Lisa Was Right

As is no surprise to me after watching The Simpsons for a number of year`s now as a reasonably mentally coherent semi-adult, the amount of actual thought and purpose in this episode was fairly large. The themes of the episode are also fairly in line with our latest reading by Patricia Limmerick. She writes about the haunted past which our country has of clear expansionism and brutal treatment of the Native Americans during the nineteenth century, but also how the Indians did their own part in creating their fate. Limmerick suggests that the only fair way to look at our past is to accept all of the stories from every culture which has been a part of the history of this country and to unite them all into one connected intertwined version of our past.

Shockingly, Lisa and the Iconoclast has a number of parts and themes which parallel Limmerick's essay. Lisa, being the intelligent and thorough little scholar which she always is, has to do very thorough research when assigned a project on Jebediah Springfield, the founder of the town. However, Lisa finds out in her research that the founder was actually a violent fraud who had a history of being a murderous pirate. After several attempts to convince the public of this truth she gives up. Then the convincing piece comes to her, but as she is about to reveal the secret to the whole town, she realizes that the memory of the man, regardless of his true identity is worth keeping because of what it brings out in people.

The similarities between the arguments come in Lisa's thoroughness. The implication that the true history of our country, or any individual only comes from finding all parts of the history of each individual involved in the town or country.

As for whether Lisa did the right thing, that depends on your individual definition of right and wrong based on your own personal beliefs and past. In my own mind, I would say that an effort to emphasize positive benefits and behaviors