What Is History?

"Is it a collection of facts, all true and precise details, and, if so, when I come across these true and precise details, what should I do, how should I feel, where should I place myself?" Jamaica Kincaid asks a lot of questions in her essay, In History. The big question being asked is, what is history? According to Kincaid, her history began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus discovered the New World. Although Kincaid belives that the discovery of the new world was the beginning, she still questions if that was the start of her history since she had not made an appearance yet. "I am not a part of this man's consciousness, he does not know of me, I do not have a name." Kincaid makes a valid point, if her life on this earth has not yet begun, has her history started yet? The arguement she is faced with is that if Columbus did not discover the New World, would she be alive now? I'm not sure I can give her an answer to this, but I do believe her history began in 1492. Jamaica Kincaid came to the conclusion that history is the backbone to what made us, and America who we are today. History is very important to our culture because without it we may not be alive and it does matter who is telling the story because it may be different from person to person. Other families or countries may have a different history, so it is important to learn where they came fromand what they stand for.

Landscaping was talked about by Jamaica Kincaid when the topic of Christopher Columbus was introduced. Columbus claims he discovered the New World, but when he traveled there he had thought he was in China and people were already settled where he had "claimed" his territory. When he arrived to the New World he talked about how different the landscape was and how he wanted to prove that the world was round, and that he did not just fall off a sharp cliff into nothing. He saw the New World as blank and he took it among himself to name places, people, and things. Was this blankness the beginning of history? Christopher Columbus took unknown things and gave them names and thats how history began. The history, landscape and naming are all joined together in this essay because they all have to do with the start of history and the New World.


Creative Challenge:
I can remember learning about how Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and discovered America in the third grade when I was eight by Ms. Gladwin. I remember her showing us a flat map and a globe telling us that people used to believe, for a long time, that the world was flat, but they then later discovered that it was round. Ms. Gladwin also showed my class a map of the United States and how Massachusetts had a little curve at the tip, called Cape Cod. I think when I was in the fourth grade my teacher, Ms. Nardone, gave us an assingnment on Melrose where we had to take pictures on what we encountered on our way home from school. I learned a lot about Melrose, but mostly only about the are around my neighborhood. I learned that my school was exactly 4 minutes from my house and that my school, Herbert Clark Hoover Elementary School, was neamed after a president.

The world was a very mysterious place to me when i was little. I was not sure where the center of the world was, I would just point to the center of the globe and call that the center of the world. I knew that the world was round but I thought that if I just kept digging when I was at the beach I would reach China. When I would draw the world, I just made a circle and color in blue and green. My state looks like a rectangle with a little hook on it, and that's how I would represent it. The only geographical place i new of in Massachusetts was Boston and all of the buildings and bright lights. In my neighborhood the biggest landmark was the Common Park because it's where I would play and spend most of my time after school. In the US the biggest landmark i knew of was Washington DC and the White House, which I thought was located across the US next to California. I remember learning about the White House and singing the songs about all of the presidents, along with the song about all of the states.

As I grew up I learned that the most important state, Washington DC was located just a few states away, and that there were a lot more cities in Massachusetts other than Melrose. I never did learn where the center of the universe was located, but I'm sure one day I will figure it out. I still draw the earth with green and blue, but now I can add more details about the continents and states. This relates to Jamaica Kincaid because we were both in the same place with not being present when the New World was discovered. I had always wondered why things were called what they were (ex. trees) and how we got onto the Earth, I just didn't think too much into as Kincaid did. We both understood why history was important, we just did not know where history began. If I were to re-write my history, I would want to start from my beginning, but I can't because nobody would be able to tell my story. I need to know the history of how I got to where I am today in order to continue on with the story of my history. I know now that history is important and it makes us who we are today.