Historical Perspective in the Essays of Susan Griffin, Richard Rodriguez, and Ralph Ellison (Our Secret, Extravagance of Laughter, The Achievement of Desire) Susan Griffin’s “Our Secret” is an essay in which she carefully constructs and describes history, particularly World War II, through the lives of several different people. Taken from her book A Chorus of Stones, her concepts may at first be difficult to grasp; however David Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky say that, “Griffin writes about the past - how we can know it, what its relation to the present, why we should care. In the way she writes, she is also making an argument about how we can know and understand the past…” Griffin strikes all of these aspects in her essay. What is most compelling about the essay, however, is the way Griffin incorporated personal, family, and world history into a chilling story of narrative and autobiography, without ever losing the factual evidence the story provided. The chapter reads like an entire novel, which helps the audience to understand the concepts with a clear and complete view of her history, not needing to read any other part of the book. Two other authors, Richard Rodriguez, and Ralph Ellison, who write about their experiences in life can possibly be better understood as historical texts when viewed through the eyes of Griffin. Rodriguez explores his own educational history in his essay “The Achievement of Desire” and Ralph Ellison depicts his own journeys and personal growth in his essay, “An Extravagance of Laughter”. Both essays, which when seen through Susan Griffin’s perspective, can be reopened and examined from a different historical view, perhaps allowing them to be understood with a more lucid view of history and what it is really about. What is history? Many believe that history is what is read in textbooks, or what is seen on the news. If Susan Griffin were asked that question, she would probably argue that history is much more than that. It is about the minds and souls of the people who went through the historical event, not simply what happened. In her essay, Griffin incorporates stories of people from totally different backgrounds, and upbringings, including herself, all to describe their account of one time period. Each person’s history is somehow connected with the next person’s, and each story contr... ... middle of paper ... ...a play and Griffin after learning about her family.. All three authors of these essays are in a sense, historians. They wrote about events that are in history, which makes the essays about history. However, these are all great works, and are being used to help explore the ways of writing history. Thus, in the context of which they are being used, they are all history. Themes about finding the truth within the self are current throughout works, and different types of histories are explored; making these text much more than just about history; they have become history. Ralph Ellison once said, “The way [one] expresses both the agony of life and the possibility of conquering it through is the sheer toughness of the spirit. They fall short of tragedy only in that they provide no solution, offer no scapegoat but the self…” Each author demonstrates the toughness of the spirit, and provide no solution, as history never does. It is up to the individual to decide whether history will repeat itself, or whether or not a scapegoat will be found. However, Griffin, Rodriguez, and Ellison all did their part in providing possible solutions.…for history.
America is a nation that is often glorified in textbooks as a nation of freedom, yet history shows a different, more radical viewpoint. In Howard Zinn’s A People's History of the United States, we take a look at American history through a different lens, one that is not focused on over glorifying our history, but giving us history through the eyes of the people. “This is a nation of inconsistencies”, as so eloquently put by Mary Elizabeth Lease highlights a nation of people who exploited and sought to keep down those who they saw as inferior, reminding us of more than just one view on a nation’s history, especially from people and a gender who have not had an easy ride.
...n American Literature. By Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 387-452. Print.
This book is written from a perspective foreign to most Americans. Historically, American students are taught from a single perspective, that being the American perspective. This approach to history (the single perspective) dehumanizes the enemy and glorifies the Americans. We tend to forget that those on the opposing side are also human.
When people are ashamed of their heritage, they attempt to leave it behind in order to change the way people view them. Some people allow years to go by while attempting to hide their history instead of understanding that their history is a part of their lives, and it will never go away. Despite the multiple attempts and methods they use to conceal their history, the past will never go away. In the novel Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison, the main character is simply referred to as the narrator. He is not ashamed of being an African American, but he is ashamed of the history and the negative stereotypes that society gives to them, and likewise, he tries his best to dispose of them using his briefcase. The narrator does not know that the items he places in his briefcase are symbolic of not only his history, but also his identity. Although the narrator uses his briefcase to hide the contents that represent his history and identity throughout the novel, in the end he realizes the true purpose of his collected goods.
...thern Literary Journal. Published by: University of North Carolina Press. Vol. 4, No. 2 (spring, 1972), pp. 128-132.
The material analyzed by Alexandra Minna Stern circulates in the form of a book titled “Eugenics Nation: Faults and Frontiers of Better Breeding in Modern America,” that was originally published in November 2007. The book is chronologically sequenced in order to provide the reader with detailed accounts of social eugenic practices throughout different periods in America History. In her book, Stern seeks to examine the connection between eugenics and the emergence of environmental movements in the state of California through the life of key figures such as Fairfield Osborn, Jordan Goethe, and John C. Merriam. In addition, the author extrapolates how radically progressive changes in California went on to influence
...storians must learn what these authors all teach by their consensus novels, that teaching history through a sided story is the only way to determine all perspectives of history. We must understand that the voices of the outsiders matter just as much as the powerful. Richter and Johnson shed light on how difficult live can be as the low-class through the suffrage of Indians and slaves. Ambinder and Holton show that the outsiders still had the ability to change their destiny. Both of these details are misplaced in history text books because history is taught on a factual basis. We teach history in facts that the white powerful leaders wrote for us, therefore the losers are left out. History is a two sided story, which means we must teach both sides of the losers and the winners. This is the only way to understand the lives of the world’s lost voices of the outsiders.
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Fifth Edition, Vol. 2. W.W. Norton & Company, New York. C. 1998
Johns, Gillian. "Jim Trueblood And His Critic-Readers: Ralph Ellison's Rhetoric Of Dramatic Irony And Tall Humor In The Mid-Century American Literary Public Sphere." Texas Studies In Literature & Language 49.3 (2007): 230. Biography Reference Bank (H.W. Wilson). Web. 27 Nov. 2015.
Perkins, H.F.. A Decade of Progress in Eugenics: Scientific Papers of the Third International Congress of Eugenics. 1993 Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins Company.
The concept of eugenics was originally advocated by scientific and religious leaders at the beginning of the twentieth century. It was considered utopian and was driven by rhetoric of social reform. At this time, this form of eugenics was not connected to genetic testing but rather used methods such as sterilization, immigration restriction, family planning promotion schemes, and anti-miscegenation laws (Paul, 1995). In the United States, such methods were mostly directed towards immigration and focused on racial issues, whereas in the United Kingdom, class-oriented eugenicists were driven by the fear that if the “lower classes” outbred their social superiors, this would lead to evolutionary regression (Mazumdar, 1992).
Abrams, MH, et al. Eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1993.
This credible website offers an opportunity for the public to learn more about our American history in an interactive and creative way. The creators of the image archive arrange features, cross-referencing and images with the Adobe Flash plug in program in order to enhance learning. The site offers various virtual exhibits that can be explored. The American Eugenics Movement included key events, persons, and social conditions that formed the development. There are nine specific virtual exhibits that are presented: social origins, scientific origins, research methods, traits studied, research flaws, eugenics popularization, marriage laws, sterilization laws and immigration restriction. All of these options show evidence of the development and expansion of The American Eugenics Movement.
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Sixth Edition Volume1. Ed. M.H.Abrams. New York: W.W.Norton and Company, Inc., 1993.
In Graham Swift’s Waterland, Tom Crick says, “Children, it was one of your number, a curly-haired boy called Price… who once… asserted roundly that history was ‘a fairy-tale’… ‘What matters… is the here and now. Not the past… The only important thing about history, I think, sir, is that it’s got to the point where it’s probably about to end’”(6,7). It is very likely that we all have come to a point in our education, at one time or another, where we have encountered sentiments similar to those of Price. In most schools the subject of history is treated more or less in the same way- as a recounting of events, an examination of how the past has led to the present. This seems to be a good definition at first glance, but perhaps it is lacking in that it fails to account for the “here and now”(6). In Waterland Graham Swift not only addresses the problem of the fears his students face in the here and now, and the prospect of a nightmarish future; but, he also gives an unlikely solution in Tom Crick’s theory of history as explanation and personal story.