Advantages And Disadvantages Of Oral History

In Steve Kaplan’s The Undying Uncertainty of the Narrator in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, he writes, “the facts about an event are given; they then are quickly qualified or called into question; from this uncertainty emerges a new set of facts about the same subject that are again called into question--on and on, without end” (Kaplan). Again, this uncertain questioning process catalyzes the storyteller to question his memories. In order to succeed in telling a war

There's some truths that just aren’t told; some stories are too horrific to relive, and they just have to let the past be the past. In the Things They Carry In the vignette How to tell a true war story it reveals a story about a group of young men serving their time in the Vietnam War. A group of US military men went up into the mountain side and sit there silently; Tim O'Brien narrates "They don't got tongues. All ears" (69). There's a fine line between story truth and happening truth but story truth is superior because it's the story everyone hears.

Doris’ mother fed the Kansan family who lived across the street from the Lees. When the family arrived in Minnesota with nothing, and after the father stole a 50-pound bag of flour to feed his family, he could not find a job or afford food because, according to Doris, “the mayor had it out for him.” Beyond disapproving of the Kansans, the mayor of Blackduck disapproved of feeding railroad riders. Nevertheless, Irene Lee fed the railroad riders who came to her home looking for food, asking them to chop wood for her before feeding them on her back porch. Once, she gave a man from Kansas long underwear to stay warm.

The history of Latinos in Utah is complex, but it is also a history that is neither well represented in mainstream recounting nor well recognized in the mainstream understanding of Utah’s past. Convoluted interactions among Native Americans, Spaniards, French, Mexicans, Anglos, and others shaped the story of Utah. Awareness of the long presence of Hispanics in Utah is essential to understanding the history of the state. This volume is an attempt to piece together that history through photos and oral histories.

One case Susan Hamlin was interviewed, by someone she thought was from the Welfare Office, so the accounts of her life were made to appear milder than what they were for fear of trouble even though she claimed to be 104 years old. After interviewing so many people Lomax realized these were just words on paper flat no emotion, so, Lomax and son started recording interviews with a three-hundred-pound portable recorder. The problem with Oral History is oral history is only as good as the evidence provided. It can be passed down from generation to generation and distorted along the way due to memory loss, plain confusion or difference in perception.

Usually, nothing significant happens in your day, so you don’t remember it down the line. For example, would you be able to tell me what you have for breakfast last Wednesday? Could you tell me what you did in the afternoon two Saturdays ago? Since nothing particular stands out in my life, I couldn’t tell you. Adnan Syed however, had an extremely eventful day January 13, 1999 considering his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee was gruesomely murdered.

In “How to Tell a True War Story”, the main theme is how to tell whether a war story is true or made-up. The author explores the conflict within reality and fiction by arguing that true war stories are hard to believe. In O’Brien’s view, he points out that “A thing may happen and be a total lie; another thing may not happen and be truer than the truth. ”(p.80). Moreover, to make his point, the author spins between facts and fiction causing difficulty for the readers to believe if those stories actually happened or

Introduction As a member of The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, this essay topic was chosen to further explore my family’s background. My great-great grandma, Ora Marguerite McLellan, was born on December 27, 1904, and is listed on the Final Dawes Roll as number 554. She is listed as Choctaw by blood and was added to the Dawes Rolls as a newborn. My father, who is Native American and lives in Oklahoma, does not have much knowledge or insight about our family or the trials they experienced. My great-great grandma’s generation was reluctant to identify as Native American due to the stigmas associated with their culture and thereupon did not pass down the history to any future generations.

What the benefits of using Gruenewald’s memoir is that we get the emotions that she felt during the time and what she thought of the situation she was in. With the memoir we are able to get what a general normal day was for her and everyone in the camp. The downside of using her memoir is that she is trying to remember something that happen decades ago and all the events could be tweaked from her not remembering one hundred percent of what happen. Another downside of using her memoir is she could be bias about what happen for somethings.

The hidden history of the Chicanx community in the United States that I have never familiarized myself with was presented by the ethnic studies course offered by the Sophie’s Scholars Program in Sacred Heart Schools. Throughout the two summers I devoted to education in Sacred Heart Schools through the Sophie’s Scholars Program in the sixth and seventh grade, I was to take four classes: a math course, a science course, a multicultural literature class, and an ethnic studies class. It was the middle of summer; the air was hot and humid, and by the end of the day, students were eager to leave campus, go home, and feel the summer breeze in the afternoon. Meanwhile, I did not enjoy having to go to school for six weeks of my summer, but I was getting accustomed to the new

The role of women in the United States has been determining since the country was still thirteen colonies. The role in the past defined women to do only their own domestications and household works, such as cleaning, finding some foods, taking care their children and farms, and sometimes their stores. They had no any rights in their property, including to be a head of household, even their husbands were gone or passed away. They also did not have any chances to be one part of politics, and they had no any political voices as much as men did in the society. After the colonies became the United States, however, these women took more active roles in the society by taking care their households instead of their husbands and being participated in

Human beings often claim to be searching for the truth. The truth often entails finding the right answer, choice, or formula. The search for truth develops a tendency to settle for the easiest choice—a false truth; more often than not, a false truth goes unquestioned in order to remain benighted. Concerning the false truth in The Things They Carried, information—specifically memories, must be sorted into two categories: those stories that are true and those which are simply glorified recreational war stories. It would be a near impossible task due to the extent that the tales mix.

Each of the authors is of a psychological background in education, and their credentials are a positive sign in this topic. They considered that age could be a definitive factor in whether or not a person remembers their abuse, and stated that in a study it was found that people abused in ages 3-5 likely would not recall it at a later date. In the second article, “Repressed Memories: True and False”, there was another authority on the subject, author Andrew D. Reisner. Reisner’s view was that recovered memories could be accurate. Though, he also states that the theory that repressed memories themselves may not actually exist is extreme and unjustified.

Telling a true war story can be hard to do, because soldiers are tempted to change some traumatic aspects to make the story easier to comprehend, and not so traumatic for the listener. For the readers who prefer the brutal and gruesome stories,

Memories are a key aspect in life because they affect our behavior, help us recall events that have happened in life, and last help us learn. Furthermore memories are the events we have experienced in life and due to these experiences they take a toll on a person’s behavior. We may perceive a person has negative or pessimistic but without knowing them we can not assume their personality.