In History - Jamaica Kincaid

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As anyone who studies history, when we pass through a story of Carl Linnaeus, we tend to focus on his story, and his relationship with George Clifford is a supporting object. We simply skip through those simply details. However, Kincaid pays attention on those small details and makes her judgment. She expresses:

“George Clifford is often described as a rich merchant banker; just like that, a rich merchant banker, and this description often seems to say that to be a rich merchant banker is just a type of a person one could be, an ordinary type of person, anyone could be. And now how to go on, for hearing that George Clifford was a rich merchant in the 18th century, I now am sure I have become a part of the binomial system of plant nomenclature narrative.” (6)

Through her analysis, some could appreciate her attention to details, the things that we, the history learners, sometimes simply believe and skip the evaluation process. However, some could see her faults in making the shallow judgments on this figure. Kincaid only knows George Clifford as his description as a rich merchant banker, but she already makes assumptions on her knowledge of him. In fact, she knows nothing else about George Clifford such as his education, past jobs, childhood, and beliefs. Also, despite her connection with that century, she already thinks the type of individuals that merchant bankers are, and quickly jumps into conclusions of what she could be in that century. However, through questioning her narrative in this case, it also reminds readers that we tend to quickly make judgment by labels.

(THIRD INTERPRETIVE PROBLEM)

“In History” is a well of reflection of history in general and ourselves in particular. There is no one-way thought that everyone can pull out from this essay. The obvious conclusion is that history is not accurate. It fact, it is an illusion of truth and the history recorders’ perspectives. How much should we trust? It depends on our own interpretations. Additionally, it is also a wake-up call for readers to self-evaluate what we believes and learns through our lives. Thus, we could make our own independent judgments. However, on a bigger scale, the character that Kincaid portrays is in fact us. We tend to accept facts given to us; but based on those facts to make judgments towards others, quickly make assumptions on things that we thought we know. Also, while we continue developing those characteristics and habits, we neglect simply things in life.

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