In her memoir Moments of Being, Virginia Woolf recalls a sailing trip she experienced when she was younger. He's walking through the boring streets of London when he thinks of something more exciting. It turns out that afternoon sailing is better than the walks he takes, and he begins to talk about specific memories of his seaside experience. The language she uses here brings out the importance of the moment by using long sentences, describing everything with great detail and imagery, and reflecting on how the experience affects her as she walks the streets of London. With this language, Woolf writes to remember and capture the feelings she felt in her past memories and to definitively justify her existence, based on the title of her memoir, Moments of Being. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Many times, Woolf uses long sentences to make small moments of memory seem longer than they actually were. Long sentences make the piece feel longer and overall create the feeling of a lasting memory. An example can be found in lines 13-19, “Sometimes we are handed lines; triggered by morsels cut from the fish; and the line trembled in his fingers as the boat tossed and darted through the water; and then - how can I explain the excitement? - there was a little tug; then another; on a towed one; through the water came the writhing white fish; and was slapped to the ground. This exceptionally long sentence reveals the tone one would have when talking about a past experience. Without pauses and maintaining a constant order of short sentences, the author creates the sensation of a fast memory that is slowed down to capture the entire moment. By slowing the reader down, Woolf is able to emphasize the importance of the moment and does so by forcing the reader to linger in the passage. Woolf then proceeds to incorporate great details into particular thoughts resulting in images for the reader. In doing so, the reader can see how Woolf covers all aspects of her memories and reveals how strong she is in her mind. In lines 6-10, the author describes Thoby as bringing them back to shore: “And Thoby took the fisherman's place; and steered; flushed and with very blue eyes, and a tight mouth, he sat there, taking us behind the point, into the harbor, leaving only the flag of the sail. He then goes on to talk about jellyfish in lines 10-12: “One day the sea was full of pale jellyfish, like lamps, with flowing hair; but if you touched them they would sting you." Both examples recognize the strength in Woolf's mind to remember a moment that was significant to her. The images also allow the reader to see the moment, as if peering into the author's brain to look at the specific flashback and have it resonate in the mind. Through both understanding and imagery, the reader allows for a deeper thought process about what was happening in Woolf's eyes. Towards the end of the short passage, Woolf moves on to reflect on what her father said to her on the journey. He believes that from that memory he remembers what passion feels like, that it is something that has the power to change the way a person's life could have been. Woolf mentions this idea in lines 33-38: “It is one of those priceless seeds, from which… something can be grown which represents other people's experiences. Often you have to settle for seeds; the seeds of what could have been, if life had been different. Including closing thoughts allows the reader to see how the memory affects them even if it is in the past. The memory follows her through the streets of London with “momentary glances”.