Autobiography
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As interesting as it may be writing about someone else's life, whether it be a fictional character's story or a non-fictional biography of someone you know, there is a different skill and enjoyment involved in sharing stories that are personal to you and showing others what it is like to experience life from your point of view.
Many people hesitate to write accounts of their own life, in fear that their experiences are not worthy of attention or because it is too difficult to narrate one's own experiences. However, the truth is there is a much higher appreciation for self-written biographies, otherwise known as autobiographies. Let us look at the meaning, elements and examples of autobiography.
Autobiography Meaning
The word 'autobiography' is made of three words - 'auto' + 'bio' = 'graphy'
- The word 'auto" means 'self.'
- The word 'bio' refers to 'life.'
- The word 'graphy' means 'to write.'
Hence the etymology of the word 'autobiography' is 'self' + 'life' + 'write'.
'Autobiography' means a self-written account of one's own life.
Autobiography: An autobiography is a nonfictional account of a person's life written by the person themselves.
Writing an autobiography allows the autobiographer to share their life story in the way that they have personally experienced it. This allows the autobiographer to share their perspective or experience during significant events during their lifetime, which may differ from the experiences of other people. The autobiographer can also provide insightful commentary on the larger sociopolitical context in which they existed. This way, autobiographies form an important part of history because whatever we learn about our history today is from the recordings of those who experienced it in the past.
Autobiographies contain facts from the autobiographer's own life and are written with the intention of being as truthful as memory allows. However, just because an autobiography is a non-fictional narrative does not mean that it does not contain some degree of subjectivity in it. Autobiographers are only responsible for writing about events from their life, the way they have experienced them and the way they remember them. They are not responsible for showing how others may have experienced that very event.
Mein Kampf (1925) is the infamous autobiography of Adolf Hitler. The book outlines Hitler's rationale for carrying out the Holocaust (1941-1945) and his political perspectives on the future of Nazi Germany. While this does not mean that his perspective is factual or 'right', it is a truthful account of his experiences and his attitudes and beliefs.
Fig. 1 - Adolf Hitler, the writer of Mein Kampf
Autobiography vs Biography
A key to understanding the meaning of an autobiography is realising the difference between a biography and an autobiography.
A biography is an account of someone's life, written and narrated by someone else. Hence, in the case of a biography, the person whose life story is being recounted is not the author of the biography.
Biography: A written account of someone's life written by someone else.
Meanwhile, an autobiography is also an account of someone's life but written and narrated by the very same person whose life is being written about. In this case, the person on who the autobiography is based is also the author.
Therefore, while most biographies are written from the second or third-person perspective, an autobiography is always narrated with a first-person narrative voice. This adds to the intimacy of an autobiography, as readers get to experience the autobiographer's life from their eyes - see what they saw and feel what they felt.
Here is a table summarising the difference between a biography and an autobiography:
Biography | Autobiography |
A written account of a person's life written by someone else. | A written account of a person's life written by the person themselves. |
The subject of a biography is NOT its author. | The subject of an autobiography is also its author. |
Written from a third-person perspective. | Written from a first-person perspective. |
Autobiography Elements
Most autobiographies do not mention every detail of a person's life from birth to death. Instead, they select key touchstone moments that shaped the autobiographer's life. Here are some of the essential elements that most autobiographies are made of:
Key background information
This could include information regarding the autobiographer's date and place of birth, family and history, key stages in their education and career and any other relevant factual details that tell the reader more about the writer and their background.
Early experiences
This includes significant moments in the autobiographer's life that shaped their personality and their worldview. Sharing these with the readers, their thoughts and feelings during this experience and what lesson it taught them helps the readers understand more about the writer as a person, their likes and dislikes and what made them the way they are. This is usually how autobiographers connect with their readers, by either bringing forth experiences that the reader may identify with or by imparting them an important life lesson.
Many autobiographers dwell on their childhood, as that is a stage in life that particularly shapes people the most. This involves narrating key memories that the autobiographer may still remember about their upbringing, relationships with family and friends, and their primary education.
Professional life
Just as writing about one's childhood is a key area of focus in autobiographies, so are stories from an autobiographer's professional life. Talking about their successes and their progression in their chosen industry serves as a huge source of inspiration for those aspiring to go down the same career pathway. In contrast, stories of failures and injustices may serve to both warn the reader and motivate them to overcome these setbacks.
The HP Way (1995) is an autobiography by David Packard that details how he and Bill Hewlett founded HP, a company that began in their garage and ended up becoming a multi-billion technological company. Packard details how their management strategies, innovative ideas and hard work took their company towards growth and success. The autobiography serves as an inspiration and a guidebook for entrepreneurs in every field.
Overcoming adversity
As mentioned above, autobiographers often delve into stories of their life's failures and how they dealt with this setback and overcame it.
This is not only to inspire sympathy from their readers but also to inspire those facing similar problems in their lives. These 'failures' could be in their personal and professional lives.
Stories of failure could also be about overcoming adversities in life. This could be recovering from a mental illness, accidents, discrimination, violence or any other negative experience. Autobiographers may wish to share their stories to heal from their experiences.
I Am Malala (2013) by Malala Yousafzai is the story of how Malala Yousafzai, a young Pakistani girl, got shot by the Taliban at the age of 15 for protesting for female education. She became the world's youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2014 and remains an activist for women's right to education.
Fig. 2- Malala Yousafzai, the writer of the autobiography I Am Malala
Culture
Talking about culture involves discussions about the autobiographer's way of life. This means delving into their values and beliefs, traditions, customs, rituals and holidays that are practised by them and their family, the writer's language, food and clothing preferences and anything that may be 'normal' for the autobiographer, but unique to readers who do not belong to that culture.
This particular element also allows for identification, amongst people who belong to the same culture as the autobiographer, but also allows for an appreciation of diverse cultures.
Out of Africa (1937) is an autobiography by Karen Blizen where she details her life on a coffee plantation from 1914 to 1931 in Kenya, which was under British Empire at the time. It provides a picture of what life looked like during colonial rule in Africa.
Theme
Autobiographers often have a common theme or lesson running across the stories they have selected to include in their autobiographies. This is especially true for memoirs, a specific type of autobiography we will discuss in the next section.
On Writing (2000) is a memoir by American author Stephen King that is a collection of King's experiences as a writer. Hence, the underlying theme under all the experiences and events that he includes in this memoir either have had a profound impact on his writing career or serve as inspiration for aspiring writers.
Types of Autobiographies
Now that we have looked at the elements that make up an autobiography, let's look at the different types of self-written work that possess all the abovementioned elements.
Traditional autobiographies
This is when an autobiographer chronicles their entire lifetime, starting from their birth and early childhood, all the way to the present time when the book is being written. Most autobiographers opt for a chronological structure while narrating, although this is not necessary. While not each and every moment starting from the day of their birth needs to be included, the autobiographer must delve into any formative events occurring throughout the entire course of their life.
My Life (2004) is an autobiography by former U.S. President Bill Clinton chronicling his life, beginning with his childhood in Arkansas and then covering his tenure as the president of the United States.
Memoirs
Memoirs are a type of autobiography where the autobiographer only zooms in on particular memories that are significant or special to the author. Hence, memoirs are usually collections of memories handpicked by the author from their own life.
The memories that are selected are usually bound by a common theme.
autobiography is a story of a life; memoir is a story from a life.1
Eat, Pray, Love (2006) is a collection of memoirs by Elizabeth Gilbert who writes about her various experiences while travelling across Italy, India and Indonesia, and the lessons she learnt along the way.
Fictionalised autobiographies
Remember when we said that autobiographies are always non-fictional? Well, there are some autobiographers who blur the lines between fiction and non-fiction while writing an autobiography!
While the events taking place in the autobiography are from the author's real life, the author may decide to use fictional characters to represent their actual experiences. Or, sometimes, an author may create a fictional character with a fictional story, but choose to narrate it like it is an autobiography by recording made-up (but very believable) facts about the character and tracing their psychological and social development throughout the course of their life. Sometimes, the author is so skilled at autobiographical writing, that readers are hardly able to tell that the protagonist and the life they are reading about are fictional!
Charles Dickens took an autobiographical approach while writing David Copperfield (1849), a novel where the substance of the book comes from Dickens' own life. However, the novel has been written in the first-person narrative voice of David Copperfield, who is a fictional character who also happens to be the protagonist of the story. Dickens reproduces his own life through the story of David, a character that is a reflection of Dickens as a person.
Spiritual autobiographies
These autobiographies focus on the autobiographer's journey towards finding their faith and spirituality. It usually follows the narrative of the writer lacking faith or having lived a sinful youth. However, after numerous cycles of struggles, doubts, and repenting, the writer reconnects with their faith and undergoes a spiritual awakening.
Throughout the autobiography, the autobiographer shares stories of this conversion and attempts to spread God's message.
Left To Tell (2006) by Immaculée Ilibagiza is an autobiography where Ilibagiza details the story of her surviving the Rwandan Holocaust by hiding in a pastor's bathroom. She survives the genocide by possessing faith and trust, and by eventually learning to forgive those who murdered her family and friends.
Confession
Confessional autobiographies are written by people who usually have a hidden secret or a personal revelation that they wish to reveal. Some autobiographers have dark and painful secrets that they wish to share in order to seek redemption or to warn others from doing the same.
This could be anything from stories of struggling with addiction to committing a crime - anything that the autobiographer has been plagued with and wishes to get off their chest.
Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) narrates Thomas Quincy's struggle with drug addiction and the influence this has had on his life. He narrates instances from his childhood that acted as emotional factors leading to his addiction, the nightmares and visions he would have under the influence of the drug and even a contrasting picture of the allure of the drug and the pleasure and euphoria it affords. This is an extract from his autobiography:
The sense of space, and in the end, the sense of time, were both powerfully affected. Buildings, landscapes, &c. were exhibited in proportions so vast as the bodily eye is not fitted to conceive. Space swelled, and was amplified to an extent of unutterable infinity. This, however, did not disturb me so much as the vast expansion of time; I sometimes seemed to have lived for 70 or 100 years in one night; nay, sometimes had feelings representative of a millennium passed in that time, or, however, of a duration far beyond the limits of any human experience. ( pp. 103–104.)
Autobiography Books
Now let us look at a few famous examples of autobiographies.
The Story of My Life (1903) by Hellen Keller
In her autobiography, Hellen Keller details her struggles and journey following her blindness and deafness at a very young age. She describes her relationship with her teacher and life-long companion Anne Sullivan, who taught her how to cope and learn from her disability and enjoy life once again. She talks about her many adventures with Anne Sullivan, who taught her to appreciate nature and reading and built Hellen's confidence and determination. After overcoming several obstacles, Hellen grows up to become a successful and well-educated woman and is able to achieve all her dreams by the end of the novel.
The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) by Anne Frank
This is a collection of diary entries written by Anne Frank from 1942 to 1944, where she details her life as a Jewish girl hiding from the Nazis in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. She describes the two years she spent writing and studying in the Annex, a small refuge for her family and other Jewish people fleeing persecution. Anne's diary halts when the Annex is raided by the Nazis after which she and her family are sent to concentration camps. She died of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, and her diary is one of the most poignant accounts of the horrors of the Holocaust.
This is an extract from one of her diary entries from October 9th, 1942:
Escape is almost impossible; many people look Jewish, and they’re branded by their shorn heads. If it’s that bad in Holland, what must it be like in those faraway and uncivilised places where the Germans are sending them? We assume that most of them are being murdered. The English radio says they’re being gassed. Perhaps that’s the quickest way to die. I feel terrible. Miep’s accounts of these horrors are so heartrending… Fine specimens of humanity, those Germans, and to think I’m actually one of them! No, that’s not true, Hitler took away our nationality long ago. And besides, there are no greater enemies on earth than the Germans and Jews.
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Maya Angelou
This autobiography is the first volume of a seven-volume autobiographical series written by Maya Angelou. It details her early life in Arkansas and her traumatic childhood where she was subjected to sexual assault and racism. The autobiography then takes us through each of her multiple careers as a poet, teacher, actress, director, dancer, and activist, and the injustices and prejudices she faces along the way as a black woman in America.
Fig. 3 - Maya Angelou, the writer of the autobiography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Autobiography - Key takeaways
- An autobiography is a nonfictional account of a person's life, written by the person themselves.
- A biography is a written account of someone's life written by someone else, whereas an autobiography is a self-written account of one's own life story.
- The key elements of an autobiography are:
- Key background information
- Early experiences
- Professional Life
- Overcoming adversity
- Culture
- Theme
- The types of autobiographies are:
- Traditional autobiographies
- Memoirs
- Fictional autobiographies
- Spiritual autobiographies
- Confessions
- Some notable examples of autobiographies are:
The Story of My Life (1903) by Hellen Keller
The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) by Anne Frank
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Maya Angelou
References
- Judith Barrington. 'Writing the Memoir'. The Handbook of Creative Writing. 2014
- Fig. 1 - Adolf Hitler cropped restored (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adolf_Hitler_cropped_restored.jpg) by Unknown Author is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 de (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)
- Fig. 2 - Malala Yousafzai at Girl Summit 2014 (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Malala_Yousafzai_at_Girl_Summit_2014.jpg) by Russell Watkins/Department for International Development is licensed by Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
- Fig. 3 - Public domain: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Angelou_at_Clinton_inauguration_(cropped_2).jpg
Frequently Asked Questions about Autobiography
Some notable examples of autobiographies are:
The Story of My Life (1903) by Hellen Keller
The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) by Anne Frank
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1969) by Maya Angelou
An autobiography is a nonfictional account of a person's life, written by the person themselves.
While writing an autobiography, include key background information about you and your family, early experiences from your childhood, your culture, your professional life, stories of adversity and any other touchstone moments that shaped your life.
A biography is a written account of someone's life by someone else, whereas an autobiography is a self-written account of one's own life story.
The types of autobiographies are:
- Traditional autobiographies
- Memoirs
- Fictional autobiographies
- Spiritual autobiographies
- Confessions
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