Bringing It All Together

By now you have read a personal narrative with regard to nostalgia, a film analysis
directed at identifying nostalgia, and a brief discourse dealing mostly with memory and emotion
two core aspects of nostalgia. I think that these all blend together to give a somewhat
comprehensive look at what happens when we experience nostalgia. With the fact that emotions
are a primitive function of the system that helps us react to the world around us and the fact that
our memories are the products of a complex system which has errors, I think that nostalgia
comes from moments that we know (or think we know) to be true. With these true moments
emblazoned in our minds, certain emotions stir around them and give even greater meaning to
the already precious memories.
My reason for the aspect of truth in nostalgic memory comes from the four ways I looked
at memory in the films, and also from the dialogue that I have with my friend in the personal
narrative section of this project. With the dialogue there is social recognition of the shared event,
there are two or more minds that can reconstruct the memory (albeit from different perspectives)
to give a more comprehensive view of the event. Furthermore, the fact that each member of the
conversation has a similar emotional connection to that memory contributes to the feeling of
experienced something bigger than the individual. This was something that affected more than
just the individual, but multiple people, and it is something that establishes a bond between them.
This bond goes on to be defined by such events, and the inclusion of each member in different
nostalgic events strengthens that bond more with each event. These events dont have to be
purely positive either (although it surely helps). From my own personal example, the day at
Hash-Bash during our freshmen year of college was a great, happy day for everyone. On the
other hand, the day I had to say goodbye to my friend wasnt happy at all, it was very sad in fact.

But each of those events strengthened the bond of friendship between Alex and me. But of
course this social confirmation isnt restricted to friends, it can be within school-based
relationships, work-relationships, family relationships, partner-relationships, and the list goes on.
It all depends on the relationship before, during, and then after the eventand of course the
nature of the event itself.
When looking at the Film analyses we are given the notion of childhood. This is a more
uniquely personal aspect of nostalgia. While I assert that I believe everybody experiences
nostalgia in their own way, there is the additional aspect of the social sphere that influences
perception of that nostalgia. But, the more uniquely personal aspect of nostalgia is childhood
because it deals with things directly related to the earliest memories an individual has. These are
memories which whether truthful or not in reality of what happened, feel like the most truthful
memories an individual holds. Childhood memories will be debated between parents and
children, with both sides believing they are correct. The film Toy Story transports the audience
back to the time where toys could talk, and they had their own personalities. Imagination was
limitless, and for some people (like myself) imagination was all that was needed to have fun.
Childhood is a universally nostalgic thing for everyone in my opinion. It is the time that is likely
as simple as it life will ever be. Childhood is (should be) populated with memories of playing,
learning, and seeing. And all along the way children cant wait to grow up, to be big, and to be
able to voice their opinion and have it be respected. But (and this leads into another section) this
desire to grow up is based on a fantasy. And it is a fantasy that children can easily come up with,
but as an adult I can say that I never could have guessed what it would actually be like once I got
here. Besides, as children grow up they become conditioned for the experiences that they should
remember and pay attention to. All along the way they hear from adults, or see adults make a big

deal about different things. Things like birthdays, Christmas, (both in Toy Story) marriage,
having their own kids, academic achievements, sporting achievements (either as a fan or a
player), and the list could continue. Think about the events that you thought were really
important growing up. Was it getting straight As in school? Was it watching your favorite team
win a championship? Was it the day a sibling was born? How do you feel right now? Have you
gone back to your childhood yet? I have. With the first question I immediately thought of being
about six years old and talking with my Aunt Julie-Anne about needing to do well in school so I
could get scholarships so that I could go to the University of Michigan. I knew my family
wouldnt be able to afford it otherwise.
Another aspect of nostalgia that runs parallel to that social reinforcement I talked about
first is the cultural sentiment. When somebody shares a cultural belief or identifier with another
person, they can both go back to that moment and reminisce like old friends, even if they just
met. I guarantee if you pick a couple twenty-two year old people at random and stick them in a
room together they will find something to talk about. Perhaps it will be the old kids shows on
TV like original Pokmon, or Rugrats, or Pinky and the Brain. If you sit down with people who
lived through the Vietnam War, they would have a lot to talk about given the varying cultural
events and identifiers that they both share. The film The Incredibles does this through a retromodern design, but also through the use of bygone values and motifs. Everyone who lived
through 9/11 has a much different cultural marker for terrorism than people born after the
tragedy. I personally remember most coming home and all of the TV channels playing the same
thing. It was like some disaster movie where New York was being destroyed and there was a
global broadcast. But for those born after? They dont get that, and they probably dont even
realize the gravity of the event. Just like I will never know the feeling of finding out that Im

being drafted to go fight in Vietnam. But there is an entire generation of American men who
know that feeling, or at least know the feeling of the possibility. Films, and life experience
prepare us for these types of events by giving us examples of what they might be.
In the film Up we look at categorical nostalgia. The categories that these different
moments fit into. For the category of family there is fishing/playing catch with dad, getting
married, making mom dinner on mothers day, etc. Under friends we might expect to meet some
on the first day of school (anywhere), to have a best friend that you can tell secrets to, or to have
somebody who you can call anytime and anywhere when you need help. These arent the only
categories, but they give a general idea of what falls into these categories. There is some sort of
script written for everything. We have heard of so much history, and seen stories and ideas play
out on a screen so many times that we have engineered a way to categorize expected nostalgic
moments associated with anything in our lives. For instance, I have been taught that when my pet
dies, it will likely be one of the worst days of my life. If I hadnt seen that somewhere, or read it
somewhere, it might not be as bad as it will be. But I expect it to be sad already, which will only
increase my sad feelings about it. From seeing weddings on screen and in real life I know that
they are happy times, and an event that people remember for their entire lives. I know this
through personal experience of remembering every wedding Ive ever been to (I dont think they
will go away) and through the virtual experience of watching it on television or film.
The last area is that of pure fantasy. My single caveat to this is that there has to be a
human element. I dont think something can be so fantastic as to be unrecognizable as a human
creation and still evoke the nostalgic feeling. In Wall-E we have a protagonist that lives in a
world that has passed him by, with the outlook of a time-period long gone. It is impossible, and it
comes right from an imagined scenariobut a human imagined it. There are human elements

throughout that movie which mark it as such. When I think of the great trilogies: Star Wars and
The Lord of The Rings I see a world that doesnt exist. But I see a world populated by human
characters and characteristics. It is not so bizarre as to appear wrong or foreign. I understand the
stories, the monsters and magic clearly dont exist, but under the premise of a world where they
do it makes sense. And as I mentioned earlier in the childhood section, the imagination and use
of pure fantasy as a child allows us to be able to foster the appreciation for, and to feel nostalgic
about fantasy. Perhaps there is something about a fantasy novel that reminds you of your
childhood playtimes. In my case I used to take swords and broomsticks and insert myself into
any worldGreek Mythos, Middle-Earth, a Galaxy far, far awaythe list could go on. If you
can see yourself there then you can feel nostalgic for it. Every year I watch football religiously.
And every year, at some point, no matter how briefly, I always come back to a bittersweet feeling
about not playing football when I had the chance. I remember starting the weight training, and I
did a couple light practices, but then I quit. And I used to fantasize before then about playing
college football, and being an All-American badass. But now Im at the end of my college career,
and I couldnt even try to walk on at this point. That dream is over, crushed, dead. And thus, I
will get nostalgic about the opportunity lost, but find comfort in the fact that I never had a
concussion.
So with all of these things that feed into nostalgic feelings we are for better or not predisposed to nostalgia. If I had to give a reason, I would say to put our lives into perspective. Not
all memories make complete sense at the time they are encoded and stored. Sometimes they need
time to stew and eventually when the time comes for retrieval we can be overcome with emotion.
Emotions we might not have known we had regarding that memory. But while it is interesting to
think about the way we can become pre-disposed to nostalgia, I think the effect those memories

have after they are recognized as nostalgic is more interesting. Once people see that this event
whether known to be major at the time or notbrings out strong emotion connections, they start
to think about why. They question the world around them, and the reasons certain things make
them feel happy, or mad, or sad, or even all three at the same time. I think it allows people to
know themselves better than they do already. And I think when people search for who they are it
is the best thing they can do. People struggle with identity issues, and not knowing what they
really want or dont want. Every step along the path to self-discovery and self-actualization is
crucial. And the world around us, be it in the memories we keep for ourselves, or the
relationships we form with others, or even the things we learn from movies and TV, all combine
to help define who that person is.
When people are struck by nostalgia they finally get a chance to sort through this whole
mess that has been made between memories and emotions. They also get a chance to grow,
because in my experience once nostalgia is realized, I have grown from it in some way. It is
unfortunate that we cannot practice nostalgia, but then we might know ourselves too well and the
adventure of life would be less worth the living. Nostalgia can be thought of like checkpoints
through life. Each one is important, but you must move forward. Remember the moment you
were there, but it does not do to well dwell in nostalgia. It isnt the type of thing that needs to be
experienced every day, in fact that would disqualify it as nostalgia I think. Hold on to your true
memories, and as you grow so will theythat, is nostalgia.

Research List

Bird, B. (Director). (2004). The incredibles [Motion picture on DVD]. Disney/Pixar.

Docter, P. (Director). (2009). Up [Motion picture on DVD]. Disney.
Hock, R. (2009). Forty studies that changed psychology: Explorations into the history of
psychological research (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Lasseter, J. (Director). (1995). Toy story [Motion picture on DVD]. Disney/Pixar
Lilienfeld, S. (2011). Psychology: From inquiry to understanding (2nd ed.). Boston:
Pearson/Allyn & Bacon.
Oltmanns, T., & Emory, R. (2012). Abnormal Psychology (7th ed.). Pearson.
Stanton, A. (Director). (2008). WALL-E [Motion picture on DVD]. Walt Disney/Pixar.