Faizah's History as Fiction

As we've finished reading Mumbo Jumbo,  there were many very interesting aspects of it to discuss. One discussion that was really fun to talk about in class was the idea of gender in this novel. We touched a lot on this topic in class over the two panel presentation days, and there were a few specific points that especially interested me. One thing that I am now kind of ashamed to admit is that I wasn't aware of the fact that none of the really significant characters in Mumbo Jumbo  are female until it was brought up in class. I think part of the reason why I didn't notice is because a lot of really popular books and movies today are still the same way, with no significant female characters except maybe one for sex appeal and 'diversity.' But when I went back and thought about it, I realized the characters we spent the most time talking about in class, and who had the most depth and growth throughout the novel, were all male. The only female character who I can r

I thought we had a really interesting discussion in class about history, fiction, and how they're similar and different from each other. It's strange that we are so quick to believe any historical source as the truth, when in fact some stories are told from extremely skewed perspectives. Contrastingly, novels deemed as "fiction" are considered to be 100% false, when many books are actually based on real events or experiences. I think the line between history and fiction is much thinner than some people might realize.  As we've heard from Mr. Leff multiple times, it is always important to look through sources, even ones that seem credible, with a grain of salt. As the saying goes, "history is written by the victors." We often hear about certain events only though one perspective, that being the people in positions of privilege and power. When one certain group gets to mold history to their will, it's easy for records to end up falling short of the