Donald Murray: “All Writing is Autobiography” Response

In the reading the author, Donald M. Murray is trying to make point out his view on his writings. He writes many different genre and indeed he still feels the same exact person. Which he calls his writing autobiographical. Throughout this reading he tried to persuade us by using one of his poems. This particular poem he wrote he was 64 and he remembered his childhood memories that helped him develop this poem. He believes that all writings are autobiographical. Donald M. Murray does make great point in page 67 he states “I have my own particular way of looking at the world and my own way of using language to communicate what I see.” This poem that he wrote reminded him of a childhood memory he had and didn’t recall this until he was writing this poem. Everyone has different opinions and believes that will make any writing very particular. He also pointed out that writing autobiography can be a form of how life was or is or can be. He stated “We become what we write” following he gave an example using his first pages of his novel. The reading is well develop with a great visual description, if I were to read his novel I would immediately believe he really had or was describing what he was seeing but turns out in reality he did have nor had the “green lawn” infant of him. Most of his writing in his novel was written based off how he view things.

The author does make good point about writing being autobiography but indeed many other writers may not use this technique. So with that saying I disagree with the author every writing does not have to be autobiographical but everyone write depending on their perspective.