HISTORY AND MEMORY  1500W

The people who survived the Holocaust are slowly disappearing. The number of these survivors is decreasing drastically year by year. Does that mean the memory of these brave fighters leave this world with them? Yes? No? This is where the role of history enters the image. Recorded documents, facts, statistics, writings out of archives are all everlasting pieces of the past. These documents on their own fail to present the undented picture of the dreadful events occurred. The emotions and sorrows felt by the individuals are completely overlooked and sidestepped in historical recordings. History being claimed as an objective piece tries to be as unbiased as possible, which if argued about can be questioned, as selective choosing of certain facts is present. While reading a history textbook I have wondered myself about the cold presentation of breath-taking events. After all who decides what is put into it? What is relevant and what isn’t? The past itself is always an objective matter, but as soon as it is presented by an individual it evolves to being subjective. Although history provides the background knowledge to individual memories, as seen in ‘The Fiftieth Gate’, “I try narrating the stories in his own style…” says Baker in the hope of triggering some of his father’s memories by the use of his documentedCHERNOBYL DISASTER, EMOTION, PSYCHOLOGY

The Fiftieth Gate by Mark Baker suggests that a combination of history and memory is essential in making meaning, i.e. in shaping perceptions of the world around us. How does baker represent this combination to create meaning?

History can be viewed as a sequential series of indisputable events, whereas memory is of such events that are highly subjective, and affect the way in which they are perceived. The link between history and memory and the way it shapes the world around us, is a component of past and present. We are shown this throughout the prescribed text, The Fiftieth Gate, where through bakers quest we see the past continually impacting on the present, as the memories of the past affect those who have endured it. This key concept is also represented in the Channel Seven documentary, ‘Zero Hour- Disaster at Chernobyl’ and ‘Anzac Day commemorative Issue’, released by the Bulletin, 26th April 2005. All three