Writing Ethically: Essays of John Edgar Wideman and Jane Tompkins
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published 06/06/2008
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SummaryThe essays “Our Time” by John Edgar Wideman and “Indians’: Textualism, Morality and the Problem of History” by Jane Tompkins are both written by people who are telling stories about experiences that are not their own. Wideman is writing about his brother Robby and all of the difficulties he encounters, so that Robby’s story will not go unheard. Tompkins is trying to uncover the real story of the interactions between American Indians and the Puritans in Colonial America, so that she will be able teach it to a class. Both of these writers find problems along the way that make it difficult for them to feel as though they are justified in their assessment of what occurred. No matter how much information is gathered, these writers are still bound by the limits of their own perspective. Writers in such cases need to consider their distance from the subject and be sure to have some level of objectivity.
Table of Contents
- After consulting both primary and secondary sources on the matter, Tompkins finds consistent problems.
- The perspective Wideman has as Robby's brother is different from his perspective as the narrator, which allows Wideman to distinguish his own version of the story from Robby?s.
- Varying perspectives allow audiences to gather more information and come to their own conclusions.
- Tompkins takes a similar approach to her epistemological dilemma as Wideman takes to his.
- During the time Wideman spends with his brother, his opinion of the reliability of his account completely changes, and he is able to come to a conclusion about it.
- Neither one of these writers expected to encounter such deep or ethical concerns. They realize that finding truth will be much harder than the first suspected.
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