Theatric Narrative Flags Of Our Fathers Analysis

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History only briefly documents personal experience, hence a real understanding of the individual’s emotions are not elucidated. Through the fine balance between both historical documentation and the individual’s experiences, the development of an accurate perception of past events is enabled. In Mark Baker’s literary memoir The Fiftieth Gate and director Clint Eastwood’s notable theatric narrative Flags of Our Fathers (2006), the daunting atrocities during World War II is represented through mosaics of distinctive personal stories, emphasised by the juxtaposition in the interpersonal relationships between tranquility and conflict. In doing so, both texts accomplish a common purpose of exploring the composer’s views of the past through carefully …show more content…

Baker uncovers the capacity of memory to humanise history, leading to the limitations of history in discovering the ultimate objective truth. He interweaves the representation of memory within the construction of history through his stream of consciousness, “I turn to archives to fill the blank spaces in my father’s” to produce a more authentic recount. By using history as a backdrop to personalised stories, Baker is able to produce a more authentic recount of past events, gaining a deeper understanding of his culture and its relevance to his identity. Structured on the Midrash text, Baker provides individualised anecdotes formed upon the basis of cultural memory in his italicised testaments, “smell of decay…doors are closed, our eyes look upwards at the showerheads praying for a stream of water”. The use of olfactory imagery correlates to the synonymous portrayal of the Holocaust where the inverse effects of dramatic irony enables the reader to amalgamate the accuracy between memory and its significant counterpart, history. Furthermore, Baker’s use of repetition in “fecks, fecks, fecks” personalises Yossl’s cultural up-holdings that shape his trivial anecdotes as Baker’s verified facts of history ultimately bridges the gaps and presents a more