Asher Sisneros

An essential element of a good autobiography is an understanding of the time. Autobiographies are equally stories and history books. That is the beautiful thing about them. They take the broader historical narrative and individualize it. Based on this presented axiom, weak historical accounts can diminish the book’s depth, i.e., if the writer isn’t conscious about explaining the environment, how people lived, world events, the mindset of individuals, etc., then they’re shooting themselves in the foot. So, what are some of the steps writers can take to prevent this? Short answer: Take notes. And that is what we’ll be exploring in this paper. 

Before taking any notes, they have to be attentive. Autobiography writers have to look around themselves and absorb everything. You cannot teach what you do not know. Similarly, you can’t write about what you don’t see. Before moving on, I should address the elephant in the room. There are countless pages of people writing about God. Even though we can’t see Him, people still write about Him. Doesn’t that undermine my argument that you can’t write about what you don’t see? I do not think so. For one, He has written about Himself in the bible. All theologically sound books about God and His nature base everything they say on the bible. Without the bible, there is no commentary on God. All these writings explain God’s account of Himself, using His account—the bible—to prove it. It would be presumptuous and superficial to compare autobiographies to biblical commentaries. Since autobiographies are originals, the writer must write about what he sees. More specifically, we’re talking about the environment of the world and times. The writer must always look at the world with a keen eye. In other words, they constantly take notes in their mind; they absorb everything. This point is most important. Be sure to capitalize on it. 

As for the notes themselves, one place to start is world politics. Look out for world catastrophes and monumental events. They may seem trivial at the time, but to a reader fifty years later, that may not be true. Wars, recessions, uprisings, persecutions, and natural disasters are just a few examples. Two examples from my life are the Great Recession from 2007–2009 and Covid-19 in 2019. In both cases, my peers and I generally shrug in reaction to those events. They may spark bad memories, but we don’t think too deeply about it. However, those events will be in the history books. Autobiography writers would be wise to address those events and capitalize on them. 

Another thing is to pay attention to human reactions. Notice how groups respond to the monumental events I addressed in the last paragraph. Are everyone’s emotions and opinions the same? If not, how do they differ? People are interesting—groups are interesting—capitalize on that. 

The third thing to take note of is the lifestyle. As technology evolves, lifestyles will too. To give the reader insight into the times, we should take notes on our lifestyle and how it changes in our life. For example, my parents did not have access to the internet when they were kids. Now they do. Now you can hardly live without it. That is a huge lifestyle change. If they wrote an autobiography, they should address that, ring the cash register and capitalize on it. 

In conclusion, autobiographies must address the times. Autobiography writers can do that by being attentive, writing about world events, human reactions to those events, and lifestyles. All autobiography writers can do this. They just need to capitalize on it.