"Assassination Vacation"

Paper Summary:

The paper examines how Sarah Vowell in "Assassination Vacation" focuses on the way presidential assassinations are remembered in a physical and commemorative fashion through memorials. The paper explains Vowell's belief that the fascination we have with artifacts disconnects rather than connects us to the past and the issues of the present. The paper suggests, however, that Vowell uses her experiences at tourist attractions to reexamine her own problematic relationships with guns and her father, rather than objectively evaluating the meaning of these sites on their own merits. The paper further points out the irony that although she loves reconstructed history, she doubts its value and, it creates a bond between herself and her father and other Americans that can transcend politics, while it can also polarize individuals.

From the Paper:

"In her book Assassination Vacation, Sarah Vowell views the tourist attractions featuring relics from presidential history with a wry eye, particularly those individuals obsessed with artifacts of the past. She is both alternately attracted and repelled by this aspect of American culture and America's way of remembering their recent and distant past. At times, her tone lapses into pure irony, but the historical figures themselves she views with respect, however kitsch and cliched the museums that commemorate great and mediocre presidents alike may seem at times. Even traveling through time as well as place the past can seem like a different country, a country that Vowell treats with a mix of humor and respect. Thus in her book, Vowell takes the literary vehicle of the travel genre, and uses it to travel through cultural time as well as space, examining the way that Americans have viewed presidential history over the years and musing the way we view the past reveals our nature as Americans."

Sample of Sources Used:

• O'Barr, William. Imagining the Other. Oxford: Westview Press, 1994.
• Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S.G.P.O.: for sale by the Supt. of Docs., U.S. G.P.O., 1989.
• Reck, W. Emerson. Abraham Lincoln: His Last 24 Hours. 1987.
• Vowell, Sarah. A Sampling of Political Speech. Soapbox. Published by theNational Endowment for the Arts. 2004.
• Vowell, Sarah. Take the Cannoli. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

More papers on "Assassination Vacation":

• Analytical Essay # 140058 : "Vacation Care Services and Payroll Needs"
• Descriptive Essay # 142470 : "My Most Interesting Vacation"
• Descriptive Essay # 127475 : "My Family Vacation"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: