A Memoir: Growing Up By Russell Baker

Growing up by Russell Baker, is a Memoir that depicts the life of the author and how he obtained success despite facing numerous hardships. It was ultimately through the guidance and teachings of those around him, which perpetuated Russell’s choices in life. The most influential person in Russell’s life has to be his mother Lucy, who has sacrificed so much of her life to allow her son to live a better one. His mother played such an important role in his life that when she becomes senile forgetting everything, Russell must feel as though the past is somehow disappearing. By putting down in words the struggles that he and his mother have faced, Russell allows countless people to learn and experience what his mother is forgetting.

From a young age, Russell aspired to live life the easiest way plausible and not work a day in his life. His mother on the other hand had different views on what Russell would be doing with his life. Lucy scolded Russell for being too carefree and made him get a job as a paperboy. Russell despised this arduous work and always came home not having sold all his papers which infuriated his mother. A while later though, after reading one of Russell’s school assignments, his mother asked him if writing

No one else had partook in the challenges that life had thrown at Russell other than Lucy, because she was always there. It is hard for Russell to process this and he asks her several times out of disbelief if she recognizes him. How could a parent not know their own child’s name? Russell is having to cope with all these feeling at once, but instead of letting his mom slip into senility, he does something to ensure she never forgets. Every moment in Russell’s life that he can recall, as well as those from his mother’s that she has told him about gets put down in