Lee Smiths Oral History - Essay Example

However, this complexity seems to be the very vehicle upon which Smith presents to readers the idea of how complex writing or telling history is. In this novel, Smith puts herself and the reader in the shoes of a historian, who is faced with the dilemma of gathering a large collection of stories and accounts of things in the past to present to the public in a simple and straightforward manner. By making the narrative intricate, Smith takes the reader along for a dizzying journey that most serious historians take.

Smith cleverly uses different voices and points of view in the stories that the main character, Jennifer Bingham, had to hear. This reflects the arduous tasks that historians have to fulfill such as listening to diverse and oftentimes contradictory stories, reading various accounts, and discerning the truth, in order to explain to the public the things in the past. The different materials Jennifer had to collect in order to finish her coursework are but a minute representation of the enormous information that historians have to sift through and weave for the public to appreciate the richness of the past.

Smith also shows to the readers some unfortunate realities that happen in the art of history. The seemingly hurried conclusion of the novel, where Jennifer hastily completes her coursework, greatly portrays the pressures historians face in terms of time limits. While it can be safe to say that most historians would like to give comprehensive records of history, the demands of the public for them to come out with their accounts may well force them to rush things, resulting in certain inaccuracies in the revelation of history.

The rushed ending of the novel portrays the point upon which a historian has to put his or her hands down to say that 'such is definitely what happened in an attempt to complete the account. Apart from the appreciation of the intricate job of historians, readers can pick up another significant matter with regards to the study of history - the active role of the learner to discern the truth from the various materials one consumes. Like Jennifer Bingham, people studying the past, whether it be formal accounts or even simple family stories, should have sharp and critical minds in order to filter fact from hearsay.

Perhaps the most important matter that Oral History imparts is the use of careful judgment in looking at things in the past to avoid believing in something, which is far from the truth.