Most people are very confident that they have memories of past experiences because of the event itself or the bigger picture of the experience. According to Ulric Neisser, memories focus on the fact that events outlined at one level of analysis can be components of other, larger events (Rubin 1). For example, you will only remember receiving your acceptance letter as a reminder of being accepted to the University of Virginia. However, people don't realize that it's actually the small details that make up their memories. What constitutes the memory of being accepted to the University of Virginia are the hours spent writing essays, the anxiety faced out of fear of not being able to get into college, and the happiness upon hearing of your admission to the school; these small details are very important to create memories of this experience. If people's minds are preset to simply think that memories are the general idea of ​​their experiences, memories will become very superficial and people will miss what matters most in life. Therefore, in “The Amityville Horror,” Jay Anson deliberately includes small, unnecessary details in the story to demonstrate that only memory can give meaning to life. There are many small details in this story. Anson includes many small details in character descriptions such as “Father Mancuso walked away from his window. His head hurt. His stomach hurt from flu cramps. The priest was sweating” (75) and “A man, who appeared to be thirty-five to forty-five years old due to his receding hairline, stood there with a hesitant smile on his face. His features were coarse and his nose was red from the cold” (42). Other small details include Kathy's actions throughout the story....... middle of the paper......ories at 112 Ocean Avenue and this causes them to drastically change their lives; they decide to move to the other side of the country. Life is short, so you should start making good memories now to live a meaningful and fulfilling life. Works Cited Anson, Jay. The Amityville Horror. New York: Pocket, 1977. Print. McGaugh, James L., and Aurora LePort. “I remember all things past.” ScientificAmerican 310.2 (2014): 40-45. Academic research completed. Network. May 3, 2014. My Amityville Horror. Dir. Eric Walter. Perf. Daniel Lutz, Susan Bartell, Laura DiDio. Film Regions International, Inc and Lost Witness Pictures, LLC, 2011. Documentary. Ranpura, Ashish. “How we remember and why we forget.” Brain Connection (2000). Rubin, David C. “Nested Structure in Autobiographical Memory.” Autobiographical memory. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986. 71-81. Press.