In the novel Confessions, Saint Augustine describes his life and his path on the journey to conversion to Christianity in late 300 AD. However, the autobiography does not provide much details about the setting of the described events or about the daily life of Augustine. Day to day life during this time was very different from our lives today, therefore, it would have been interesting to be given a first hand account of what life during this time was like. A description of Augustine’s basic daily activities, clothing styles, methods of transportation, eating habits and other such tasks would have provided us with much more insight into the historical context of this time period. Instead, Augustine highlights only the most influential events in his life and his mentality throughout these experiences.

From my perspective, I believe that the things people do on a daily basis and the small details of peoples’ lives, such as their tasks, interests, styles and other such things make up a huge part of a person’s character. The things that a person does on a consistent basis lead them to feel a certain way, act a certain way, and have certain outlooks on life. Although major events mark milestones and are a large contributor to a person’s character or life, I do not believe that only major events or periods in peoples’ lives make up who they are as a whole. It is the entire experience of life, including the small and consistent details,  that contributes to a person’s character, mentality and lifestyle. However, I can also relate to Augustine’s disregard for the small details of life in that I do not always think critically about the things I do on a day to day basis. For example, if I were writing a book about my life in the 21st century I would most likely unintentionally leave out a lot of details about my daily technology use. Since using my phone, computer, kitchen appliances and so on is so common for me, I would most likely not provide a detailed account of these activities in my writing. However, historians of the future would be immensely interested in the technological advances of our time, especially ones that people use habitually. I may also be inclined to not provide the details about technology in the 21st century because it does not particularly interest me. If I were writing a book about myself and my life, I would be sure to highlight the things I like to do with my day such as go to the beach, hangout with my friends and go on walks, most of which I do daily. I would also provide details on the clothing I wear and the food I eat. I believe that these sorts of daily activities are what shape our personalities and would be crucial when giving a first account of what life was like during a time period. 

In his writing, Augustine does not provide much detail about what daily life in late 300 AD looked like. I believe Augustine unintentionally leaves out routine details because it appears to me that he finds such activities irrelevant to the making of a whole person, especially spiritually. Augustine seems to be consumed by the deeper meaning of significant events and his personal feelings about the various aspects of life. He is not amused by and does not see the significance of most of the physical things that are around him or his day-to-day tasks, and therefore does not feel the need to mention them in great detail. These things are simply normalities in his life; his attention is focused on spirituality and the major good or bad events in his life that he believes have shaped his moral character, have been important on his path to conversion and have influenced the person he became. Despite Augustine’s reluctance to provide us much detail about the historical context of this time period, the novel does provide us with some insight into the type of education a person would get, some aspects of the social structure and the strong influence of God, spirituality and religion on people that lived during this time. 

Based on our knowledge of how different life was in late 300 AD compared to the 21st century, it would have been ideal for Augustine to provide us with a more detailed account of his day to day life. These small, yet significant, details would have provided us with a much better context to the situations that he describes and would provide a lot more imagery. Instead his fixation on certain events or periods of time in his life and how these events influenced his thinking and relationship with God, leaves the reader to paint their own picture of what life at this time may have looked like. In some ways, this makes reading the book a bit more engaging, instead of being explicitly told the details of every story, the reader gets to fill in the gaps with their own context and setting of the events. I believe that Augustine leaves these details out unintentionally, however, this characteristic of the novel Confessions provides us with insight into what was truly important to Augustine, how these events and or people made him feel and what ultimately led to his conversion.