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Nathaniel's Nutmeg Essay

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Are Historical Narratives A Better Representation Of History? Historical narratives are a different way of presenting history rather than reading the usual textbook. Historical narratives represent and tell the story of a specific part of history instead of many events all within a time period in one book, which is a textbook. The two types of readings have different uses that serve different purposes. Nathaniel’s Nutmeg is a historical narrative written by Giles Milton about the events and conflicts dealing with the Spice Islands and wars. Conflict, perspective, and plot all contribute to the readability and better understanding for readers of historical events in narratives rather than textbooks. Conflict is the struggles dealing with man versus nature, man, …show more content…

The four kind of conflict are not all featured in Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, but man versus man and man versus nature are. Man versus man deals with the power struggle between two people or two groups of people. In the book, many struggles are highlighted, including one between the Portuguese and the English, “arguing that Tidore was all but controlled by the hated Portuguese, he begged the English commander to change his course”(31). The Portuguese and the English were both fighting for control of the Spice Islands so that they could receive the “luxury” that was nutmeg (3). Nathaniel’s Nutmeg features the story of the Dutch versus the English as well, which is another example of man versus man. There is also another type of conflict in Nathaniel’s Nutmeg, man versus nature; this was dealt with a lot in depth in Nathaniel’s Nutmeg while explaining the merchant’s travels to the Spice Islands. “But as they rounded the rocky shores of northern Norway, ‘there came such flows of winde and terrible whirlewinds’ that Willoughby’s ship was blown off course,” explains the inevitable storms that came about while sailing by ship to and from the islands (11). Man versus nature is

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