Analyse the ways history and memory generate compelling and unexpected insights. In your response, make detailed reference to your prescribed text and at least ONE other related text of your own choosing. History and memory are both multifaceted ideas that are challenged continually. History is often perceived as fact, in the recount of an event or retelling of a story that did in fact, take place. Through study however, it becomes clear that history is a consequence of memory, which makes it unreliable and changed by circumstance.
In this selection from the autobiography of Malcolm X titled “My First Conk”, readers will find out about Malcolm X's first real step towards what he calls “self-degradation”. Although there is no exact thesis stated in the excerpt there are still clear points stated throughout the reading. When Malcolm X wrote this piece the idea was to show the reader how society can make one feel like they must change to be considered better than who and what an individual really is. It is also expressed that one's individuality can be taken away and the negative outcomes one can struggle with after that change. It is described that society can be a truly horrifying thing and the ways men and women try to fit in can be both shameful in the long
Each author’s method in integrating the oral history may be different and, to some degree, inadequate, but the presence of oral accounts in their essays give voice to different perspectives of that time. It is evident, then, that altogether the oral history in each essay holds value and plays a significant role in the integrity of each argument. We must be careful, however, to fully accept the perspectives and arguments the author presents to us as definitively as any individual identity in any historical account, including the author, has the power to misinterpret and miscommunicate historical accounts accidently or
It is a defense of studying each historical period on its own terms, and not imposing one's own moral and social standards on figures and situations that existed with, perhaps, a different set of ethical and cultural concerns. Butterfield’s text described historians who project modern attitudes on to the past, pass moral judgments on historical figures, and regard history as significant only to the extent that it labored to create the modern world. Such judgments are viewed as problematic because they tempt historians not to understand the past on its own terms. Butterfield argues that historians should write aesthetically rather than polemically, exercising "imaginative sympathy" in appreciating the lost worlds of the dead rather than seeking, or expecting, the vindication of their own current positions (92). The "Whig interpretation," as Butterfield calls it, sees history as a struggle between a progression of good libertarian parties and evil reactionary forces, failing to do justice to history's true complexity.
Paper Number 2: Gaddis Chapter Six While reading Gaddis’ chapter six, he focused on how to question causation. He uses E.H. Carr’s fatal flaw as a big example for the distinction of “rational” and “accidental” causes. Gaddis also gives an alternative view on procedures of causation, and additional procedures historians need to keep in mind when narrate the reality of history. Carr explains rational causes as, “lead to fruitful generalizations and lessons can be learned from them.” While he says that accidental causes, “teach no lessons and lead to no conclusions.” Gaddis claims that Carr clearly confused himself as well as his readers about the differences between the two. Gaddis claims that not explaining clearly the distinction between rational and accidental causes is the more serious problem with Carr.
Every past event is not just the text in books, there probably would never be a completed record. Sometimes, the so called “official records” could be just a small part of the fact or fake. So history, rather than retelling story from the documents, is the act of selecting, analyzing, and drawing a relatively accurate portrayal of the fact. I guess this is the main idea that the authors are trying to make for us, and this is also the case with Silas Deane's life and death. Silas Deane was a minor American diplomat to France.
Danticat points out the US government‘s justification for detaining and deporting Haitian asylum seekers is because Haiti harbors Pakistani and Palestinian terrorist. Danticat finds this justification not valid enough to detain and deport Haitians because the government could not offer any proof that these assumptions were true. I know because Danticat shows us how so many Haitians were deported without any cause or proof. 4. Danticat hoped reader learned and saw another side of American immigration policies and how the government handles some of its immigrants.
The vision that Vaughn was given to his readers it’s not like that anymore. According to John Higham he says in his book, New Directions in American Intellectual History that Vaughn may have written this book before the events in the sixties. Because it after a study it offered a different picture of the European-Indians encounters and their social issues. So Tompkins is now seeing that the sources that she thought would be helpful turned out to be very bias and not truth telling about the Puritans and
When over analyzing What Sacajawea Means To Me by Sherman Alexie, its clear that the text has far more meaning when it is broken down into different lens like Deconstructionist, Gender, Marxist, Postcolonial, and even with a Reader's Response. Written intentionally in different contexts the author really does make you question what does Sacajawea mean to oneself. Is she a heroine or a villainess? Did she do what was right or what was wrong, should she be praised or should she be blamed.. We will never exactly know, we can only assume what and why things happened the way the did by processing history through various perspectives. Sacajawea although being recognized as the “mother” of america, everything she is and does is considered a contradiction.
Twilight: Through Individual Eyes Words are often associated with a direct meaning, links to ideas and experiences an individual acquires over time. They can be somewhat ambiguous and more often than not, hold room for error and discrepancy. Moreover, authors find themselves struggling to nourish readers with prolific words that simultaneously enlighten their audience’s sense of awareness yet question their rooted understanding of that knowledge. Anna Deavere Smith skillfully chooses to include a wide range of individuals spanning different racial ethnicities, dialects, and walks of life in her interviews for Twilight. Allowing direct transcripts to be the sole content of the text provides readers with first-hand accounts on the disheartening