enhancing historical evidence by the inclusion of Koguts memory. Baker uses recount about The Search Bureau for miss Relatives in Jerusalem to show how historical evidence is sifted. Ultimately, Bakers discovery of a Kogut family members Tel Aviv telephone number reveals that Kogut has died leaving one single photograph from after the liberation, but no memories.Bakers metaphor of peering into memorys black hole conveys the t endency of memory to be lost thus relinquishing the concept of absolute truth while revealing history to be only a partial representation of collective memory. In retrospect, the reader sees memory acting as an anecdote since it assists history but fails to achieve historys absolute truth. This notion is identical to Sir Winston Churchills ideology which depicts that History is written by victors as a means of demonstrating the interplay of memory and history where the prejudice of collective memory restrains the candidness of history.
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