Summary Of Indians By Jane Tompkins

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In Jane Tompkins essay, “Indians”: Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History” she describes the issues on how history can be flawed by being told from the observer’s point view. She also goes out to question the validity of history in certain historical books. All through the essay, Tompkins’ central message is to let the historical writers know that morality should be the crux of their decision making if they want the truth. It is crucial to know that when learning history you are subject to that person’s narrow point of view. In her essay "'Indians': Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History", Jane Tompkins discusses the problems she encountered while doing historical research about Indians. Not too fond of the plethora of biased accounts, Tompkins initially concluded that because the perspective of historians were muddied by their cultural background, it was essentially impossible to recreate a valid explanation of what truly occurred between …show more content…

Due to Jane Tompkins’ frustration on bias historical facts, one can come to a realization on the importance of honest historical accounts. “This essay enacts a particular instance of the challenge poststructuralism poses to the study of history. In simpler language, it concerns the difference that point of view makes when people are giving accounts of events, whether at first or second hand. The problem is that if all accounts of events are determined through and through by the observer's frame of reference, then one will never know, in any given case, what really happened (Tompkins). According to the article, “Indians”, by Tompkins, it is not possible to find the truth in history and if the perspective is bias it will become a perpetuation of inaccurate history. Jane Tompkins supports this argument by using the example of the Europeans “colonizing” the Indian land and how they were

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