Role of History and Imagination - Essay Example

? Role of History and Imagination We ask ourselves first that what history is. History is defined as the account of a series of events taking place in a certain period of time. Historical accounts of the same event may differ due to the different perspective of people on the aspects of life (Stearns). History helps us understand the societies and the people in them. By picking up a historical account of a society one gets to know the behavioral patterns of its people and how the culture and tradition has shaped the way of life of the people of a particular region. The history of a place depicts the ideas, beliefs, traditions, and serves as a laboratory telling how the complex societies behave. Therefore it not only helps us in understanding past but may also serve as a key to comprehend the future. Not only it helps there but by studying history one also understands moral contemplation, for example, by studying about the people who have faced adversity and over thrown it may be inspirational to a lot of other people. In reference to this, a person can get a lot of lessons from the account of ‘how things fall apart’. It talks about one of the greatest warriors of Nigeria, Okonkwo, who makes a lot of mistakes in his life and eventually kills himself off in the end as everything he has ever worked for in life falls apart. He was a proud person who never admitted his mistakes as is evident by the following two quotes “ha[d] a manly and a proud heart. A proud heart can survive general failure because such a failure does not prick its pride. It is more difficult and more bitter when a man fails alone" and “But he was not the man to go about telling his neighbors that he was in error. And so people said he had no respect for the gods of the clan. His enemies said that his good fortune had gone to his head." Even though he gets different warnings from different people at each stage and he knows that what he is doing is not right but he nevertheless follows his impulse and does it, e.g. he accused and beat up his wife in the “peace week” ruling their own women was a thing these men took pride in as it is quoted “No matter how prosperous a man was, if he was unable to rule his women and his children (and especially his women) he was not really a man”. He failed to learn from the history of his own life. His own father was a cowardly disorganized man who left a lot of debts, but instead of learning from him he made the same mistakes of following his impulse. Thus a history student will develop skills which are useful in the entire course of life. It starts with assessment of evidence. Learning how to interpret statements, e.g. helps form the capacity to distinguish between the subjective and the objective statements of political and other leaders. It further enhances the ability to assess contradicting interpretations and provides training for it. Experience in exploring the past situations provide a constructive sense that can be applied to the glories of national identity. The study of history in no sense undermines the commitment but it does teach the need for the interpretation of and debate upon achieving perspective in life. Thirdly the study of history provides an understanding of the changing society today. The ability to identify the continuities which comes with changes are also developed and a person is then better able to focus upon his life with a clear perspective. History provides a clear perspective on the matter of death. No one in this world has ever led an immortal life and the history has given proof of it. Death is an inevitable fact of life that no one can cheat or hide from (Cruz). Death awaits no man and no one ever knows the time of their death throughout history. As explained before, history shapes the culture of the society by forming traditions, folklore and the rituals of the people of a certain area. All this gives a sense of identity and a group to the people of a certain area. This helps in the clustering of people on the global level and in understanding their behaviors, beliefs and values. The classes, color, identity, religion, the type of food, the architecture of a place, the festivals all are major factors in determining the culture and therefore tracing the history of a region. The work of art gives a very important insight as to how the society is moving and in which direction. The artists who include the painters, the writers, and musicians all play a vital role in coloring the page of history and customs of a given society. Language is yet another tool that is strongly correlated the history of a place and the people having same historical backgrounds usually speak the same language. An example of this can be the people of subcontinent who despite being divided into various countries have the same culture and language. Even the festivals of this area are similar. The only major point of difference between the countries is the religion on which the countries have been divided. The similarity in culture is due to the same historical events that took place in this region that shaped the identity of the people. This is similar to the novel, “Reading in the dark” which tells the story of a young Irish boy and how he grows up. It tells about the traditions, superstitions and the environment in which the boy grows up, taking various accounts of his life. One of the quotes from the book shows what kind of beliefs these people had “People with green eyes were close to the fairies, we were told; they were just here for a little while, looking for a human child they could take away. If we ever met anyone with one green and one brown eye we were to cross ourselves, for that was a human child that had been taken over by the fairies. The brown eye was the sign it had been human. When it died, it would go into the fairy mounds that lay behind The Donegal Mountains, not to heaven, purgatory, limbo or hell like the rest of us”. There is a war going on and the troubles he has to face with respect to his family while he was coming of age. It tells how all of these factors shaped the personality of the boy and how he coped up with the past secrets of his family’s history. The novel perfectly mirrors the impact that history of a place, a family can have on a person in shaping his identity and the way of life chosen by him. Imagination is the power to form a mental image inside a mind so as to have a image there. Imagining makes it possible to experience a whole new world inside the mind and people are born with this ability but everyone’s capacity to imagine differs. Imagination helps in understanding people and events that we have never met or experienced and helps in forming a perception about them. It is particularly useful for children in understanding the realities of world. In fact, a lot of psychologists are studying the role that imagination plays in developing a child’s cognitive ability and are even using it to understand the behavior of autistic children. By using techniques such as role playing and imagination they become familiar with the behavioral patterns and how children distinguish reality from the fantasy world (Wang). Imagination involves thinking out of the box and creating something out of it. Thoughts arise in our mind and we become aware of them and when these thoughts start coming again and again, it leads us to talk, behave, expect in a certain way which leads people to treat us in a specific manner. Therefore, in a way, these thoughts shape up our circumstances and relationships and to say that imagination shape up our world will not be wrong. Whatever we imagine and think it to be is what we choose and ultimately all these choices affect our life. Due to this illusion everyone has a unique and different perspective to life and are all serrated, leading individual lives. Imagination is faculty of the intellect which enables us to sketch a clear picture of anything. By using imagination we can construct something new out of the material given to us by our mental images. Imagination then, helps too in the knowledge of life and death. Death is an absolute certainty as described and given in the history and no one can escape from it. Therefore imagination then plays a vital role as different people imagine death in various ways which then helps them to shape their life accordingly. For those who believe in life after death, they lead a different life as compared to those who don’t as they believe that the fruits of their hard work and intentions may not necessarily be paid up in this world only. Here, I’d like to give the reference of the movie After Life released in 1998. It talks about a girl who has in fact died but is reluctant to go over the other side of life. It plays upon the imagination and the beliefs of the audiences. One of the products of imagination is arts. Arts exist in many forms including paintings, writings, music, stories of the folks and other such things. All these require imagination on the part of the artist. Artists usually have a great imaginative capacity which shows in their piece of art. The think out of the box and come up with the unique pieces. As mentioned above, art is a form of defining identity for the people in the world. Arts shape up the culture of the world and the culture in return gives identity to the people. Music is composed by musicians and truly reflects the soul and the innermost feelings of the person who has composed it. A lot of people in this world hear music to relax them and they even define themselves through music. Similarly most of the authors, poets, painters express themselves through their own works and help people define themselves. A person’s individual personality can be judged by the kind of music he listens, the kind of books he reads and the way he involves himself with them. Therefore to say that an art define a person and gives him identity will not be wrong. The personal identity of a person is formed through experiences and the perceptions held by the person. The set of perceptions that are held by the person are worked upon by the power of imagination in that person and gives rise to belief of continuity and self-perception. As imagination helps in forming perception abut oneself it also helps in understanding of the family life and the way the society operates. With reference to the novel, reading in the dark which is talking of a boy who grows up in a family and tells how he deals with the problems. Sometimes when children are having family issues, they use imagination and memory to escape to their own fantasy world in order to escape the problems of the real world as quoted “The heroine was called Ann and the hero was Robert. She was too good for him. When they whispered, she did all the interesting talking. He just kept on about dying and remembering her always, even when she was there in front of him with her dark hair” In the early years children are taught the way a family behaves and how it works by teachers using imaginary role plays and telling how to behave with siblings and everyone around in the community. Thus to say that history and imagination are interlinked and that one compliments the other in shaping the culture of a society and ultimately the personal identity of the person would not be wrong. The books reading in the dark and things fall apart are particular examples of such work that help in understanding these concepts and should be read. These two concepts teach a lot about the other realities of life and about life and death and should definitely be studied as it gives food for thought to the soul. Works Cited Cruz, Laura. Morbid fascination: teaching the history of death. Thomson Gale, 2006. Stearns, Peter N. Why Study History? 11 July 2008. 24 January 2012 . Wang, Shirely S. "The Power of Magical Thinking." 22 December 2009. The Wall Street Journal. 24 January 2012 . Read More