What Is The Loss Of Memory In The Lost Mariner

Life is full of memories. It makes each individual unique as each person experiences their own memories. Although many people share similar experiences, they all experience it from different perspectives. Many children attends school, some go to different schools, but they share similar experiences as having recess, lunch, and doing homework. The routine and essence of school breathe familiarity to many kids who have gone to school. Memories play a crucial factor to an individual’s status or identity. Much like the captain of the football team and the bookworm, they reflect upon their memories identifying themselves as the jock or the nerd. The memories help in coherence to the identification of the self. The self, or the individual, is
Memories are an essential cognitive function in the brain can be referred to as a quantum holographic phenomenon. Memories and experiences shifts through the passage of time. They help shape the self as individuals. It provides the foundation for each unique self. Many people will try and cling onto the memories they hold so dear. They’d write diaries, journals, take and keep photographs, etc. In “The Lost Mariner,” in The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks, illustrates the loss of one’s memory is also a tragic loss of self. An ex-sailor named Jimmie G, has the Korsaoff’s syndrome, which is a chronic memory disorder. He suffers from severe memory loss and retrograde amnesia caused by heavy alcoholism. Jimmie G transferred from Bellevue, to a nursing home in Greenwich Village; he had been sent to The Home for the Aged. This is where he meets the neurologist, Oliver Sacks. Jimmie G’s first meeting with a neurologist was in 1975. He was 49 years old. The Allied forces have been triumphant in the Second World War that had just ended. When asked what year it is, he responded, “Forty-five, man. What
It helps guides us to make future decision as we learn from our past. It helps constructs us into individuality. In the tragic case of Jimmie G, he lost his self with his inability to gain future memories. Events of his life, while he was alive, are forever lost to the depths of his retrograde amnesia. He is in a constant struggle to find meaning and happiness while continuously forgetting what he is doing from one instant to the next. Memories shifts and guide us to where we want or need to go in life. Without it, we are just lost like Jimmie. The ability to have past memories gives us the power to shape who we are and provide us with an identity. If I remember something unpleasant about me in the past, I can learn from it and be better than that for my future self. Memory is a powerful tool to direct us to the path we want to follow so we are not in a constant state of the present, but move or drives us