Have you ever thought of how short a life narrative can be? Is it possible to have an ideal length for it? While we naturally assume that a proper life narrative should have at least 200 pages as we think of the stack of memoirs in bookstores, we will be surprised by how Larry Smith, the editor and publisher of SMITH Magazine, challenges our understanding of life narrative by introducing the Six-Word Memoirs.

Inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s emotional, intriguing and complete six-word novel “For sale: baby shoes, never worn”, Larry Smith hosted the Six-Word Memoir project to challenge the “famous and obscure” to write their life stories in exactly six-words. This project has taken the world by storm that it has generated half a million memoirs.

One of the biggest features of six-word memoir is its minimalist style. It highly stresses on the precision of word choice. Writers have to make every word counts by choosing the most appropriate word or phrase to represent them. A war memoir: “Left as boy; home wounded human” is a case in point. Here, the writer concludes the damage he had after putting his life on the line for years in war. First, he uses “boy” and “human” to depict his long service in warfare that raised him up from a little innocent child into a mature adult. Besides, by using “human” instead of “man”, he devalues himself as a mere biological who has lost his ability to work and simply function like his uninjured male counterpart after the trauma. Second, the contrast of “left” and “home” tell us about his feeling of war. “Left” is a voluntary action, it means the writer is zealous for serving the country in the war at first. However, as time goes by, his longing for warmth, stability and care build up that he is so pleased to leave the war field and be home now. This story exemplifies that even though there are only six words, a complete and dynamic story can be told. The Six-Word Memoir encourages us to make the most of our words and remind us: Less is more.

In addition, this project gives an answer to one of the questions from my ASTU class: Who have the authority to write a memoir? As Smith would answer, everyone. He mentioned that “There is inspiration everywhere. Even if you don’t think you’re a storyteller, you are.”  For long, we have come to accept that most auto/biographies are written by famous people or those who have phenomenal experiences. Their fruitful lives provide endless sources for them to write up a whole book. For people who live an ordinary life like the most of us, however, may find it difficult to tell an inspiring life story, let alone to write a memoir. Yet, through this simple self-expressing platform offered by six-word memoir, memoirists can be heard even if they have not achieved anything tremendous and memorable in their lives. The lowered threshold of memoir length opens up an new arena that gives voice to ordinary writers. This makes life narratives an approachable genre rather than a prestigious form of writing.

While six-word memoirs favors lots of novice ordinary writers and introduces a new form of life narrative, it also raises some concerns. Frederick A. Wright in his study of six-word story argues that “A reader may sense that there is a story behind the six words and may even want to know what the story is, but that doesn’t make the six words themselves a story” (336). Indeed, these condensed memoirs leave out a lot of voids that have to be filled by readers’ imagination. More often than not this may result in misinterpretation and misjudging to the story. Sometime writers will have to provide readers with extra information so that they can have a full picture of who they are. For example, a memoir: “Desiring invisibility, she revealed his abuse” is supplemented by a 291-word behind six backstory. It is when readers read the extended story that they know the writer is working to help her student who lives in the shadow of sexual abuse.

Certainly, six-word memoirs appeal to both readers and writers in this fast paced world. Nonetheless, this new type of memoir cannot replace the traditional detailed and lengthy life narrative given its incompleteness in storytelling.

Works Cited

Wright, Frederick A, “The Short Story Just Got Shorter: Hemingway, Narrative, and the Six-Word Urban Legend.” Journal of popular culture 47.2 (2014): 327–340. Wiley     Online Library. Web. 21 Nov 2015

Smith, Larry. SMITH Magazine Six-Word Memoirs. SMITH Magazine, 2005. Web. 21 Nov. 2015

Malala’s memoir “I am Malala” published in 2013 is a huge commercial success and aroused wide awareness towards women right. Yet, it also brings up the concern about the representation of life narratives.

On October 9, 2012, the news of Malala being shot by Taliban militants took the world by storm. One year later, Malala published the memoir called “I am Malala” co-wrote by a foreign correspondent in Afghanistan, Christina Lamb, about her childhood story and her journey to girls’ rights advocacy inspired by her father after the shot. This book has received critical acclaim and topped the New York Times bestsellers list. Being translated into 40 languages, the book provides readers around the world a window into the mysterious life of Afghan women under the oppression of Taliban. Her memoir is extremely powerful in the field of girls’ education for it repeatedly asserts the importance and advantage of education by saying that “our books and our pens, they are the most powerful weapons.” As a result of that, Malala has mobilized and invited millions of readers in the West who take education for granted to join the campaign for the girls’ right to education (Bhutto).

Malala’s memoir exemplified the power of individual life narratives to extend discussion beyond into cultural, social and historical context. The epigraphy of the book, “To all the girls who have faced injustice and been silenced. Together we will be heard” suggests that the memoir is not only her personal story, but also the story of countless girls who do not have the chance to go to school. In this case, Malala recognized and represented others, and brought individual narrative to collective rights discourse.

However, there are two sides to every coin. Although it is well received in the western society, the reception of her memoir in her home country Pakistan is remarkably discouraging. The book “I am Malala” was banned in all Pakistan private school for not respecting Islamic culture and religion. It was also being accused for denigrating her country by portraying it as a conservative, unjust, repressive and doomed prison as opposed to the liberal and well-developed and ideal West. Her memoir, therefore, is interpreted as the plea for “western-led ‘emancipation’ of the Muslim world from within.” (Brar, 3). As denounced by the president of The All Pakistan Private Schools Management Association, Malala is “representing the West, not us.”

Ironically, Malala who is praised as a heroine in the West is at the same time deemed as the enemy in the eyes of Afghan, who she speaks on behalf of. This raised the question about the role and purpose of life narratives. Who is the audience of her book that she is trying to accommodate? Has the memoir become propaganda for the West to promote their ideals as suggested by Whitlock (3)?

By choosing to include detailed historical background in her book, it is obvious that Malala intended to target at Western readers who are not familiar  at and needed to be told about the history. Her memoir also entails a western presupposition that Islam women are weak and oppressed by the country in order to illuminate the exceptionality of Malala. Hence, outspoken and courageous Malala is to speak against the unjust, her image is actually being used as the manifestation of Western stereotype on Afghanistan. In the sense of representation, the book turns out to be far from its original objective which is to speak for uneducated girls in Afghanistan.

Attempting to appeal to western readers at the expense of her own country may also make the memoir a political tool, or what Whitlock called as propaganda. Nevertheless, propaganda can be a double-edged sword. No one can deny the success of the book in promoting girl’s education. It even brought about college programs that engage students to rethink the value of educating women based on the book (Morrison). Realistically, it is reasonable for the book to cater Western audiences given that Afghanistan government is incapable  to provide education for girls while western society has both the economic power and aspiration to help. Appealing to the west is far more effective in achieving the goal of universal girls’ education.This, despite the risk of being propaganda, it seems that the positives, for now, are outweighing the negatives.

In this study of “I am Malala”, I find it absolutely pivotal to look at the social implications, the effect of representation and the reaction of readers from different perspectives when reading life narratives. What is important is not the content of the book, but how it is presented to readers.

Work cited

Bhutto, Fatima. “I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai – review.” The Guardian 30 October 2013: n. pag. Web. 7 Nov 2015.

Brar, Miranda. “The Nation and Its Burka Avenger, the ‘Other’ and its Malala Yusafzai: The Creation of a Female Muslim Archetype as the Site for Pakistani Nationalism”. The Journal of Historical Studies 30.1 (2014): 1-8. University of Toronto Mississauga. Web. 7 Nov 2015.

Morrison, Debbie. “I am Malala: A Review of the Book and Its Implications for Education”. Online Learning Insights, 25 Nov 2014. Web. 7 Nov 2015.

Whitlock, Gillian. “Branding: The Veiled Best-seller.” Soft Weapons: Autobiography in Transit. Chicago: University Of Chicago, 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2015

Yousafzai, Malala, and Christina Lamb. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot By the Taliban. New York : Little, Brown and Company, 2013. Print