In History Jamaica Kincaid
“His” Story: Jamaica Kincaid’s Finding of History’s True Definition in “In History”
In “In History,” Jamaica Kincaid tells the readers two stories of historically significant figures, Christopher Columbus and Carl Linnaeus. She first explains the discovery of New World and then describes how Linnaeus created the modern version of binominal nomenclature. In between these two stories, she vaguely mentions her own history, coming from “a place called Antigua”; her own story is only a small proportion compared to the stories of Columbus and Linnaeus (Kincaid 622). Significantly, no matter what story she tells, she continuously raises an issue with the word “history.” She struggles to define the word but does not vividly express where the confusion …show more content…
Nowadays, no matter what narrative history takes, it always contains the same opening with same characters: “Its narrative, too, can start with that man sailing on his shops for days and days, for that man sailing on his ships for days and days is the source of many narratives” (623). By stating “its narrative, too, can start with a man” displays how such generalized styles with the unchanged figures accomplishing the identical achievements are being “the source of many narratives” (623). She is even no longer “living in the place where I and those who look like [her] first made an appearance,” living “in another place” and having “another narrative,” but is still experiencing the same version of history (623). This ironic situation justifies Kincaid’s confusion and undoubtedly critiques the people’s overgeneralized and somewhat ignorant attitude towards history. They have never actually considered understanding thoroughly the history of her people, but only considered the surface of it and believed that to be the entire story. Thus she is confused with the definition of history. For instance, so called “experts” claim that history starts on the year “fourteen hundred and ninety-two,” when Columbus finds the land (623). What is so important about Columbus that he appears throughout most of histories but not the minorities or the people like Kincaid? Although Kincaid wants to call her past as part of history, she is hindered by the majority because she and her people are not the key roles of
In “In History,” Jamaica Kincaid tells the readers two stories of historically significant figures, Christopher Columbus and Carl Linnaeus. She first explains the discovery of New World and then describes how Linnaeus created the modern version of binominal nomenclature. In between these two stories, she vaguely mentions her own history, coming from “a place called Antigua”; her own story is only a small proportion compared to the stories of Columbus and Linnaeus (Kincaid 622). Significantly, no matter what story she tells, she continuously raises an issue with the word “history.” She struggles to define the word but does not vividly express where the confusion …show more content…
Nowadays, no matter what narrative history takes, it always contains the same opening with same characters: “Its narrative, too, can start with that man sailing on his shops for days and days, for that man sailing on his ships for days and days is the source of many narratives” (623). By stating “its narrative, too, can start with a man” displays how such generalized styles with the unchanged figures accomplishing the identical achievements are being “the source of many narratives” (623). She is even no longer “living in the place where I and those who look like [her] first made an appearance,” living “in another place” and having “another narrative,” but is still experiencing the same version of history (623). This ironic situation justifies Kincaid’s confusion and undoubtedly critiques the people’s overgeneralized and somewhat ignorant attitude towards history. They have never actually considered understanding thoroughly the history of her people, but only considered the surface of it and believed that to be the entire story. Thus she is confused with the definition of history. For instance, so called “experts” claim that history starts on the year “fourteen hundred and ninety-two,” when Columbus finds the land (623). What is so important about Columbus that he appears throughout most of histories but not the minorities or the people like Kincaid? Although Kincaid wants to call her past as part of history, she is hindered by the majority because she and her people are not the key roles of