Peter Quinn begins his essay “In Search of Banished Children” by describing how memories are one of a kind to every single person since they shape us differently. In the essay, Quinn mentions how “the event that first bought [his] family to America [was] the Great Famine of the 1840s” (43). Quinn is aware of how his family came to the United States since he knows the broad history and shares the same reasoning as many other Irish immigrants; however, he can not relate to the event based on memory because he has not experienced it himself, therefore it does not shape him emotionally. The memories of immigration to Quinn are “an intravenous inheritance” (42) rather than something he has actually experienced firsthand.
Quinn also mentions his father’s recounting of how Quinn’s great-grandfather and great-uncle almost reunited during the Civil War (45). However, upon hearing the story, Quinn realizes that though the story may be true, but he believes it as more of a “romantic embellishment” (45) in his relatives’ lives. Though besides some stories being more embellished than others, there are stories that have not been told because they do not want to be recalled. For example, Quinn notes how even if there was an opportunity for a survivor of the Irish Famine to tell his accounting, it is unsure where many would (47). To some, the Irish Famine does not need to be recalled because of how it forced people to emigrate to the United States because there was no food. To most of the Irish immigrants of the time, living through the Famine was communal –everyone experienced it. There was no need to recall it because the community suffered together. Unlike history, rather than symphatizing with each other, the people shared the fear and health conditions.
Memory unlike history recalls memories that are unique to each person which include all the five senses and emotions. History, on the other hand, is more like a line rather than a ring, meaning that history describes an event in the most straight, general way, whereas memories try to see and link everything about an event together. Quinn started the essay by talking about memories because he wanted to emphasize how difference between memory and history and how much stronger it is than history. Memories do not romanticize emotions, instead they are much more raw. Though, history allows you to be aware of the time period, it will not let you imagine life as a person in the time period, but rather as an onlooker.
