In History Jamaica Kincaid Summary

History. It is defined as “a chronological record of significant events (as affecting a nation or institution) often including an explanation of their causes” by the Merriam-Webster dictionary. By high school students, it is often described as the class they hate the most. It is hated because it is exactly that - the study of the events that have led us to today. It can bring about controversy, it can bring about confusion, but most of all, it can bring about a sense of shame as the writers of history recognize that most of these events were the result of unnecessary violence and exploitation of both humans and nature.
In her essay “In History,” Jamaica Kincaid attempts to break down the history of her people. It is an attempt at defining …show more content…
Through the first half of her essay, Kincaid gives multiple valid reasons as to why Columbus shouldn’t be her only history. Amongst these arguments are: 1) Columbus wasn’t the first to land on the Americas, so he shouldn’t be praised by being part of her narrative 2) Just because he named places and people and things doesn’t mean he discovered them 3) His mentality was so one-dimensional that his actions had no real meaning behind them. The only problem with this is that she contradicts nearly every point she argued for when she states that she appears in the narrative of this story only after Columbus occurs. She says, “... he empties the land of these people, and then he empties the people, he just empties the people. It is when this land is completely empty that I and the people who look like me begin to make an appearance, the food I eat begins to make an appearance… the land on which I eventually make an appearance.” By saying all of this, she’s essentially saying that the only reason she makes an appearance in the first place is because Columbus exploited her land and her people, and began from scratch. Places that Columbus conquered are nowadays known to have a very diverse population because of the mixing of different races that occurred during his time. Europeans, Africans, and natives to the land ended up reproducing with one another (whether by force or by choice), and as a result, people like Kincaid were brought into the narrative. This is most likely what she means to say, however it completely contradicts her original idea of defining history because now not only has she abided by the common definition of history (a record of events that impact us), she has also stated that Columbus is essentially her history. This idea gets even more confusing when she tries to connect the passage together by repeating her original questions at the end of the essay as though she hasn’t reached a solution yet (even though she clearly