help me understand what this quote means

Question

0 I have to write a paragraph in agree/or disagree with this quote by W.E.B. DuBois " Memory fails especially in small details, so that it becomes finally but a theory of my life"0-

Chilledsoup · Accepted Answer

0 someone please help me the assignment is due tom. I still do not understand the quote0-

Clive · Answer

0Hi,02br
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00Welcome to the Forum.02br
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01font00"Memory fails especially in small details, so that it becomes finally but a theory of my life"02font02br
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01font00We think of 01i00memory02i00 as a very personal. intimate and reliable thing. 02font01font00On the other hand, a 01i00theory 02i00is not personal, it's just an abstract description. A theory may be right, or it may be wrong, it's just a possibility. The writer is contrasting these two words.02font02br
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01font00I see the meaning of the line as this. As you get old, your memories becomes unreliable. Finally, you are not even sure if the things you remember, and the details about them like why you did this or that, are true or not. Maybe they are just things that might have happened.02font02br
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00I like this line. It's true, interesting and clever. It's sad yet happy.02br
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00Best wishes, Clive 02br
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01font00 02font0-

Believer · Answer

0This is my take on his quote:02br
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00As you grow older, your memory fails and cannot remember the finer things about the events that have happened to you, so as you cannot remember the small details of the events, the events as you remember becomes less concrete than facts in nature but conjectures or theories in his mind that need to be proven. 02br
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00Or it can be said more simply, he gets older and his memory fails along his age, so he cannot remember exactly what is happening as they are happening and the facts of the events are not clear in his mind as can be told to have actually happened as they have. 0-

Pieanne · Answer

0In addition to what has already been said, I see the finer memories of what happened in the past as maybe the personal details. If your memory loses all these personal things, then you are left with an abstract, impersonal sketch of the/your past, a kind of "theory", since there is nothing personal left to it.0-

help me understand what this quote means

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