Date of Award
4-3-2017
Document Type
Capstone
Department
English
First Advisor
Mark Christensen
Second Advisor
Season Ellison
Third Advisor
Lauren Cobb
Abstract
Capstone submitted as a graduate requirement for the BSU Honors Program.
Whether one likes history or not, history affects everyone. Everything that has happened in the past has led us to where we are today, as individuals, a society, and the world. We all learn in school about the concept of history, and we are taught about major historical events such as wars, prominent people, and cultures, at least to some degree. I define major historical events as public events that can be researched in books, online, and in documentary films and television footage. It is my belief that literature can recreate history in ways that are exciting and fresh. In “Rings in the Trees,” I write about historical events, but depict them in a different form than say a textbook or a lecture would. I use poetry, creative nonfiction, and fiction to explore historical events. Some of my pieces just barely touch on a historical event or era while other pieces focus completely on a historical event.
"Rings in the Trees” also includes personal histories that depict events in a person’s life that are not public knowledge and cannot easily be researched. These personal histories include two personal narratives and one creative nonfiction story about my father, written from my memories of the stories he told me as I grew up. Personal histories are as important as public historical events because public history is created by particular people living their lives. Major historical events such as World War II or the Enlightenment were made up of individual lives. The major events of the future will occur only because of the individual lives of people who live in a current moment and whose choices culminate into something beyond themselves. The people of the past did not know what the consequences of their individual histories would be, just as today we do not know how our lives will affect others in the future, in good or bad ways. Since our stories affect others, even if in a small way, it is important to share our stories with the world. No one lives the exact same life as someone else. Even if they live through some of the same experiences, they have their own opinions and ideas about them. By reading individual stories, we gain empathy for other people. It is hard to relate to thousands of people affected by an earthquake, for example. But when it is one person or a few people talking about their experiences in an earthquake, it scales it down and strong emotions can be created by this closer look at an event. We also can better understand situations and outcomes by looking at each person’s side of the story. We gain insight and understand why things might have unfolded a certain way. For example, we learn why the armed civilian shot the man who was robbing the store at gunpoint and why the man was robbing the store in the first place. This is important because otherwise we just have a list of facts without any reasoning behind them: a man with a gun robbed the store; another man shot him. We gain no understanding that way.
The poems and short stories I have selected for this project were chosen to create a well- rounded project, both historically and emotionally. Some pieces are lighthearted; for example, “Hit by Love” is an essay about a dodgeball game. Others are serious, addressing topics such as 9/11. Some pieces are personal; “A Kid’s Brother” is an essay about my childhood dog. Some pieces are historical, such as a poem about when the Twins won the World Series. The poems and stories I chose to include are my most polished pieces, having undergone revisions and been reviewed by others. I feel that they are my most successful poems, essays, and short stories.
Recommended Citation
Borchert, Jordan, "Rings in the Trees" (2017). Honors Capstones. 13.
https://pines.bemidjistate.edu/honors-cap/13
