Analysis of Historical Accounts in Lincoln in the Bardo

By including historical accounts, Saunders created an interesting dynamic in Lincoln in the Bardo. The historical accounts provide context as to what is happing outside the bardo. This context is incredibly useful in understanding Lincolns frame of mind. For instance, the historical accounts on pages 152-154 that describe the war help explain Lincolns thoughts while Vollman and Bevins are intermingled with him:

“Until lately I was one of them. Strolling whistling through the slaughterhouse, averting my eyes from the carnage, able to laugh and dream and hope because it had not yet happened to me”. (Saunders 155)

Without the historical accounts of the war, and the carnage it was creating, the reader would lose the full meaning of Lincolns thoughts.

The historical accounts also help to contrast the living world with the bardo. When Saunders focuses on the ghosts, we have almost no sense of time. The ghosts themselves, in the beginning, are completely oblivious of just how much time they have spent in the bardo. Likewise, when focusing on the ghosts we lose almost any indication of what the rest of the world is doing. The accounts help to shed light on that, and anchor the reader.

It is also important to take note of the similarities between the historical account and the ghosts. The first similarity is the structure of both sections. Like the ghosts, the historical accounts are written like a narrative, coming from a number of sources, almost in a conversational way. The sources can agree, build off one other, or even blatantly contradict one another. In this way, Saunders help to create a narrative much like he does with Vollman, Bevins, and Thomas. Each source has its own personality, and its own unique view on what happened during the civil war.

Much like the ghosts, the historical sections are also prone to have their differences. These differences are shown early in the novel, when trying to describe something as simple as the moon on a certain night. The account “There was no moon that night and the sky was heavy was heavy with clouds” (Saunders 19) was preceded by three accounts of how beautiful the moon was on that night. Through these disagreements, I feel that Saunders is trying to show how our perception of what history was like, and to an extent what happened, is influenced by those we experience it through. In addition to the disagreements, Saunders also makes use of fake sources. By creating his own accounts, Saunders is helping to bridge gaps that would otherwise exist in his narrative, and help give more depth to the historical accounts. The fake accounts help to create a picture that would otherwise be incomplete, and would fail to impact the reader. This use of fake sources illustrates the whole purpose of the historical accounts. The accounts are there to give context, to help the narrative that is occurring in the bardo, and to give insight into Lincoln and his grief.