Skip to main content

History: The Memories or The Facts?

What do you think truly represents history? Some believe in representing history through a linear Cenotaph (like the Vietnam war memorial) while others believe in representing history through the nonlinear narratives of the soldiers. They both do represent history, but in two completely different ways. A linear Cenotaph most commonly will commemorate the soldiers that died in war by making a monument that appropriately represents the war/event. On the other hand, nonlinear narratives display the stories of the war from the soldiers. These stories hold the true emotions that went into war and they also unveil how chaotic war is. Many people, especially veterans, describe Cenotaphs as "It looks back, not forward; there is no indication of that for which these sacrifices of the fighting men and others were made. It is as if the greatness of the theme made us inarticulate." (Whittick 7). They believe that Cenotaphs aren't able to truly represent history because Cenotaphs cannot display all the perspectives of the soldiers, how war affected them, or what really happened while they were at war. In today's society, people believe that students are not being taught history correctly because the history books only include summary facts without any inclusion of the soldier's memories. One article states, "A history is essentially a collection of memories, analyzed and reduced into meaningful conclusions--but that collection depends of the memories chosen." (Conway). This article exhibits a new way in which many believe history should be taught instead of the way that it is being taught right now (the article is included below). So back to my question at the beginning, how do you think history should be represented?


Article: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/03/the-problem-with-history-classes/387823/

Comments

  1. Kayla TompkinsSeptember 8, 2019 at 9:33 AM

    I really liked the way you structured your post by stating a question in the beginning. I was able to think about the question as I read through the blog. By the end, I began to question if the way we are taught history is truly the best way to represent it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ashley DavisSeptember 8, 2019 at 10:14 AM

    I think that you did a very nice job backing up your argument with the pulled quotes you used. I also thought it was very clever to ask the question you did at the end of your writing to tie everything back into the start of your piece and get readers thinking for themselves.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kyle JungSeptember 8, 2019 at 12:06 PM

    I like how you included an outside source to add a new side to this topic, rather than just discussing what we talked about in class. I also liked how you had a central question around your post. This made it clear what the post was about and allowed the reader to come up with his/her own conclusion on the matter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Julia StarrSeptember 8, 2019 at 12:14 PM

    I think that this is a very well developed piece and I sincerely liked how you incorporated a question at the beginning, which had the thought going through my mind of "are we really being taught history in the best way?" I also liked how you incorporated the question at the end, which really tied your writing up effectively and still had me thinking.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Grace DalySeptember 8, 2019 at 12:59 PM

    I really enjoyed your post because it made me question the layout of history right from the beginning. Starting the writing out with a question allows the readers to search for their answer throughout. I also really enjoyed how you tied in another source into your post. It gave another perspective to the idea and made your writing more dynamic!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What is the Green Light?

While only a few chapters into, "The Great Gatsby", a distinct symbol that has been presented multiple times, is the green light. At the end of chapter 1, we saw the green light as Nick spotted Gatsby, and later on, we see it again. "Involuntarily I glanced seaward--and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been at the end of a dock" (Fitzgerald 21). This quote signifies how the green light has multiple meanings behind it. The green light represents Gatsby's undying love for daisy, the American dream, and wealth. Since the quote explains that the green light is on a dock, us readers can infer that this dock is daisy's house and with Gatsby staring at it, it shows his strong love for her. The green light also represents the American dream and wealth. This green light is not exactly tangible for Gatsby. Although Gatsby has seemed to achieved the American dream through his wealth, he did not do it the right way....
3 comments
Read more

What's So Great About Poetry?

Poetry- the unit that most students dread to learn about in their English class. But why is poetry so disliked among high school students? A few of these reasons, and that I can attest for personally, are that poetry is seen as old, it can be quite difficult to understand/interpret, and we just fail to see the point of it. However, after interpreting some poems in class, my perspective began to shift (only slightly not significantly though). While I am still not the biggest fan of poetry, I am beginning to see a different side to it.  Yes, poetry is all of the negative things that I stated above (at least in my opinion) but once poetry is understood, the lesson becomes that much clearer and applicable. Understanding and correctly interpreting poetry is not only a beneficial skill to have but it also opens your eyes to a deeper understanding to things that are important in terms of culture, history, and etc. For example, poetry has effectively been used to advocate and teach about i...
Post a Comment
Read more

Everlasting Mistakes: America Never Seems to Learn

America is essentially naive. We take what we want and we take what we have for granted. If something is going to propel our status up, whether it's for wealth, our social lives, or just out of selfishness, we don't seem to even hesitate to act. As we observe in Raymo's piece, the act of selfishness and naiveté is what drives their decisions, and eventually, will lead to their own death. The piece takes place in 1987, which is only around 25 years from when we learned how harmful cigarettes actually were. Just like in Raymo's piece when the six-year-old girl "rubbed the glowing dust on her body" not knowing that the "beautiful dust" would "damage her living cells" (Raymo 212) and kill her, our society did something quite similar and acted out of same naiveté. We did the same thing with tobacco and cigarettes and blindly rushed into using them because "they were cool" and "the new thing". Then once it was already too late...
2 comments
Read more