Labyrinthine By Bernard Cooper Summary

1049 Words3 Pages

Primo Levi once said, " Human memory is a marvelous but fallacious instrument. The memories which lie within us are not carved in stone; not only do they tend to become erased as the years go by, but often they change, or even increase by incorporating extraneous features.." The memory of a human being is a fascinating matter, but it is not something that stays with us forever. Memories will often change or multiply with unnecessary information, but they are what define you as you.
In Cooper's "Labyrinthine," he acknowledges his unclear memories and compares the journey through life to that of the "loopy and confusing" maze (108). Bernard Cooper understands how memory works, "Recollecting the past becomes as unreliable as forecasting the future; you consult yourself with a certain trepidation and take your answer with a grain of salt" (Cooper 109). He says, "Remembered events merge together or fade away. Places and dates grow dubious, a jumble of guesswork and speculation" (108). He is "growing middle-aged" and "lost in the folds and bones of [his] body" (109). Cooper's perspective of life is …show more content…

I am a person with more of a passive personality, so I don't have too many close friends in general and I am often alone after I entered college. So, like Cooper, I also fear to forget and fear to be forgotten. I also think that it is inevitable that I will forget as time progresses, as I age, as I change, as I walk down the path of my life. How could I survive without my friends as we go our separate ways to different colleges? The memories and the nostalgic times of being with my friends will become fuzzy with time. I did not want that to happen. After reading Eva Hoffman's "Lost in Translation," I found that it may be true that memories will dwindle or change, but memories and the feeling of nostalgia are not that easy to forget and that they will always be a part of

Open Document