Jane Tompkins Indians Essay

Jane Tompkins asserts the view that perspective makes more sense when different people offer their account of the same story as opposed to when the same people are consulted to give their account of different stories all the time (Tompkins). She posits that issues arise when all accounts of different events are normally determined by the same frame of reference of the observer. She mentions this as the reason why people never know what really happens in history. Tompkins seeks to appeal to the ethos of her audience by the way she employs tactics like Kairos and exigence.

Tompkin’s intended audience is specific to the topic she discusses and remains reluctant to her suppositions. Throughout her presentation, Tompkins endeavors to establish Kairos and exigence with her audience. For instance, she says she encountered the problem of biased narration of events at the beginning of her teaching career when she was about to teach a course in colonial American literature (Tompkins). In doing so, she hopes to connect with her audience and make them understand exactly where she intends to take the conversation. Kairos denotes saying the right thing at the right time and hence her strategies work in connecting her idea with the perceptions of the audience.

Exigence denotes an issue that causes someone to write or speak. Tompkins begins employs the technique of exigence at the beginning of the narration in which she starts her presentation by explaining about the Indians who never appreciated their presence. She says, “When I was growing up in New York City, my parents used to take me to an event in Inwood Park at which Indians” (Tompkins). At the culmination of her explanation, she shifts her narration from the Indians to the matter of perspective and says her presentation has nothing to do with the Indians.

Works Cited
Tompkins, Jane. “Indians”: Textualism, Morality, and the Problem of History . n.d., www.public.asu.edu/~jvanasu/Indians.html. Accessed 2 May 2019.