Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Literature that reveals the story of a person’s life can be told in memoir, autobiography, or biography. What distinctions among each of these genres should readers bear in mind while reading? Consider elements such as voice, tone, style, and authenticity in your response.

Teaching Suggestion: Biography, when contrasted with autobiography or memoir, is the story of a person’s life as told by someone who is not that person. Autobiography is a first-person account, but it is typically told in a straightforward, chronological order and encompasses the person’s factual life history. Finally, memoir is told as a first-person account of the author’s life experiences, but it is structured around memory, theme, or other narrative elements the author chooses. In this way, memoir offers more authorial control over the telling of one’s own story. As a linear narrative that begins with the author’s childhood, Becoming is autobiographical; however, the text includes strong elements of memoir, and consequently this prompt may serve as an opportunity to introduce the overarching theme of The Importance of One’s Own Story.