Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell explores the development of infamous assassination locations of three former United States presidents. Vowell visited the assassination locations of Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley while also making stops at areas that correspond to these assassinations- such as the path that John Wilkes Booth traveled after murdering Lincoln. The author details her experience with a refreshing amount of humor, but Vowell does not skip providing necessary historical context to provide the reader with the significance of the locations. On her trips, Vowell notes how these locations that play a significant part in American history have been transformed from infamy to, essentially, a family vacation pitstop or another tourist …show more content…
trap. Vowell examines how the sites of the three assassinations have been commemorated, celebrated, and exploited by American culture, as well as how they representative portrays assassinated presidents and the actual assassinations.
Ford’s Theatre is arguably the most notable location of a presidential assassination, not only because it was the first spot but also because of the president that was murdered. Nearly everything involving Abraham Lincoln has been romanticized, so it would only be expected for the spot of his assassination to be the most commemorated of the three mentioned presidents. The original interior of Ford’s Theatre collapsed in 1893, but because of the historical significance of the building it was restored by the National Park Service in 1968. Though Ford’s Theatre was important enough to restore, it was not of enough value to not to exploit. Ford’s Theatre now host regular theatrical productions alongside a museum dedicated to Lincoln’s assassination that is in the basement. The …show more content…
organization that produces plays in Ford’s Theatre is obviously exploiting the historical significance of the location by using Lincoln’s assassination as an attraction to sell more tickets. The other two presidents, McKinley Garfield, barely get any type of recognition with McKinley receiving a plaque , and Garfield not even getting a plaque in the location where he was shot. Americans have chosen to honor Lincoln, yet simultaneously the public has determined that the lives and roles of McKinley and Garfield are inferior. At least for McKinley and Garfield, they can rest assured that their deaths are not being exploited to sell play tickets. The way the assassinations are represented to the public is revealing to the public’s outlook on these presidential murders. The depiction of the assassination locations to the public displays how the public interprets the death and assassination of United States presidents.
It appears that the public does not genuinely care about the significance of a president being assassinated. The public honors and cherishes Ford’s Theatre because they romanticize Lincoln as a great American hero because of his role during the Civil War, while McKinley and Garfield are lucky to be mentioned in a high school history book. To the public, McKinley and Garfield are both footnotes in American history that barely deserve to have a plaque to signify where these leaders, chosen by the public, were murdered. Though Garfield is not worthy of a plaque, Americans have chosen to erect monuments to the events in history that they should be most ashamed of, such as slavery, yet honoring the former life of an elected president is not a selection that the public is passionate enough about to commemorate. Members of the public may choose to visit the locations where McKinley or Garfield were assassinated, but it appears it is more to say that they went rather than commemorate, or learn about, these presidents. Even with Lincoln, to some extent, the public has hidden the president in the basement of the theatre forcing his assassination to be more of an afterthought. Vowell admitted that she enjoyed the play she watched in the theatre more than she really should have while being within sight of where one of the United States’
most influential presidents was murdered. Ford’s Theatre has become more of a checked box for history buffs than an actual commemoration that can be appreciated by the public, or at least historians. The public’s interpretation of the assassinations portrays their expression of historical memory and connection. Assassination Vacation provides a great perspective on American culture and public history, while also revealing American historical memory and connection to sites of tragedy. Vowell’s Assassination Vacation displays how American culture if mostly disconnected from sites of tragedy unless those sites have a personal impact. Americans can be quick to move on after a presidential assassination or turn the assassination location into a tourist trap which may be worse. Vowell exposes how the public can forget, or ignore, the history of a location when convenient such as the history of Fort Jefferson. Fort Jefferson, or Dry Tortugas, was once a great military stronghold and later became one of the rough prisons in the United States. Today, tourist flock to Dry Tortugas on a, two hour each way, ferry for a chance to snorkel and enjoy the views even despite the $175 cost. Sites of tragedy should be preserved and not marketed like a roadside attraction. Locations of tragedy should be preserved, or in the case for Garfield at least monumented, and potentially turned into a museum. Museums do not need to be large or all encompassing but need to be able to fully cover a topic. Ford’s Theatre would provide a perfect opportunity for a museum dedicated to the last days of Lincoln’s life. Even changing the system of the current play production could be altered to better suit the event of the assassination. Simply making the plays produced be the play that Lincoln was watching before his death, or other plays that existed during or prior to that time. In other words, performing “The Wizard of Oz” is not appropriate for Ford’s Theatre. Sarah Vowell crafts her book, Assassination Vacation, perfectly to describe her experiences at infamous assassination locations by covering how these spots are presented to the public alongside the public’s opinion to the assassination. These locations have transformed from places of mourning to tourist traps, if they receive any recognition. The public views these locations as an attraction disguised as false remorse.
Just as actors are famous in America today, they were also famous in America’s 1880s. Back then movies and online videos did not exist, instead dramas and stage play occupied the American’s leisure time; well to do Americans that is. Everyone who knew anything about theater knew John Wilkes Booth. Born to actor parents, the stage’s spotlight became natural for John who debuted on stage at a young age. Now, in his thirties, people see a handsome, eloquent celebrity capable of delivering any line. Unfortunately, they don’t notice his didactic confederate sympathy or bubbling rage.
The book Murdering McKinley: The Making of Theodore’s America by Eric Rauchway examines the murder of President William McKinley and the assassin’s motives that impacted America. Rauchway also reveals to us the making of Theodore’s America through a tragic event to show us how Roosevelt gave it meaning through the start of the Progressive Era with his own political agenda. McKinley’s policies came to and end bringing open doors to new policies on social reform. The book is a well-constructed written book that presents to the reader the story of what had occurred chronologically from the beginning of the assassination to the end of the murder’s life. The main issues that are presented in the book include the assassination of the President and
Booth had got the news that the president would be at the Ford’s theatre. This was great news for john both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln will be there in the same place. “Booth heard the big news: in just eight hours the man who was the subject of all his hating and plotting would stand on the very stone steps here he now sat. “Booth began to plain his assassination without having to hunt for Lincoln. John had a deep hatred for Lincoln, he had hated the state that our country had been in.
In the annals of World's Fairs, the 1901 Buffalo fair is listed, as a matter of record. However, it is one of the lesser-remembered fairs. This is not due to a lack of planning or physical appeal, but rather to the fact that on September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot and killed at the Temple of Music. This was the kind of event that is so infamous and carries such bad press that it condemns everything it touches, from the setting, the surrounding events, and the people involved, to the same black blanket of notoriety. Due to the President's assassination, the popularity of the Fair spiraled downward. Despite the deploring of the Fair, however, it was home to some remarkable buildings.
Opening with the event of McKinley’s shooting and the man who shot him, Rauchway quickly zooms out, distancing us from the scene, reflecting on the political status of the President, who “in the instant before he was shot” had “stood at the peak of hi...
O'Reilly, Bill, and Martin Dugard. Killing Lincoln: The Shocking Assassination That Changed America Forever. New York: Henry Holt and, 2011. Print.
It is not a well known fact that around the time the Holocaust took place in Europe, another internment (less extreme) was taking place in the United States. “Betrayed by America” by Kristin Lewis gives readers an insight on what happened to Japanese-Americans in America. The article tells us about Hiroshi Shishima, Japanese-Americans internment, and what was going on during the regime. During WW2, America went into a frenzy after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Many Americans believed what was being said about Japanese-Americans even though it was proven to be false. Since the whole fiasco with Japan took place, many Japanese-Americans were forced into internment in certain parts of the United States. The reason for the internment of Japanese-Americans was due to fear & hysteria, racial
Sarah Vowell’s Take the Cannoli is a series of Vowell’s own personal stories of American life. “ Vindictively American,” is about Vowell’s experiences of how people in other countries view American culture. She wants to show that even though chaos goes on all around the country, there are still good sides to American life. A second story of Vowell’s is, “ Species-on-Species Abuse.” In this story Vowell talks about how commercialized Disney is. Everything is made to make life seem perfect, and issues seem to be gone when there. But in reality, there are major issues like school shootings going on across the country.
The influence family members can have on the development of a child is enormous; they can either mold a healthy mind or drive a child toward darkness. Jennifer Egan’s Safari is a short story that highlights the different relationships in a family with a complicated background. Rolph and Charlie come from a divorced household and join their father, Lou, and his new girlfriend, Mindy, on an African safari. As the events of the trip unfold, Lou’s children experience a coming of age in which they lose the innocence they once possessed. The significant impact of family dynamic on children’s transition into adulthood is presented in Safari. Jennifer Egan uses Mindy’s structural classifications of Charlie and Rolph to demonstrate how Lou and Mindy’s relationship hinders the maturation of the two kids.
John Wilkes Booth was important to this country’s history because he was the first man to assassinate a President of the United States of America. He was not the first to attempt, but he was the first man to successfully assassinate a President. The assassination had a long lasting impact on our country. Both the south and the north mourned the death of Abraham Lincoln, “incontestably the greatest man I have ever known”, said Ulysses S. Grant.
A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Print.
In Natasha Trethewey’s poetry collection “Native Guard”, the reader is exposed to the story of Trethewey’s growing up in the southern United States and the tragedy which she encountered during her younger years, in addition to her experiences with prejudice. Throughout this work, Trethewey often refers to graves and provides compelling imagery regarding the burial of the dead. Within Trethewey’s work, the recurring imagery surrounding graves evolves from the graves simply serving as a personal reminder of the past to a statement on the collective memory of society and comments on what society chooses to remember and that which it chooses to let go of.
Cousin at Ford’s Theater. President Lincoln died the next morning. The person who had killed Lincoln
As you can imagine the assassination of Lincoln greatly influenced the relationship between the north and the south. The assassination soured their relationship, increasing the north’s hate toward the south (The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln pg.51). Even before the north even knew who killed Lincoln, they blamed the south. The north mourned whereas the south was happy (History Engine). In the north, not only whites, but blacks too mourned for their fallen president (History Engine). In the south most were happy, but not all of them (History Engine). Some southerners joined with the north in their sadness and sorrow. The ones who mo...
Everybody wants to be accepted, yet society is not so forgiving. It bends you and changes you until you are like everyone else. Society depends on conformity and it forces it upon people. In Emerson's Self Reliance, he says "Society is a joint stock company, in which the members agree, for the better securing of his bread to each shareholder, to surrender the liberty and culture of the eater." People are willing to sacrifice their own hopes and freedoms just to get the bread to survive. Although the society that we are living in is different than the one the Emerson's essay, the idea of fitting in still exists today. Although society and our minds make us think a certain way, we should always trust our better judgment instead of just conforming to society.