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Sally Student

Instructor Allyson Jones

English 110

17 January 2011

The Nature of Memory in “Stepping on My Brother’s Head”

In his personal essay, “Stepping on My Brother’s Head,” Charles Schuster retells

a strange incident remembered from his childhood and ponders the nature of memory.

He provides background for the incident by describing what his life was like growing up

in a lower middle class Jewish family as the youngest child. His story reveals his

insecurities about his relationship with his family. He remarks, “I was never favored by

my parents, not really” (6). Schuster often felt like the odd child in his family and was

jealous of his older brother, who was his father’s favorite child.

After providing many details from his childhood, Schuster tells the story that

gives the essay its name. While watching television one night with his family, Schuster

rises to get something, forgetting that his brother is stretched out on the floor next to the

sofa. He places his foot on his brother’s head and puts his full weight on it. Schuster

thinks that he remembers his brother screaming and crying, although the memory is

unclear.

Schuster has continued to worry about the significance of this incident for fifty-

three years, wondering if stepping on his brother’s head was a subconscious expression of

his jealousy. Readers can relate to the author’s anxiety because all people have memories

that haunt them, often unnecessarily. Schuster decides to call his brother and apologize

and is shocked to learn that his brother has no recollection of the event. Based on this
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experience, Schuster argues that memory is “a notoriously unreliable source” (12). He

also wonders whether or not it matters if an event actually occurred because the memory

of an event is all that a person is actually left with.

Schuster’s essay contains extremely detailed memories of his childhood that

become repetitive at times. Still, his essay has a very interesting argument. I agree with

Schuster that our memories are not like films or photographs of the past. They are

unreliable and likely to change over time. Nonetheless, memories are the foundation of

our identity. Schuster’s story about his brother provides evidence that whether or not a

memory is accurate, it matters.