A Christmas Memory (Style)

Style

“A Christmas Memory” is a personal reminiscence which depends on first-person narration and the nostalgia of a rural Southern setting to evoke its mood. Its realism is supported by its straightforward, linear structure, while its use of lyrical language evokes the idea of a mythical past.

Point of View

The story employs a first-person narrator who is called Buddy, though we are also told that this is not his real name, but a name given to him by his friend. By telling us this, the narrator suggests that the story is not his alone, but also belongs to his friend, the other major character in the story. The advantage of the first-person point of view lies in its allowing us to experience the story as Buddy himself did. The description of Mr. Haha is not an objective view; rather it is the view of a seven-year-old boy: “he is a giant; he does have scars; he doesn’t smile.” The italicized words demonstrate the amazement and fear felt by seven-year-old Buddy. Likewise, what the narrator thinks of the others in the household comes through in his references to them. “Other people inhabit the house,” and his emotional distance is underscored by his using the generic term “people” and his refusal to give them personalities. His later reference to “those who Know Best” suggests his belief that they really do not know best. The fact that the narrator is an adult while he is telling the story is also significant, because it allows him to put his earlier memories into perspective and to understand events in ways which a seven-year-old boy could not: The adult narrator recognizes that his friend was “still a child.” The main disadvantage of first-person narration is its limited ability to portray others. The reader must rely on Buddy’s description of the woman, since her thoughts are never shown. Likewise, the reader cannot form valid judgments about the other family members because the point of view does not allow their perspective to be heard.

Setting

“A Christmas Memory” is set in the rural South during the early 1930s. This can be deduced from the fact that the story first appeared in 1956, and the narrator tells us it took place during the winter “more than twenty years ago.” This places the story during the Great Depression, a time of great poverty, which may explain why so many relatives are living in a house together, including a young boy without his parents. In reality, Capote spent several years with relatives while his mother sought work in other parts of the country. Furthermore, placing a nostalgic, “coming-of-age” story during the Christmas season, a time many people remember fondly, further emphasizes the story’s goal of evoking a warm, bittersweet reminiscence.

Structure

Partly because “A Christmas Memory” is a reminiscence, time is its dominant structural element. There are two time periods in the story: the present, in which the narrator relates the story, and the distant past, when the narrator was a boy. The narrator quickly moves the reader into the distant past by issuing a series of commands: “Imagine a morning in late November. . . . Consider the kitchen of a spreading old house.” At the climax of the story, as Buddy and his cousin fly kites on Christmas day, the narrator brings the reader back to the present: “This is our last Christmas together.” This sudden shift in time abruptly ends the story’s nostalgic mood, and in the several subsequent paragraphs that recount events leading up to the narrator’s present life, Capote quickly establishes a tone of bittersweet melancholy. By placing the main action of the story nearly twenty years before, that time is made to seem distant and remote. That Buddy’s cousin is no longer living by the end of the story further serves to emphasize the passing of time and the inability for people to return to the past.

Topics for Further Study

• What role does money play in “A Christmas Memory”? In what ways does the story suggest the economic hardship of the Great Depression, and how do the characters compensate for their lack of money?
• Write a brief story about a memory of your own. Now rewrite it from the viewpoint of someone who is not a central character in the story. How has your story changed? How would “A Christmas Memory” have been different if it had been told from the perspective of one of the other relatives in the household? How might the “rich mill owner’s lazy wife” have recounted the story of trying to buy the Christmas tree to her husband that night over dinner?
• Does the Southern setting of “A Christmas Memory” enhance or detract from the nostalgic quality of the story? What images come to mind when you think of the South, and how do these images compare to your experience of reading the story?