Autobiographies are written by people to recollect and record all of the instances in their life from the beginning to a certain point in their lives. Intentionally or not, some things about their life tend to be left out, which in the mind of the writer could have been irrelevant or mundane, thus not worth mentioning. Though the main purpose of an autobiography is to write about the events that happen in someone’s life, more often times than not, the author tries to convey an overall or implicit message through the illustration of life events. Likewise, through writing about his life’s events and what his process of thought was at each point in his life, Augustine tries to convey how God has been present in every instance of his life and how his God persisted in any form that made him a better person.

If I were to write an autobiography, I would likely include details in my life that are significant to a revelation I may get in my life, because that is what I feel is significant to me. I would include details about what life is like now and an overall picture of the context of which we live in today, because I know the struggle of having to interpret previous works and autobiographies to understand the past. Unlike Augustine and other past writers, I would try to include universal facts about life in this era, intertwining them with my thoughts about my life. With that being said, I feel that an excess of details that are insignificant and banal are unnecessary considering the expanse of the technology that exists now, where everything in the world is recorded in textual and pectoral detail. Therefore, I would write in a way that expresses my inner most feelings and would expect people to understand where I am coming from. For example, my life right now is nothing like how I expected it to be a year ago and staying in quarantine changed the way I used to view many things in life. In my autobiography, I would emphasise on my thoughts rather than what is already known, such as always wearing a mask and other safety precautions.

In a similar way, I believe that Augustine left out certain details unintentionally because he expected people of his time to know what he was trying to convey. It is likely that the thought of people in the future reading his confessions skipped his mind because he was focused on reflecting on himself, rather than how the way of life was at that time. He expresses his inner most, honest thoughts that led to him finally finding the essence of what he was looking for. Though he does include details about what life was like at the time, a broader picture in terms of context is not represented because he only talks about his own experiences. The main thing that is what influenced him to drift further and further way from God during his youthful life and the revelations has had up to the point in life where he found a true meaning to it. On the other hand, another way to look at it is that he may have intentionally left out parts of his life that contradict his belief that God is everywhere in the form of what increases his virtue. He could have overlooked such instances and illustrated only what he perceived to be acts of God and the way he writes about it makes it seem like that is the only explanation for things. Therefore, there are many perspectives it could be looked at rather than just one obvious thing.

Overall, from the point of view that Saint Augustine wanted to illustrate his revelations in life in a deep and honest way, I think that he has done a brilliant job because it gives a fascinating look into his own life and how his mind was influenced by the society. I believe that this was his main intention, so it makes sense that he would leave out certain details because he includes intricate details in what he was trying to convey. Historians have tried to figure out the history of Late Antiquity by interpreting his writing in the way that best made sense to them, however one cannot know for sure how life and the minds of people were back then because we have to rely on other people’s perceptions of things rather than the facts themselves.