Discuss the roles of language and reason in history Essay Example

Discuss the roles of language and reason in history Essay Example Discuss the roles of language and reason in history Paper Discuss the roles of language and reason in history Paper History is often considered as a synonym for truth and certainty. But history is such an area of knowledge that poses a number of deterrents in our quest for knowledge as the knowers cannot discover the past forthwith. This so called remembering the past is no easy nut-it is a complex web rendered difficult to disentangle given that the historical event takes place in the past; it is gone and irrecoverable!. Thus to write a history a historian has to resort to his reason, and obviously the said historian will write the historical accounts in his native language only. Thus language and reason stand as pillars for creating the foundations of history. Reasoning is closely connected with emotion, sense perception and language. In fact language is at the very core of reasoning. Language is a vast unmapped territory fascinating our intelligence and casting spells on our reason. According to â€Å"Max Mueller, there can be no language without reason, and no reason without language†2. Through this essay I would like to elucidate the roles of language and reason in history. My essay will also inquire into if language and reason as ways of knowing can pervert a historical account from the path of truth? If a historian endeavours to explore the past, his step surely is to find out all the possible facts. Unless the historian makes an exact sense of the data, it is all absurd, as we know that the fact won’t speak for themselves. We must remember that the historian is an individual, not impregnable to bias, prejudice and discrimination. His history will be dependent on his particular interests, which are in turn, partially based on his culture. It is here where the crux of the problem lies. Like a geologists the historian too has to find the weak fossils print buried deep inside the earth. For example we get a number of baffling accounts behind the death of Alexander the Great. Different historians have written their accounts in different languages. Some opine that he died of malaria; others claim that he died of poisoning while many are of the view that he was assassinated at the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon. Thus the historian has to be selective and he selects on the basis of his own paradigms. It is on these grounds that history is called an act of creation. And it is of critical importance to understand, in general terms, the basis on which any selection is made, and analyzed by the historian using his language and reason. Many historians wield their imaginative thinking or reason to write history but â€Å"is not memory fallible, evidence ambiguous and prejudice common3†? According to historian Barbara Tuchman, â€Å"Each man is a package of variables impossible to duplicate. His birth, his parents, his siblings, and the variables inherent in all of these, make up that mysterious compendium, personality-which then combines with another set of variables: country, climate, time and historical circumstance.† 4 Language is closely tied to ideas about human cognition and interaction with the world. Despite its importance, language is not the perfect medium of communication as it is governed by rules; it is intended, creative and open-ended. Moreover languages are not static entities; they change and develop over time. Problematic meanings can be found in every language. The words can be vague, ambiguous, secondary (the same word may have different detonation and connotation), metaphorical and ironical. Translation of a language into other is another stumbling block. There are around 3000 different languages in the world. Every language contains words that have no equivalent in other languages. So can language be considered as a cornerstone for the historians? As a child, I was mesmerized by wars. I read the most bewitching account of war in Homer’s Iliad where he talks about the legendary Trojan War. Was it a war or only a myth? Nothing can be said as Homer derived the epic poem from primeval sources. In the epic, Helen is limned as the most beautiful woman on earth while Achilles as the grandest warrior. Now what can we say as to the authenticity of Homer’s claims? Were the characters for real or it was his national bias to portray them as Hellenic legends? I read the Greek epic through translation only. Did the translator write the exact replication of Homer’s words, or he amalgamated the facts with his presumptions, giving them a hyperbolized touch? Is the epic not twice removed from reality then?

To Kill a Mockingbird Themes, Symbols, and Literary Devices

To Kill a Mockingbird Themes, Symbols, and Literary Devices To Kill a Mockingbird seems like a very simple, well-written morality tale at first glance. But underneath the easy markers of racism and heroism is a much more complex story. Your first hint is the sleight of hand author Harper Lee employs in the point of view, which is actually Jenna Louise Finch as an adult recounting her adventures as a child. The mature, grown-up perspective is buried under the rambunctious, naive perspective of her younger self so skillfully most readers forget that the story isn’t being narrated by a little kid. This allows Lee to explore her sub-themes of racism, justice, and innocence while masterfully dealing with her main theme: How our view of the world changes as we grow older. Maturation The story of To Kill a Mockingbird takes place over the course of several years, beginning when Scout is 6 years old and ending when she is close to 9 years old, and her brother Jem is 9 (though very close to being 10) in the beginning and is 13 or 14 by the end of the story. Lee uses the young age of the children to tease out many of the complexities in her themes; Scout and Jem are frequently confused about the motivations and reasoning of the adults around them, especially in the earlier sections of the novel. Initially, Scout, Jem, and their friend Dill make many incorrect assumptions about the world around them. They assume that Boo Radley is some sort of monster and ascribe near-supernatural powers to him. They assume that aunt Alexandra does not like them or their father. They assume that Mrs. Dubose is a mean old woman who hates children. And Scout in particular assumes that the world is a fair and honorable place. Over the course of the story, the children grow up and learn more about the world, and many of these initial assumptions are revealed to be incorrect. Lee explores the way that growing up and maturing into adults makes the world clearer while also less magical and more difficult. Scout’s rage against Mrs. Dubose or her teachers at school is simple and easy to comprehend, as is her terror of Boo Radley. Understanding the complexities underneath the behaviors she sees makes it more difficult to hate Mrs. Dubose or fear Boo, which in turn ties into the more obvious themes of racism, intolerance, and innocence in the story. The end result is that Lee connects racism with childish fears that adults ought not to experience. Prejudice There’s little doubt that To Kill a Mockingbird is concerned with racism and its corrosive effects on our society. Lee explores this theme with an initial subtlety; Tom Robinson and the crimes he is accused of are not explicitly mentioned until Chapter 9 in the book, and Scout’s understanding that her father, Atticus, is under pressure to drop the case and that his reputation is suffering because of it is developed slowly. Lee is not, however, solely concerned with racial prejudice. Rather, she explores the effects of prejudice of all kinds- racism, classism, and sexism. Scout and Jem slowly come to understand that all of these attitudes are incredibly harmful to society as a whole. Tom’s life is destroyed simply because he is a black man. Bob and Mayella Ewell, however, are also looked down upon by the town for their poverty, which is assumed to be due to their low class status and not to any sort of economic cause, and Lee makes it clear that they persecute Tom in part in order to assuage their own feelings of rage at the way they are treated, that racism is inextricably linked to economics, politics, and self-image. Sexism is explored in the novel through Scout and her constant battle to engage in behaviors she finds interesting and exciting instead of the behaviors that people like aunt Alexandra feel are more appropriate for a girl. Part of Scout’s development as a person is her journey from simple perplexity at these pressures to an understanding that society as a whole expects certain things from her solely due to her gender. Justice and Morality To Kill a Mockingbird is a surprisingly deft analysis of the differences between justice and morality. In the earlier parts of the novel Scout believes that morality and justice are the same thing- if you do wrong, you are punished; if you are innocent you will be fine. Tom Robinson’s trial and her observation of her father’s experiences teach her that there is often a stark difference between what is right and what is legal. Tom Robinson is innocent of the crime he is accused of, but loses his life. At the same time, Bob Ewell triumphs in the legal system but finds no justice either, and is reduced to drunkenly stalking children to compensate for being humiliated despite his victory. Symbols Mockingbirds. The title of the book references a moment in the story where Scout recalls Atticus warning her and Jem that killing mockingbirds is a sin, and Miss Maudie confirms this, explaining that Mockingbirds do nothing but sing- they do no harm. The mockingbird represents innocence- an innocence Scout and Jem slowly lose over the course of the story. Tim Johnson. The poor dog that Atticus shoots when it goes rabid has a name purposefully similar to Tom Robinson’s. The event is traumatic to Scout, and teaches her that innocence is no guarantee of happiness or of justice. Boo Radley. Arthur Radley is not so much a character as a walking symbol of Scout and Jem’s growing maturity. The way the children perceive Boo Radley is a constant marker of their growing maturity. Literary Devices Layered Narration. It can be easy to forget that the story is actually being told by a grown-up, adult Jenna Louise and not the 6-year-old Scout. This allows Lee to present the world in the stark black and white morality of a little girl while preserving the details whose significance would escape a child. Revelation. Because Lee restricts the point of view to Scout and what she directly observes, many details of the story are only revealed long after their occurrence. This creates an air of mystery for the reader that mimics the childish sense of not quite understanding what all the adults are up to.