Exploring Early American Literature: Key Themes and Authors

Posted on Aug 3, 2024 in Language

UNIT 1: JOHN SMITH (1580 – 1631) – The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles – Early American Literature to 1900

1. Representation of Violence in His Writings

There are three instances in which Captain Smith feels seriously threatened: 1. When he is attacked by the same bowmen who have killed two of his men and uses his guide as his shield, 2. When he is tied to a tree and is about to be shot with arrows, and 3. When he is dragged before Powhatan, and his head is placed on two great stones, while a number of people with clubs seem ready to beat his brains out.

The author mentions the following weapons: arrows used by the bowmen, bows (each bowman dances with a bow in his hand), pieces (firearms) and swords. Captain Smith implies that they have been seized but are not being used by the bowmen who have captured him and killed his men; a quiver of arrows, each bowman carries one; clubs, each bowman carries a club at his back; hatchets, the King makes his own hatchets.

The author also describes very precisely how his captors moved, first in single file, then in a snakelike formation he calls bissom, and later in a ring, thus revealing that he is an expert in warfare, thanks to his military background.

2. Autobiographical Elements

Captain Smith’s account of his captivity can be examined as an autobiographical text in which he construed himself as a brave hero. That his account is authentic can neither be proven nor conclusively denied, because of the lack of independent testimony regarding the events he records. Among the decisive actions he says he performed to save his life before he was captured are the true facts, or the imaginary feats, that he slew three of his attackers and wounded many others before he slipped into the middle of a slimy creek. At last, he seems convinced that Pocahontas had saved his life, but does not explicitly indicate any action on his part that may have prompted her to intervene. In short, although the author depicts himself as an intrepid, courageous, resourceful, and proud hero, readers may perceive him as a consummate self-promoter, overconfident and exaggeratedly boastful.

3. Discuss the Main Stylistic Features (e.g., Diction, Tone)

John Smith’s The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles has a tone that could be described as heroic, magnifying the events and inviting the reader to sympathize with the protagonist. Diction can be considered formal, lofty, and dignified, with a significant number of words belonging to the lexical field of war and battle (bissom, quiver, vambrance, bow, and others) and a word of Algonquian origin (pocones).

The proper language of authority is used in this vivid scene written by an author whose style can be described as grand or vigorous and rather ornate for modern tastes, yet clear and precise.

The kind of diction can be considered formal, that is, lofty and dignified, with long and well-built sentences and a significant number of Latinate words which imply courtliness. Drawing parallels with European hierarchical positions, Captain Smith referred to the tribal leaders as the King, the Queen, and the Emperor. As for punctuation, there is only one full stop apart from the final stop at the end of a long passage which could have been broken into several sentences. The pace is very fast, as can be expected from a writer who was a man of action. The tone of this extract could be described as heroic, with the author/protagonist construing himself as a brave, experienced, and capable explorer, magnifying the events he was supposed to be involved in, and encouraging his readers to sympathize with him and with Pocahontas.

4. Why Does the Author Omit the Personal Pronoun “I”?

Captain Smith refers to himself using the third person singular because in The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles (1624) he wants to distance himself from the narrative voice and give the impression that his account of events objectively reflects what happened. First-person narratives are suitable to express subjective impressions and opinions, but are less effective than third-person narratives when authors want their statements to be unanimously accepted as if they were universal truths. He depicted himself in a positive light, in a self-promoting way, enhancing his reputation as a resourceful and cultivated gentleman.

5. To What Extent Could This Episode Be Interpreted as Part of a Ritual?

According to Captain Smith’s account, Pocahontas took his head in her arms and laid her own head upon him to save him from death, but he did not explicitly indicate any action on his part that may have prompted her to intervene.

The veracity of the famous episode in which Pocahontas supposedly saved the Captain’s life is still in dispute because it seems awkward that whenever Smith mentioned Pocahontas in earlier versions of his captivity narrative he invariably omitted that crucial incident. In fact, there was no trace of her courageous intervention in his first book, published in 1608, less than a year after Smith’s capture, nor in the detailed text which was printed with his Map of Virginia.

It was not until 1624, seven years after Pocahontas’ death in England, that Smith publicized a thrilling account which was suspiciously similar to another rescue by an Indian princess described in a Spanish work that he might have read in those years. Since Powhatan had also died in 1618, there was no one to contradict the author. Smith may have borrowed or invented the episode for its melodramatic effect, taking advantage of the fame of Powhatan’s daughter in London society at a time when the English had to justify war on Powhatan’s nation.

It is suggested that the Captain might have misunderstood a ceremony of naturalization and adoption in which he was symbolically killed and reborn with the status of one of Powhatan’s sons. Pocahontas’ action would have been part of a ritual which Smith could not understand.

6. What Impression of the American Natives Does the Author Convey?

The author briefly refers to his captors’ exotic physical appearance, focusing on the way they decorate their bodies. As the writer never uses direct or reported speech in this passage, we only learn about his captors from what he says they did. At no time are the Natives presented engaging in conversation or articulately expressing their thoughts, but “singing and yelling out…”

The author tried to give the impression that the Natives were moody or temperamental, and totally unpredictable, so that his original audience might easily understand why he was always unsure of his fate. Smith’s contemporary readers probably perceived such behavior as primitive, extravagant, and irrational. However, nowadays most readers incline to sympathize with them rather than with the invaders of their territories.

Smith portrays the Native Americans as heathen, beastly, and threatening. Derogatory terms: this is reflected by the choice of words like “savages,” “hellish notes.” Despite this negative image, the author cannot repress a certain fascination or appeal for the natives and their culture (“an exceeding handsome show).

7. Literary Sources in the Writings of John Smith

The main function of the quotation from Seneca (lines 49-50) is to demonize the inhabitants of the New World by presenting them as devils, and by likening their dwellings to hell. Additionally, this mention of hell underscores Captain Smith’s predicament during his captivity.

He was a self-made man of action who was addressing readers back in England in order to explain the advantages of his aggressive colonial policy and to emphasize his central role in the survival of the Jamestown colony, which was the first permanent English settlement in America. In other words, he wrote with political intention and his work constitutes a major resource for understanding the concept of “manifest destiny”: the notion that America made manifest the destined expansion of European civilization and, therefore, that Europeans had the right to take possession of the whole continent.

8. Historical Sources / Historical Context

The creation of the Virginia Company and the establishment of the first English settlements on the American coast, at the beginning of the 17th century.

John Smith became involved with the Virginia Company, which was a joint-stock corporation formed with a charter from King James I and charged with the settlement of Virginia. In December 1606, Smith sailed with the Virginia Company’s first colonists as one of the seven councillors who were to govern the colony, due to his rich experience and strong character. Their main goal was commercial, not religious.

9. Style of John Smith

There are two essential factors that must be taken into account: his background and his purpose in writing.

John Smith was an experienced military man; the American colonies offered him an opportunity for adventure and financial improvement. Smith’s religious stance did not prevent him from appreciating the highly crafted literature of his time – dismissed by Puritans – and, to a certain extent, be influenced by it. That is the reason why his style is relatively ornate, including quotations from secular sources.

It is generally accepted that he used his General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles to project a heroic image of himself.

Smith’s text claims to be a history.

10. The New World and Its Inhabitants

Captain Smith portrayed the tribesmen and their leaders as if they were soldiers and officers in a European army, and deliberately focused his audience’s attention on military order. Because he wanted to make readers understand differences in rank and authority among his captors, he drew parallels with European hierarchical positions, and consequently spoke about the King of Pamunkey, the Queen of Appomattoc, and the Emperor.

***How Blend Fact and Fiction in His Works

***Narrative Strategies When He Depicts His Captivity Experiences

***Literary Strategies When He Dealt with the Topic of War / He Represented It Realistically or Gave an Idealized View of It

***Blend His Political and Literary Interests in His Writings

***Immigrant Experience in the Colonial Period

UNIT 2: WILLIAM BRADFORD (1590 – 1657) – FROM OF PLYMOUTH PLANTATION – EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1900

1. Representation of Himself (Self-Representation)

William Bradford wrote about lived experiences, which he believed had made him and his faith stronger. He was also certain his writings could be useful for others. Hence his interest in presenting themselves and their plight as exemplary.

As Puritans, Bradford thought of himself as a member of a “chosen people”: his religious convictions were solid and, because of this, he felt that God was on his side (the death of the unchristian man on the Mayflower, which Bradford unhesitatingly interprets as God’s punishment).

Puritans were expected to be very familiar with Biblical texts and use them to shed light on his own experiences. Showing through allusion and quotation that he always had the word of God in mind was important in presenting himself as righteous and observant.

Bradford comes across as a leader of a community who never doubts the validity of his beliefs and accepts his destiny as providential. As the leader of a “chosen people,” he can be readily identified with Moses.

Bradford’s self-representation has heroic overtones.

2. Main Elements and Features of the Genre

Puritans officially condemned ornate speech, which they associated with the English aristocracy and the preachers of the Church of England. The English Puritans promoted humble modes of verbal expression that were intended primarily to inform and instruct, not to please. From the outset, the author of the history Of Plymouth Plantation declared that he would write in the plain style of biblical simplicity. However, Bradford was familiar with the literary fashions of his day, which abounded in figures of speech of greater or lesser complexity.

The genre of Puritan history served the useful purpose of enhancing spiritual life by interpreting God’s design, because human history was considered a progress of mankind toward a predetermined end. In other words, history was perceived as a continuum, moving toward a particular outcome, according to God’s plans.

Of Plymouth Plantation is not a chronicle, but a history (a series of events with a shape and a purpose).

3. Main Stylistic Features

An author’s style is their “characteristic way of writing or mode of expression.” There are two essential factors that must be taken into account: his background and his purpose in writing.

William Bradford was a Puritan dissenter who left his native country and saw America as a “New Jerusalem,” a land where people like him could peacefully live according to his faith.

As a strict Puritan, Bradford followed the precepts of plain style, to which we have referred above. As a writer, therefore, he did not struggle to make his prose aesthetically appealing: his practice was to make his language an effective communicative tool. It is reminiscent of Biblical style and, by quoting the Old Testament; Bradford recurrently links the history of Israel with the experience of the “Pilgrim Fathers.”

Bradford’s purpose in writing Of Plymouth Plantation was to set down how God had granted the “Pilgrim Fathers” a safe arrival in his Promised Land. Bradford would have censured a heroic image of himself as vanity.

Bradford belongs to the genre of the “Puritan History.”

*Ideological Document

The genre of Puritan history served the useful purpose of enhancing spiritual life by interpreting God’s design, because human history was considered a progress of mankind toward a predetermined end. In other words, history was perceived as a continuum, moving toward a particular outcome, according to God’s plans. Of Plymouth Plantation is not a chronicle (a record of mere deeds or a simple sequence of events), but a history (a series of events with a shape and a purpose). It is an intentionally ideological document where the author produced a good example of providentialist historiography. It was written in order to spread a specific ideology, Calvinist and Puritan thinking: if you truly believe in God and follow his rules, he will protect you and eventually you will enjoy the life you deserve on earth and the eternal life after death.

4. Historical Context

Bradford joined a community of religious believers who had ‘separated’ from the Church of England. They were dissenters, strict Calvinists, who established a Church of their own in 1606. At a time when Church and State were united, those who seceded from the Church of England were often persecuted not only as heretics but as traitors to the king. The Scrooby Congregation decided to move again from Holland (where they went running away from England) in search of a better life, to New England. They regarded their journey to the ‘promised land’ as a religious pilgrimage (they were called later the ‘Pilgrim Fathers’). They bought a small ship, the Speedwell, and in England they hired a merchant vessel, the Mayflower. The Speedwell leaked badly so they traveled in the Mayflower alone. All the passengers had received financial backing from a consortium of London merchants. They sighted land at Cape Cod and disembarked at the site of the future town of Plymouth (1620).

5. Autobiographical Elements

The genre of Puritan history served the useful purpose of enhancing spiritual life by interpreting God’s design, because human history was considered a progress of mankind toward a predetermined end. In other words, history was perceived as a continuum, moving toward a particular outcome, according to God’s plans.

Of Plymouth Plantation is not a chronicle, but a history (a series of events with a shape and a purpose).

As Puritans, Bradford thought of himself as a member of a “chosen people”: his religious convictions were solid and, because of this, he felt that God was on his side (the death of the unchristian man on the Mayflower, which Bradford unhesitatingly interprets as God’s punishment).

6. Comment on the Narrative Voice and the Narrative Modes

William Bradford himself is the “I” or first-person narrator of the history of Plymouth Plantation in the passage extracted from Book 1, Chapter IX. Bradford’s main concern as a writer was the relevance of the events, rather than their attractive presentation. His aim with the third person could be to present the facts as the story to the Pilgrims (including himself). He changes from “they” to “I” when he wants to bring objective events into relation with Scripture or with his own thoughts.

Third-person narrative with occasional switches to first.

-Bradford writes in third person as though he were not present during the experience.

-He then uses first-person pronouns, myself, to indicate that he was one of the sick.

-Shows an emphasis on the community rather than himself.

7. Literary Sources / Biblical Sources in the Writings

Bradford references Seneca’s voyage to compare to the Mayflower.

Bible à “they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven (Daniel 2:19).

Seneca, Moral Epistles to Lucilius, line 5.

Uses biblical allusion to compare Native American encounter with Apostle Paul.

Saint Paul records how, after their shipwreck, they were welcomed by some “barbarians” (people who spoke a language unknown to them). à The chief influence on Bradford’s writings was the Bible, which he often quoted or paraphrased. For instance, he drew a direct analogy to Saint Paul’s shipwreck. According to the author, the plight of the Pilgrims was even worse than that of “the Apostle and his shipwrecked company.” (where the inhabitants built a fire for them against the cold and provided them with food and shelter for three months). Bradford and the Pilgrims were not given any kind of food or offered some kind of accommodation, because the Wampanoag had had previous contact with European explorers which sometimes ended in violent disruption of their stable way of life.

Ezekiel 6:14 à wilderness.

Top of Pisgah à Mountain ridge east of the north end of the Dead Sea, from which Moses viewed the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 3:27. Bradford described the basic difference which he pointed out between the New World, as seen by the Pilgrims, and Moses’ vision of Canaan in Deuteronomy 3. Bradford regarded the Pilgrims as the new Israelites or “chosen people” and America as “the promised land of Canaan.” The term “Pilgrim Fathers” clearly connects with the books of the Old Testament: Israel as the chosen people, the wandering in the desert and the hope of reaching the Promised Land. Puritans dreamed of a “New Jerusalem” where they could be safe, but a basic difference was pointed out by Bradford, Moses could see from the Pisgah the Promised Land in Deuteronomy whereas the Pilgrims’ only source of comfort was looking at the sky and thinking about heaven.

8. Binary Oppositions

Binary oppositions are a pair of mutually exclusive alternatives. Typical binary oppositions include good and evil.

9. Subject Matter and Purpose

William Bradford, the author of Of Plymouth Plantation, is a Puritan writer whose grand objective is to educate his readers in the Puritan doctrines of Christianity and to be an example to his audiences. To this end, he writes in the Plain Style – lacking embellishments or decorative language. He writes in a clear, precise style.

The Puritan protagonists face challenges from nature (the sea, the wilderness, the natives) and the author attributes successes and failures to God’s divine will, Providence, in accordance with his beliefs. The death of a shipmate in Bradford is not the result of bad weather, but simply God’s plan. The ultimate victories over the Natives and wilderness are seen as a sign that the Puritans are God’s chosen people. In this way, the text serves as propaganda for the colonies’ Western expansion; the new frontier should/must be theirs, because that is what God wants.

Bradford presents himself in a more heroic light. He is an exemplary leader of his flock and his providential historiography is written in a manner to reflect this position. He acknowledges no weakness or doubt; his faith is unshakable.

In summary, the writer reveals a strong Puritan faith in God’s divine plan, in good or bad times. Bradford emphasizes his role as a leader. He writes in the hope that his experiences will lead the way for his readers to trust in God’s Providence as well.

10. Interpretation of Historical Events

It is essential to bear in mind that the author wrote with religious goals. Thus, he invariably interpreted such events in supernatural terms, as the direct result of God’s providence, disregarding the political and economic reasons for the attacks which the Natives inflicted on the Puritan colonists, whose physical and spiritual ordeal was the main issue the writer considered worth of attention. According to his orthodox Puritan principles, the author understood historical events as a manifestation of God’s judgment, so that the bad fortune endured by people was a sign of divine punishment (as in Bradford’s rendering of the episode of “the proud and very profane young man” who was the first to die on the Mayflower, whereas his good fortune meant divine favor, often perceived as merciful forgiveness for the sinner’s past faults. Bradford wrote Of Plymouth Plantation not as a chronicle merely recording a series of events, but in the tradition of providential historiography, a genre which presents history as the progress of mankind moving toward a particular outcome or predetermined end, always according to God’s plans.

11. The New World and Its Inhabitants

Of Plymouth Plantation shows little interest in Native culture and pays almost no attention to the beauty of the New World’s flora and fauna. The key to that attitude is already evident in the author’s depiction of the landscape of New England on his arrival. The author’s description of the landscape invites readers to think that the Pilgrim’s immediate future will be difficult and dangerous.

There is a difference between the threat from the wilderness and the support that, according to the author, the Pilgrims received from God.

Bradford regarded the Pilgrims as the new Israelites or “chosen people” and America as “the promised land of Canaan.” New World, seen by the Pilgrims, and Moses’ vision of Canaan in Deuteronomy 3.

According to the Puritans, Christ died for the elect alone; therefore, “savage barbarians” were considered as excluded from Redemption.

Bradford’s horror of the wild (which pervaded the first passage) has been transformed in the second passage. The perception of the American landscape and his attitude to nature has changed in one year as a result of colonization.

12. How Are Native Americans Portrayed?

According to the Puritans, Christ died for the elect alone; therefore, “savage barbarians” were considered as excluded from Redemption. Puritans saw Indians less as “The Lost Tribes” than as irredeemable “heathens.” Shifting the biblical context through which they understood the Native Americans, Puritans likened them to the Canaanites or Amalekites, heathen peoples whom God sent as a scourge to test the nation of Israel and whose extermination was necessary for the fulfillment of his divine plan.

***Immigrant Experience in the Colonial Period

UNIT 3: ANNE BRADSTREET (1612 – 1672) (The Author to Her Book; To My Dear and Loving Husband; Upon the Burning of Our House; On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet) – Early American Literature to 1900

1. How Used Imagery

Imagery is the use of related images. Visual imagery is not only visual but literal language. Auditory imagery represents sounds.

For example, visual imagery: “Three flowers, two scarcely blown, the last i’ th’ bud, / Cropped by th’ Almighty’s hand” (“On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet”, verses 3-4). When I read that metaphor, I imagine three flowers, two of which are more open than the third. Although the author does not tell us what flowers they are or what color they are, I have always imagined three small white roses, although I could have imagined them of another color, perhaps pink or yellow, but probably not red. However, not all metaphors evoke visual images. For example, if I say that Juan is a lynx, I am not imagining the animal, but his qualities, so I do not evoke any visual image (related to the sense of sight).

When a poet writes about flowers, he can evoke their perfume (which Bradstreet does not do in the previously cited poem), in which case we will talk about an olfactory image.

“Velvet hands” is an example of tactile imagery (related to the sense of touch), because with it we imagine very soft hands.

The brilliant poet reveals her values and her love for grandchildren through the use of metaphors, repetition, and a persuasive organization. Most of the imagery in the three verses is created by the use of metaphors. By using terms such as “she was but a withering flower,” Bradstreet’s viewpoints and opinions are emphasized, and furthermore, the text is frequently more interesting to read than simply stating, “she was a rheumatic being.” Lines such as “three flowers, two scarcely blown…”, “farewell fair flower…”, and “…buds new blown to have so short a date” are also used to record the similitude between the children and flowers. Nature is used strongly to equate death. In Bradstreet’s point of view, the children’s deaths are like plums and apples that ripen and fall, and corn whiskey and grass that is mown. Again, this is much more appealing than a simple, non-metaphorical statement. Secondly, a rolling repetition shown in lines such as farewell, skinny baby…, farewell sweet baby…, and farewell fair flower… adds to the prominent love from the writer and calls attention to her point. Last of all, a diminutive rhyme scheme is used in the song intimately Elizabeth. The three lines of each verse end with carry rhymes, are used for the same reason as the repetition: to importantly stress a point.

Moreover, the ending line of each poem shows Bradstreet’s philosophy on fate and exposes a confident view of death. The firstborn poem ends with “thou with thy Savior art in deathless bliss,” showing that even though Anne is deceased, she leaves experience fadeless happiness. The second poem ends in a similar way, postulating Simon to enter endless joy with his sisters. The poem on Elizabeth ends by stating that buds new blown to have so short a date is by His hand…

2. How Used Figurative Language / Metaphor

Figurative language “departs from the literal meaning of the words used. The most common example is metaphor, masterfully used by the poet Anne Bradstreet.

The fact that Bradstreet was a Puritan might lead those unacquainted with her work to assume that she adhered to plain style and that this form of writing excludes creative metaphors.

The truth is that many of Bradstreet’s poems revolve around a central metaphor: famously the extended metaphor AN AUTHOR’S BOOK IS HER SON (“The Author to Her Book”), LOVE IS FIRE (implicit in the line “My love is such that rivers cannot quench,” from the poem “To My Dear and Loving Husband), HEAVEN IS A LUXURIOUS HOUSE (from the conclusion of “Upon the Burning of Our House), DEAD BABIES ARE CROPPED FLOWERS (“On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet).

Most of these metaphors are instrumental for the poems to be successful, both as lyrical and rhetorical pieces. The associated images channel the thematic component vividly, linking it to common experience (family life, nature and agriculture, the animal world) and making it memorable.

3. How Reflected the Social Contexts in Which She Lived

As women at that time were pressured to stay out of the public eye, in the preface of “The Author to Her Book,” her brother Woodbridge emphasized that he was solely responsible for the publication of the volume, without the author’s approval and that she had not neglected her family duties in order to write poetry.

In this poem, the author, well aware of her society’s reaction to women who dare to venture out of their prescribed place, portrays herself in the more acceptable role of a powerless mother who lacks the resources to care for her family.

4. Ambiguity and Ambivalence

There is ambiguity when more than one meaning or interpretation is possible. Ambivalence means that more than one attitude is being displayed by the poet.

There is ambivalence in:

Bradstreet’s Puritan allegiance versus her religious doubts in the face of tragic events (“Upon the Burning of Our House” and “On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet”). Her pride as a talented poet and the Puritan emphasis on humility against vanity (“The Author to Her Book); her deep love for her husband and her awareness that, according to Puritan doctrine, human affections distract believers from praising God (“To My Dear and Loving Husband”).

These examples of ambivalence are parallel with or reflected by textual ambiguity. Accordingly, we can interpret “Upon the Burning of Your House” or “On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet” as expressions of acceptance of God’s will or of rebellion against it.

“The Author to Her Book” as an author’s attempt to draw attention to her own art or as a sincere acknowledgment of its limitations; “To My Dear and Loving Husband” as simply a declaration of love or a statement that Divine love fuels all human affections.

A logical conclusion is the link to the poet’s ambivalence and ambiguity to the various social constraints – patriarchal, racist, religious, that prevented her from being totally open.

The poet does not feel completely free to express openly everything that comes to her mind; she seems to be willing to share some of her thoughts with readers who are perceptive enough to understand ironic discourse and to unveil meanings hidden under the words of socially constrained texts.

8. Metrical Pattern and the Main Rhetorical Devices (Tone) How Used Poetic Conventions / Irony

-The Author to Her Book

The poem is written in heroic couplets, also called rhyming couplets because they rhyme on consecutive lines, in pairs (aa, bb, cc, dd). There is a metric pattern known as iambic, which is the most common pattern in English poetry. Since each metrical line of this poem has ten syllables and each foot has two syllables, each line has five feet. A line of verse consisting of five feet is called a pentameter. Therefore, regarding form, the following lines are rhymed iambic pentameters. Balance and control are the main characteristics of this heroic couplet.

This poem used an extended metaphor, a pun (paronomasia) line 15. Like most artists, Bradstreet probably had mixed feelings about her book, but some of her fears were clearly determined by the fact that she was a literary woman writing in a patriarchal society so that the tone of her poem is peculiar. You have to pay attention to the flash of anger expressed in lines 15-16. The tone changes according to the attitude of the author.

-To My Dear and Loving Husband

The doctrine of weaned affections: secular love must not be rejected because it can be linked to eternal love, blessed by God.

In this poem, Bradstreet uses Biblical language. The beginning of this poem calls to mind Ephesians 5, which defines the nature and duties of marriage. While directing the couple to love one another, Saint Paul in Ephesians 5:25 likens the love in an earthly marriage to the mystical marriage of Christ, as bridegroom and the Church, as bride.

Regarding metre, the following lines are rhymed iambic pentameters. As the twelve lines rhyme in pairs, the poem is formed by six rhymed couplets.

Anaphora is the repetition of a word or group of words in successive clauses. There are three metaphors in lines 5-7. There is imagery of wealth and debt. Paradox in the last line of the poem. A paradox is a statement which appears to be self-contradictory, yet reveals an unexpected, valid meaning.

-Upon the Burning of Our House

This poem provides a clear example of the tension the poet experienced between her domestic concerns and her spiritual aspirations. The speaker, who is once more the poet herself, sadly recalls in detail the prized material possessions she lost in the fire which destroyed her house. Bradstreet dwells on her misfortune for the first 32 lines when, suddenly in line 36 there is an abrupt change of direction. She turns to the Bible and finds comfort in the promise of a permanent house in heaven.

In this poem, the rhyming couplets are also formed by iambs, but each line has eight syllables, instead of the ten syllables in the lines of the other three poems in our selection. If lines formed by five metrical feet were called pentameters, the ones with only four metrical feet are called tetrameters. Therefore, the following poem is written in rhymed iambic tetrameters.

-“On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet”

It is an elegy.

In the first stanza, she reveals a sorrow which threatens to overwhelm her because she seems to be left alone to struggle with despair. In the second stanza, the poet appears to be able to master her grief and accept the divine will, although it could be argued that such acceptance is not really complete. If the irony of the poem is emphasized, it can be interpreted as a direct criticism of the goodness of God.

This elegy is written in rhymed iambic pentameters.

Apostrophe is a figure of speech in which a thing, a place, an abstract quality, an idea, a dead or absent person is addressed as if present and capable of understanding.

Pathos is the quality in a work of art which evokes deep feelings of tenderness, pity, or sorrow.

10. Literary Context

As for her literary strategies, she felt she had to abide by the principles of Puritan aesthetics, which encouraged her to adopt some features of the typical “plain style,” but her work was also deeply rooted in the ornamented style of the Renaissance tradition. She was very much influenced by sixteenth-century poets such as Sir Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Sir Walter Raleigh, and the French Calvinist poet Guillaume du Bartas, whom she called her “literary godfather.”

She was also inspired by her British contemporaries, the English Metaphysical poets, such as John Donne and George Herbert.

Apart from the Scriptures, they are full of allusions to the works of Ovid, Virgil, Cicero, and Horace, and include references to Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, Herbert, and Vaughan.

* ANNE BRADSTREET – SOR JUANA INES DE LA CRUZ (1651-95)

-They share some experiences (ill health, inner spiritual crises, a deep sense of religion combined with a genuine concern for secular problems, and the difficulties of writing in a male-dominated intellectual world.) and poetic themes (e.g., Speaking about their poems as their children).

-Both of them adhered to the major aesthetic conventions of their time and wittily repudiated prejudices against women poets, Bradstreet using the convention of ironic self-deprecation and Sor Juana resorting to paradox and polemic.

11. Ideology of the Author

Literary critics generally consider two aspects of Anne Bradstreet: on the one hand, her public self as a member of a community of devout and strict Puritans, as the dutiful daughter of a prominent man and as the submissive wife of a well-known colony official; and, on the other hand, her private self, emotionally attached to her family as a wife, mother, and grandmother. Her work shows the complex struggle to reconcile both aspects: the public voice, which tends to be imitative, and the private voice which is more original.

She is often seen as a poet of ambivalences and hesitancies, of unresolved conflicts, of tensions between her religious duty and her inner feelings. She probably experienced some kind of self-division based on the tensions between what she thought she ought to feel and what she really felt. Puritan theology told her what she had to believe and rigorous social codes told her how she had to behave, but she also had to cope with her own deep feelings and personal perceptions in the both attractive and harsh life of a colony. For instance, Puritan theologians had warned that the senses were unreliable and that appeals to the imagination were dangerous. This particular religious doctrine was contrary to her nature, for she found great pleasure in the agreeable realities of the present and was captivated by the beautiful landscape of the New World. She was also terrified when she crossed the Atlantic and because of her misfortune, in the form of material loss, or even worse, of her grandchildren dying.

Furthermore, she acknowledged that she had been troubled by religious doubts all her life, due to spiritual confusion “concerning the verity of scriptures.”

12. Historical Context / Ideology

The first published book of poems by an inhabitant of America was also the first book in American literature to be published by a woman.

She was born and educated in England. She received an education far superior to that of most women of her time. At the age of sixteen, she married Simon Bradstreet, her father’s assistant. They were non-separatist Puritans who wanted to reform the Church of England from within and were persecuted for their radical theology.

The Non-Separatists settled the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Anne gave birth eight times.

The four poems belong to the last two decades of Anne Bradstreet’s life, a period in which she developed her own techniques out of the aesthetic conventions she learned in her formative years, and she drew basically upon her own personal experiences, moving toward greater sincerity and independence.

13. Binary Oppositions

Binary oppositions are a pair of mutually exclusive alternatives. For instance, good and evil.

14. Self-Representation

Although Bradstreet didn’t write his autobiography, she employed a number of self-construction and self-representation procedures when she wrote poems about her experiences, which she believed had made her and her faith stronger. She was also certain that her writings could be useful for others. Hence her interest in presenting herself as exemplary for other pious Christians. Being equally well acquainted with the Bible, Bradstreet intimated some of her religious doubts and ambivalences (e.g., about God’s goodness).

Bradstreet revealed her deep feeling and genuine personal perceptions not only when she enjoyed the bliss of her happy marriage, but also when she was forced to confront misfortune both in the form of death (“On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet”) and in that of material loss (“Upon the Burning of Our House).

Bradstreet was a highly literate poet who deliberately represented herself as a modest and humble woman, resorting to various ironic self-deprecatory strategies which were partly the result of certain poetic conventions, and to a certain extent a calculated rhetorical pose meant to protect herself from harsh criticism.

Bradstreet expressed her domestic concerns as a seventeenth-century dutiful housewife (e.g., grieving for the loss of her home goods). Bradstreet focused her attention on family relations when she represented herself as a wife passionately in love with her husband (“To My Dear and Loving Husband”), as a devoted mother of eight children, and as a grandmother who mourned the death of some of her beloved grandchildren (“On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet”).

UNIT 4: MARY ROWLANDSON (1637 – 1671) (From A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson) – Early American Literature to 1900

1. Subject Matter and Themes

Mary Rowlandson, author of A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson, is a Puritan writer whose grand objective is to educate her readers in the Puritan doctrines of Christianity and to be an example to her audiences. To this end, she writes in the Plain Style – lacking embellishments or decorative language. She writes in a clear, precise style.

The Puritan protagonist faces challenges from nature (the sea, the wilderness, the natives) and attributes successes and failures to God’s divine will, Providence, in accordance with her beliefs. The death of a daughter in Rowlandson is not the result of bad weather or biology, but simply God’s plan. The ultimate victories over the Natives and wilderness are seen as a sign that the Puritans are God’s chosen people. In this way, this text serves as propaganda for the colonies’ Western expansion; the new frontier should/must be theirs, because that is what God wants.

Mary Rowlandson makes no attempt to be heroic. She admits to weakness in wanting to die and stealing food. She acknowledges a changing attitude to her “heathen” captors and even recognizes that some are kind to her – resembling Christians. Her Narrative shows growth in self-reliance and survival skills as well as on a spiritual plan.

In summary, the writer reveals a strong Puritan faith in God’s divine plan, in good or bad times. Rowlandson emphasizes her role as a survivor. She writes in the hope that her experiences will lead the way for their readers to trust in God’s Providence as well.

2. Features of the Genre

The excerpt is from Mary Rowlandson’s A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson. The genre is, of course, the captivity narrative. Among its main characteristics are the choice of the first-person singular, the negative portrayal of the Native Americans, the personal evolution of the captive (whose faith emerges stronger) and the episodic structure.

3. Self-Representation

Mary Rowlandson portrays herself both as a dynamic character that evolves over the course of her narrative, and as a well-rounded character, with a variety of complex traits. Her spiritual autobiography contains psychological commentary about her variable emotional states, revealing the classic symptoms of the survivor syndrome, including depression, anxiety, insomnia, disorientation, guilt, despair, and grief. If her Narrative appeals to modern readers, it is probably thanks to its immediacy, presumable truthfulness, and seemingly accurate self-representation. Although she tends to emphasize her strength and resourcefulness, she also acknowledges her weaknesses and other personal faults, in accordance with the Puritan practice of exposing the sinful heart to public judgment. For instance, in the “Eighteenth Remove,” she is honest enough to tell an episode that casts her in an unfavorable light. She frankly reports that she grabbed a piece of boiled horse’s foot from the mouth of a starving English child, one of her fellow prisoners, once she had avidly eaten her own portion: “Being very hungry, I had quickly eaten up mine, but the child could not bite it; it was so tough and sinewy, but lay sucking, gnawing, chewing, and slobbering of it in the mouth and hand. Then I took it from the child and ate it myself, and savory it was to my taste.”

Apart from being the main character of her account, Rowlandson also presents herself as a very reliable narrator, for she carefully records whether she is an eyewitness of the specific actions and events she reports, or if her information is based on hearsay. For example, she makes this distinction in the very first paragraph of her Narrative, where she states in parentheses, “(as they told me)” and in the following paragraph, where she punctiliously affixes two nuanced notes: “(according to my observation, in that amazing time)” and “(as would seem).”

Mary Rowlandson wrote about lived experiences, which she believed had made her and her faith stronger. She was also certain her writings could be useful for others. Hence her interest in presenting herself and her plight as exemplary.

As a Puritan, Rowlandson thought of herself as a member of a “chosen people”: her religious convictions were solid and, because of this, she felt that God was on her side.

Puritans were expected to be very familiar with Biblical texts and use them to shed light on her own experiences. Showing through allusion and quotation that she always had the word of God in mind was important in presenting herself as righteous and observant.

Rowlandson is similarly a model Puritan who accepts her captivity as God’s will and emerges a wiser and better woman from that experience. In that sense, she can be thought of as a Job figure – she established the parallelism herself. Despite her endurance and acceptance, however, Rowlandson cannot avoid voicing her disappointment that the English failed to rescue her and other captives.

Even though Rowlandson’s faith never wavers, she doesn’t conceal her weaknesses (episode in which she steals some food from a little girl, which she later regrets).

4. Plain Style

Plain Style was the variety of language characterized by “simplicity” and “directness,” which Puritans were encouraged to use. The extract, being a straightforward report of events, which no attempt to embellish, would be a good example of plain style.

5. Narrative Modes

When Rowlandson articulates the four main narrative modes (description, report, speech, and comment), she makes very little use of speech. In the selections included in American Literature to 1900, there is only one example of direct speech, when the mothers and children who are being assaulted during the attack on Lancaster cry out: “Lord, what shall we do?” This phrase stands in contrast with the absolute lack of speech on the part of the Natives, who only seem to be able to shout, howl, roar, sing, rant, and insult, and whose actual words are never cited.

The narrative mode which prevails throughout the narrative is report, entirely aimed at recounting real actions and events with strikingly graphic realism. Description (of people, objects, and geographical settings) is so well intertwined with report that it enhances vividness almost imperceptibly. On the contrary, comment is clearly noticed, the point of becoming quite obtrusive for modern readers. Since the stated purpose of Rowlandson’s Narrative was to edify her children and friends, the author’s original audience probably expected her to interpret all sorts of actions and events in terms of providential hermeneutics, using abstract generalizations. However, today’s readers are likely to be disturbed by frequent moralizing disquisition and digressions. For instance, one of the most startling disruptions occurs in the middle of the rather long second paragraph of the narrative, where the writer interpolates the comment: “The Lord hereby would make us the more acknowledge His hand, and to see that our help is always in Him.”

Punctuation is revealing here, because Rowlandson resumes report with remarkable speed immediately after a period not even starting a new paragraph: “But out must we go the fire increasing and coming along behind us, roaring, and the Indians gaping before us with their guns, spears, and hatchets to devour us.” On the other hand, there are no such interruptions in the opening passage of the Narrative, whose swiftness underscores the surprising effect and the strong emotional impact of the morning attack.

6. Perception of Native Americans

At the beginning of her narrative, Mary Rowlandson rendered predictable racist stereotypes of the Natives by calling them “murderous wretches,” “wolves,” “hell-hounds,” and “ravenous beasts.” The simile she chose to depict the massacre of the colonists at the hands of the raiding party –“like a company of sheep torn by wolves”– illustrated the hunter-predator myth very precisely. In contrast with the colonists, whom she invariably called “Christians,” she referred to the Natives as “the bloody heathen” and “those merciless heathen,” ignoring the economic and political reasons they might have had to undertake the assault. Furthermore, Rowlandson’s word choice to report the attackers’ violent actions contributed to the dehumanizing representation of the Natives (e.g., the phrase “the Indians gaping before us with their guns, spears, and hatchets to devour us”).

Nevertheless, as time goes by, the author generally refers to them with the more neutral term of “Indians,” and less often as “Heathens” or “Pagans.” She also begins to give evidence of their virtues and to tell the difference between her various captors. For instance, she speaks of her “master” Quanopen as “the best friend that I had of an Indian,” whereas she despises his wife, Weetamoo, whom she calls a “severe and proud dame” and openly criticizes her for what she considers “vanity” (e.g., spending too much time taking care of her appearance, making up, and wearing jewels). Rowlandson expresses her happiness when she sees Quanopen and often records his acts of kindness, such as providing food for her, even fetching water himself so that she could wash, and then giving her a glass to see how she looked.

7. Captivity Narrative According to Subject Matter and Purpose

Although Captain John Smith’s account of his three-week captivity is not a separately published captivity narrative, and many scholars contend that it should not be classified as one of its true examples, it is widely recognized as the foremost precursor of this literary genre. Mary Rowlandson’s account of her eleven-week captivity, which strictly follows the jeremiad design, is the first and most famous full-length work of the genre. Smith’s text is focused on his adventures, whereas Rowlandson’s is centered on her religious ordeal.

Both Captain Smith and Mary Rowlandson depicted their captors as diabolical savages. John Smith proudly construed the account of his captivity to emerge as a hero who shamelessly boasted about his exploits. On the contrary, since Mary Rowlandson wrote for the spiritual edification of her readers, she was constrained to present herself as a poor sinner, humbly acknowledging her failures, and ascribing any success in her story to divine providence, rather than to her own accomplishments. John Smith’s worldly concerns and literary education throw light on his wish to ornament his captivity account with Greek and Latin quotations drawn from the works of secular authors. On the other hand, Rowlandson’s religious bent explains why she adopted the Puritan plain style and restricted herself to quoting from an English version of the Bible. Gender differences also justify some divergences between the works of the two authors regarding both subject matter and style at a time when the social roles of men and women were very far apart.

8. Propaganda Function

The propaganda function of the immensely popular captivity narratives was evident, for they did much more than merely entertain readers. Such narratives projected stereotypes which supported the religious and political aims of the colonists. Imagining the indigenous inhabitants of the New World as beasts, rather than as human beings, reinforced the perception that they did not deserve to keep the lands they lived in. Furthermore, the publication of accounts that presented the Natives as heathens, infidels, devil-worshippers, instruments or agents of Satan’s bidding, and even actual devils in human guise, helped to justify their extermination because it contributed to considering them a formidable threat to the theocracy that the New England Puritans sought to establish. The discourse of most captivity narratives not only assuaged guilt about the side effects of the invasion and subsequent colonial expansion, but staunchly endorsed the appropriation of land and the annihilation of its inhabitants as if they were religious duties undertaken to build the City of God on earth. Despite the much higher numbers of indigenous people captured by colonists, captivity narratives exclusively highlighted the relationship between Indian captors and captive colonists overlooking that this phenomenon occurred in both directions.

9. Biblical Sources

One of the basic theological principles of the Puritan faith was the unmediated relation between the believer and Christ, who manifested himself in the believer’s soul and in the Bible. Consequently, Scriptural exegesis was a regular cultural practice among the Puritans, who proclaimed the supreme authority of the Bible and made it accessible to the entire community of believers. Being a minister’s wife, Mary Rowlandson was likely to be more steeped in the Bible than the average members of her congregation. She must have learned many biblical passages by heart and was probably able to quote them from memory for her purposes, drawing conclusions on her own. Moreover, since one of her captors gave her a Bible taken as plunder during the raid on Medfield, she spent time scrutinizing the book in order to find any messages from God that would assure her spiritual survival. One or two years after her rescue, when she wrote her Narrative, she often quoted passages she said she had looked at while a captive.

In the excerpts included in the course book, there are two quotations from the Psalm and one from Exodus, and the exact references are given for all three. The source of the first is Psalm 27:13, a verse from which Rowlandson only rendered the initial words, “I had fainted, unless I had believed, etc,” omitting the rest of the quote because she assumed that her readers would be familiar enough with it and did not need to have it cited in full. In Psalm 27, David had expressed his confidence in God and exhorted others to trust in the Lord’s deliverance from captivity.

Rowlandson closed the “Fifth Remove” with the following biblical quote: “”. By quoting this verse, which refers to the miseries brought on people by their own transgressions, the author tried to explain why God withdrew his grace and the English army did not succeed in crossing the river à Psalm 81:13-14.

Rowlandson ended her Narrative with the words uttered by Moses when he encouraged the Israelites to be calm and trust God, who would save them independently of all human means as they fled from Egypt after many years of captivity: Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord” (Exodus 14:13).

10. Stylistic Features (Diction, Tone)

This text is written according to the aesthetic principles of the plain style which seventeenth-century Puritans were encouraged to use. In her opening paragraph, Mary Rowlandson conveys in an extremely clear and direct manner the violence of the horrific experience which she and her fellow colonists underwent when they were attacked by a group of Indians. Although some of the sentences of this excerpt are rather long, the syntax is never complex, but by and large fairly simple. The main narrative mode of this passage is straightforward report. There is no speech, and the brief comment in brackets in line 8 is an example of authorial intrusion. Rowlandson uses the third person singular through this text to present the events she was involved in as true to history and more objectively than if she had chosen the first person singular.

Perhaps the most interesting feature of Rowlandson’s diction in this passage is her use of numerous verbal forms expressing the violent actions of the raiding party. There are very few qualifying adjectives, an aspect which underscores the importance of the epithet applied to the attackers in order to highlight their savagery: “murderous.” The tone of this excerpt vividly reflects the fear and anguish derived from the author’s traumatic experience. There are no tonal shifts.

11. Historical Context

The author provides the exact date of this event: “On the tenth of February 1675” (line 1). The historical context of the event is explained in the following paragraph of the textbook: “The Wampanoag and other related tribes of Algonquians had maintained peaceful relations with the colonists for some time, but a war broke out when they tried to prevent the colonial expansion in New England. Their raid on the small town of Lancaster was part of King Philip’s War, an uprising led by the Wampanoag chief Metacomet, also known under the name of Philip. He was one of the sons of Massasoit, the regional leader who had signed a treaty of friendship with William Bradford and the Pilgrims and who had managed to maintain the alliance with Plymouth until his death in 1662. During King Philip’s War, which devastated the region, about 600 colonists and 3000 Native People were killed, and more than 1200 houses were burned. The attack on Lancaster was in retaliation for the hanging in Plymouth of the three of Philip’s men, accused of murdering a Christian Native named John Sassamon, who was considered an English informant. The revenge raid took place shortly after the troops protecting the little town left for want of provisions.

12. The Hints of a Subversive or Contradictory Subtext Hidden Behind the Surface of the Manifest Text

In the “Fifth Remove,” Mary Rowlandson describes “the strange providence of God in preserving the heathen,” emphasizing how hundreds of Narragansetts (including many women carrying babies, as well as various kinds of movement-impaired people, “old and young, some sick, and some lame”) manage to convey their entire settlement across a river that the English troops cannot cross. She underlines the extraordinary mobility of the Indians; in spite of being burdened by all their possessions, and sets it in sharp contrast with the lack of “courage or activity” exhibited by the party of rescuers. Even if she justifies her captors’ success by claiming that God preserves them so that they may continue to “try” the captives, in this passage there is an explicit reproach directed at the English, and an implicit appreciation of the humane behavior of the divinely favored – rather than hellish – Indians.

13. How Does Mary Rowlandson’s Presentation of History Compare to That of Captain John Smith and Governor William Bradford?

The writings of these three authors illustrate the complex relationships between history and rhetoric. Mary Rowlandson’s presentation of historical events differs from John Smith’s because she tried to be as accurate as possible, whereas he felt free to blend fact and fiction. Since Rowlandson and Bradford shared a Puritan vision of the world, they interpreted all historical events in providential terms and considered history as a continuum moving toward a particular outcome, according to God’s design. Both writers typified Puritan colonial discourse, which denied the very fact of invasion for the members of that religious group believed they were not claiming America by conquest, but reclaiming what by virtue of God’s promise rightfully belonged to them. As a result, although Bradford and Rowlandson honestly thought they were recording a truthful version of the actual events they had witnessed, in fact they were construing rather biased historical accounts which omitted key factors. For instance, Rowlandson candidly depicted the colonists as the innocent victims of the unbridled cruelty inflicted on them by their enemies, overlooking how the Algonquian tribes were suffering the devastating effects of disease and starvation. If she had explicated King Philip’s War as the culmination of tensions between Natives and European settlers over land rights, she would have placed the raid on the small town of Lancaster in the larger context of a struggle in which about 600 colonists and 3000 Native Americans were killed.

It is essential to bear in mind that she wrote with religious goals. Thus, she invariably interpreted such events in supernatural terms, as the direct result of God’s providence, disregarding the political and economic reasons for the attacks which the Natives inflicted on the Puritan colonists, whose physical and spiritual ordeal was the main issue the two writers considered worthy of attention. According to her orthodox Puritan principles, she understood historical events as a manifestation of God’s judgment, so that the bad fortune endured by people was a sign of divine punishment, whereas her sinners’ past faults.

***Ambiguity and Ambivalence

***Literary Strategies

***How Women Portrayed

UNIT 5: JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703 – 1758) – Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God – The American Enlightenment

1. Binary Oppositions

For Edwards, the greatest evil lies in his audience’s loss of “pure” Puritan values. He wants them to see that their salvation is entirely dependent upon God’s desire to save them. To do this he uses imagery of the natural world: a fire of brimstone below and God’s love above. The slippery slope that leads to hell and God’s firm grasp that keeps them from falling. The mighty winds that sin blows and the spider’s web (God) that holds them up. He exhorts his audience to be reborn and accept God’s power over them or to continue to live on the brink of eternal damnation. These devices present the need for an urgent decision, a life-saving one, to his audience and that is precisely Edwards’s intention.

In conclusion, Edwards tries to persuade his audience to turn away from and reject a great evil – sin, slavery – and to make the choice clear they set up a number of binary oppositions to illustrate the danger and depravity on one side and the goodness and spiritual morality of the other.

2. Metaphor

In order to discuss metaphorical uses, it is essential to identify the tenor and vehicle of the main metaphorical devices found in the works of the author, although it is not necessary to make a list of all of them, just some of them.

In Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, perhaps the most famous Puritan sermon in American literature, Edwards strove to make his audience understand the nature of sin and reject evil. Therefore, he resorted to a number of metaphors and similes intended to fill people with fear and revulsion when thinking about hell (“that lake of burning brimstone,” “the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God,” “a wide and bottomless pit,” “a great furnace” and “the bottomless gulf”), sin (“bitter and poisonous fruit”), and the sinner (“a spider,” “some loathsome insect” and “the most hateful venomous serpent”). Other metaphors used by this preacher refer to the wrath of God in terms of a “dreadful storm,” “a whirlwind,” and “great waters that are dammed” but can be “let loose.” In contrast, the vulnerability of humans is expressed by likening them to “the chaff of the summer threshing floor.”

3. Issues of Subject Matter and Purpose

Edwards is literally trying to use fear as a motivator to get his audience to come back to God wholeheartedly. In simple terms, his theme/message is that if his audience (the sinners) does not do this, then they will be punished by God at any moment. Edwards is effective in this sermon by relating the abstract to concrete things people are familiar with. For example, he describes God’s wrath, an abstract concept, to damned waters, a drawn bow and arrow, and a dreadful storm, all concrete items. He also creates a sense of urgency with his message by saying he doesn’t know why God has not already taken these sinners to Hell; there is no explanation so they need to act now before it is too late.

4. Self-Representation

5. How Used Language for Persuasion. Comment on His Rhetorical Strategies

-The author used terrifying imagery in this and other sermons of the same period. The concept of image: the writer likens an inward state or experience to something outward which conveys the same experience. He resorted to a number of metaphors and similes intended to fill people with fear and revulsion when thinking about hell (“that lake of burning brimstone,” “the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God,” “a wide and bottomless pit,” “a great furnace” and “the bottomless gulf”), sin (“bitter and poisonous fruit”), and the sinner (“a spider,” “some loathsome insect” and “the most hateful venomous serpent”). Other metaphors used by this preacher refer to the wrath of God in terms of a “dreadful storm,” “whirlwind,” and “great waters but can be “let loose.” In contrast, the vulnerability of humans is expressed by likening them to “the chaff of the summer threshing floor.”

-Although other sermons illustrate much better Edwards’s attitude to nature and his sensitivity to its beauty, Edwards includes nature as a source of revelation, on the grounds that the created world provides ample evidence of God’s power and glory. For this purpose, he uses the natural world to illustrate in a very clear manner God’s wrath to sin and sinners establishing comparisons that everybody could understand: a spider’s web would have to stop a falling rock, black clouds, great waters dammed, flood, and whirlwind. He uses images of the dust of grain which are familiar to his rural audience: “You would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.”

-To break down the will’s resistance and reinforce the notion of impending doom, Edwards unleashes a powerful arsenal of metaphorical weapons aimed at the emotions. Through metaphors and images, Edwards links the spiritual world to the physical world of the listeners. This sermon is not typical of the preaching of Edwards, but it is typical of revivalist preaching during the Great Awakening. Such sermons were meant to appeal to the head and the heart and to destroy vain rationalization and to deter delay. According to historical sources, this sermon has the desired effect in Enfield moving people to “conversion.”

6. Style

7. Biblical Sources

Edwards wants to ensure that no one takes the wrath of this holy and infinite God lightly, and he frequently refers to biblical passages that support the point. He uses allusion much more often than quotation. The reason could be that the text is livelier and also he assumes the audience already knows the Bible.

8. Literary Sources

Both similes and metaphors are figures of speech in which one thing is described in the terms of another, or something is likened to something else. The only difference between these two figures is that in a simile there is an explicit comparison (recognizable by the use of the words “like” or “as”), whereas in a metaphor the comparison is implicit.

Analyze in their context the following similes:

– your destruction would come like a whirlwind.

– you would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor.

– the wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed.

For Edwards, as for the Enlightenment thinkers, the truths of faith and reason were one. God is identified with ultimate order and rationality, and the unregenerate continued to exist against all laws of nature and only because the God of mercy held them back for a short time. It is only the hand of God that prevented the natural laws from dragging fallen humanity into eternal damnation.

Analyze the following metaphors of hell:

– that lake of burning brimstone.

– the dreadful pit.

– the bottomless gulf.

Having carefully presented the laws of sin and damnation as absolute, natural, and non-negotiable, Edwards makes the sermon unforgettable with his use of colorful imagery to illuminate the horrors that await the sinner who dies unredeemed.

9. Regarding Style

The writings of Jonathan Edwards are rooted in Puritan tradition. Puritan writers advocated the so-called plain style, characterized by simplicity and clarity. The degree of adherence to its precepts varies depending, among other things, on the period and the author’s personality.

Another factor to take into account is genre. A sermon is written not so much to be read, but to be spoken and listened to – its rhetorical qualities being therefore essential.

Equally relevant faces of style are tone, imagery, and diction.

UNIT 6: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706 – 1790) – The Autobiography – The American Enlightenment

1. Binary Oppositions

Franklin set up a number of binary oppositions to illustrate the contrast between good and evil, but they had different approaches to these two notions. Franklin “did not mention sins but mistakes or, if we use his own apt metaphor suggested by his experience as printer errata.” In Franklin’s Autobiography, goodness is linked to secular virtues such as temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquillity, chastity, and humility. Franklin had a Puritan upbringing, but under the influence of some English Enlightenment writers – such as John Locke, Lord Shaftesbury, and Joseph Addison – he broke with the narrow sectarian aspects of Puritan tradition and embraced a quite moderate form of free-thinking Deism. Thus, his main binary opposition concerning religious matters was Puritanism versus Deism. In the area of politics, Franklin rejected colonial dependence and fought for independence in the American Revolution. His presidency of an anti-slavery association and his memorial to Congress recommending the dissolution of the slavery system demonstrate that he was on the same side as Equiano when dealing with the binary opposition of freedom versus bondage.

2. Self-Representation

An author’s self-image or self-representation is a fascinating aspect to discuss in analyzing a text written in the first-person singular.

Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography is a less conventional narrative but in it, he depicts himself as a determined man who strives for self-improvement through the achievement of certain virtues like temperance, industry, or humility. In his Autobiography, Franklin links these virtues to precepts that are coherent with his outlook as a free-thinking Deist. Franklin’s was a practical, disciplined, and enterprising spirit.

Franklin became a role model, committed and socially prominent citizen. His public persona brings to mind modern notions such as “the self-made man” or “the American dream.”

3. Issues of Subject Matter and Purpose

Franklin’s works can be compared to those of the great eighteenth-century English prose writers. In his preference for reasonableness, common sense, and experience over emotion or speculation, Franklin shows his indebtedness to the English writers of the early eighteenth century and to the new scientific spirit promoted by the Royal Society. Franklin’s style owes much to the example of Defoe and Addison and Steele; his satiric practice–especially his mastery of the creation of diverse personae and, at times, his use of irony–reflects his familiarity with Swift’s satire, even though Franklin’s effects are very different.

Franklin’s achievements in such diverse fields as science, literature, politics, and diplomacy can be compared to the achievements of the eighteenth-century philosophers, such as Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot, with whom he was classed in his own age.

-According to Lemay, Franklin “gave us the definitive formulation of the American Dream,” whose aspects are the rise from poverty to wealth, from dependence to independence, and from helplessness to power. Franklin created a bourgeois persona in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world. Americans have taken the identity Franklin constructed, defined it as middle class, presumed it an accurate portrayal, and used his life story as emblematic of the “American Dream.” Those who work hard need to be compensated for that. Thus, the more you work, the more successful you will be. It can be said that Franklin’s thirteen precepts are in the deep basis of capitalism.

4. His Values and Moral Concerns in His Writings

Jonathan Edwards and Benjamin Franklin both spent their lives searching for perfection. Edwards sought perfection through God while Franklin perfected himself through his own accomplishments.

Essential to their search for perfection and their goal of happiness is the question, “What can man do?” Edwards answered this question in his sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” with a Calvinist viewpoint. The sermon leaves the reader with a vivid imagery of God’s sovereignty as holding sinners in his hands over Hell’s pit, and man being as worms to God. Calvinists also advocated hard work and deep devotion as a way to perfection. Franklin rejected such harsh God for man-centered thought and a road to perfection that left a person feeling more like man was good and could do a lot to reach happiness. Franklin’s happiness came from the process of perfection, not hope for salvation. He was motivated to be a good citizen and to make himself his best and to accomplish as much as he could in his lifetime. His Autobiography shows his daily schedule and values and how he progressed in self-perfection so that others could follow his example.

Franklin helped others through sharing his accomplishments. Edwards helped others to find God, rely on God, and work hard. The biggest difference between them was that whereas mistakes for Edwards were sins for Franklin were errata.

5. Autobiography in His Writings

An autobiography is a portrayal of the self (generally an attractive image) rather than simply an expression of the author’s feelings. Writers of autobiographies always create themselves as characters, which are always somewhat different from their authors.

Franklin endeavoured to create a hero who was a “typical American of the kind he wanted to settle in his country” and presented himself as “a benevolent live-and-let-live Deist who does well by working hard and doing good to his fellow men regardless of such matters as their station in life, politics or religion.” Franklin can be analyzed in contrast with the writers whose work focused on the relationship between their lives and God’s providential actions. Franklin’s Autobiography focuses on his own efforts to learn what is virtuous in this world and to put his discoveries to use in his life. Franklin retains the Puritan concern for self improvement but removes its otherworldly orientation. Critical opinions have seen

Franklin as the spirit of capitalism and the summon of his ethic only to earn money as an end in itself. Franklin succeeded in presenting himself as a humble man. His thirteenth precept is humility. He was created of the self-help book probably because he really wanted to improve people’s lives.

6. – How used language for persuasion. Comment on his rhetorical strategies

For Franklin, the self-interested pursuit of material wealth is only virtuous when it coincides with the promotion of the public good through philanthropy and voluntarism— what is often called “enlightened self-interest.” He believed that reason, free trade and a cosmopolitan spirit serve as faithful guides for nation-states to cultivate peaceful relations. Within nation-states, Franklin thought that “independent entrepreneurs make good citizens” because they pursue “attainable goals” and are “capable of living a useful and dignified life.”

Franklin favoured voluntary associations over governmental institutions as mechanisms to channel citizens’ extreme individualism and isolated pursuit of private ends into productive social outlets.

-When writers give an account of their lives they get involved in a creative balancing activity, because all autobiographers are simultaneously objective and subjective. Although autobiographers are not supposed to invent fictitious incidents, they select certain incidents, and discard others. Likewise, they emphasize some of their traits and try to hide others.

Readers of Franklin’s Autobiography know how often he reinvented himself. One can make a case for Franklin the improving artisan, Franklin the politico and lobbyist, Franklin the gentleman, Franklin the intellectual, Franklin the inventor and scientist, Franklin the moralist, Franklin the apostle of middle-class morality, Franklin the astute diplomat, Franklin the bon vivant.

Franklin’s story is central to perceptions widely-shared by Americans. After granting Franklin’s great success (he did rise from humble origins to riches), we might explain structural features that aided his success: that his brother was a printer, that patrons in Philadelphia aided his rise, that he behaved ruthlessly on his rise as the most prominent printer in Philadelphia. When we point to these ambiguities in Franklin’s life, we suggest how special, how unique Franklin’s experience was, a point that might lead to gradual revisions in the myth of the “American Dream” itself.

7. – Style

The Autobiography is “written in a neoclassical version of the Puritan play style, without formal beauty or pretensions to emotional force”. Franklin’s “mastery of style – that pure, pithy, racy , and delightful diction makes him still one of the great exemplars of English prose” (M.C. Tyler).

The diction and tone of Franklin are colloquial without being familiar. Franklin’s purpose was to be easy to understand. But, though Franklin’s facts are inexact as often as not, we tend to trust his accounts because of another important stylistic characteristic: his objective tone. His apparent willingness to acknowledge his own imperfections, and his understated accounts of his own triumphs, make him appear a man who keeps as sharp an eye on himself as he does on others. The apparent objectivity with which he recalls but never dwells unduly upon a personal insult, or an attempted bribe, or a compliment, or an honour — this carefully cultivated illusion of fairness — explains a great deal of the trust and consequent admiration the Autobiography inspires.

Finally, the style of the Autobiography delights as a reflection of the man himself. And just as Franklin seemed to many of his contemporaries a kind of ideal man-of-the world, so Franklin’s style also fulfils the literary ideals upheld by the eighteenth century: whether long or short, the sentences are compact, the grammatical structures carefully and tightly controlled to make meaning instantly evident, the vocabulary forceful and direct.

8. – Reading style

The writing of Benjamin Franklin is rooted in Puritan tradition. Puritan writers advocated the so-called plain style, characterized by simplicity and clarity. The degree of adherence to its precept varies depending, among other things, on the period and the author’s personality.

Another factor to take into account is genre. Franklin’s text combines the typical traits an autobiography with practical and instructive tone of a contemporary self-help book.

Equally relevant facets of style are tone, imagery and diction.

UNIT 7 – OLAUDAH EQUIANO (1745 – 1797) – The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African– The American Enlightenment

1. – Binary oppositions

Equiano set up a number of binary oppositions to illustrate to their readers the differences, essentially, between good and evil.

Olaudah Equiano’s evil is also related to religion in that he presents himself as an educated, mature Christian, but for Equiano the greater sin is slavery. He sets up binary oppositions in his autobiography to prove that slavery is immoral, evil and un-Christian.

First, he shows the difference between his innocent – though Pagan – life in Africa, where slavery existed but without cruelty and compares this with his later captivity in which torture and degradation were commonplace. Second, he writes of his spiritual conversion to illustrate the difference between Paganism and Christianity precisely to elevate the latter to a superior moral position. Lastly, he challenges his fellow Christians to reject slavery if they are, in fact true Christians because only a false Christian could possibly engage in such an immoral and wicked practice.

Finally, simply by writing his own story, his audience is reminded of African’s humanity. Africans, he demonstrates, are not incapable of writing, of civilization or spiritual growth. This contradicts the stereotype whites held of blacks at that time.

In conclusion, both Edwards and Equiano try to persuade their audience to turn away from and reject a great evil –sin slavery – and to make the choice clear they set up a number of binary oppositions to illustrate the danger and depravity on one side and the goodness and spiritual morality of the other.

2. – Self-representation

An author’s self-image or self-representation is a fascinating aspect to discuss in analyzing a text written in the first-person singular.

Through his narrative, Olaudah Equiano comes across as an experienced man who has suffered terrible ordeals and become stronger and better as a result. The emphasis is on his evolution: from slave to gentleman, from “pagan” to exemplary Christian, from naïve child to successful writer and political activist. In reading Equiano’s narrative, we feel that he is morally justified to fight against slavery; we can identify with him and support his cause. In writing about Equiano’s self-image, you could have briefly referred to his famous portrait.

Equiano’s Interesting Narrative as a spiritual autobiography, a history, or an anticipation of later slave narratives, we cannot fail to recognize that the author had designs upon his audience when he wrote it. He used Christianity to defend his cause and made white people think on the consequences of slavery. Destructive behaviour resulted from the unnatural elevation of the white man over black. Furthermore, Christianity was perverted. Even white men were corrupted by the slave trade, since it pushed them towards their lower instincts and turned otherwise decent people into monsters.

Equiano’s skilfully deployed strategies of self-representation, like the idyllic portrait of his early years, or the use of his marginal status to observe and describe the evil behaviour of his white enslavers from the innocent perspective of an amazed child. This innocent eye perspective contrasts with the one adopted by the author at the end of the second chapter, when he is an acculturated man who addresses his fellow Christians within the same system of values. Each of these two perspectives corresponds to a distinctive voice and both interplay in the passages. He was naïve and innocent and when he is a free he contributes to the abolitionist cause by writing letters to newspapers and officials, also with his Narrative. He uses Christian religion and Enlightenment principles in order to make white audience reflect on how slavery can be supported by those who proclaim the ideas of liberty and equality and love for God and the humankind. These two perspectives reflect different ways of thinking and the circumstances he has found along his life.

3. – Slave narrative, paying particular attention to issues of subject matter and purpose and themes

Olaudah Equiano wrote about his experiences in captivity, which he believed had made him and his faith stronger, because he felt that God was on his side. He was also certain his writings could be useful for others, hence his interest in presenting themselves and his plight as exemplary. Equiano was also a devout Christian who relied on biblical authority, but as a typical eighteenth-century man as well, he tended to focus on his self-development, and presented himself as a refined African who had been able to fulfil the ideals of the Enlightenment.

Equiano described violent scenes, and gave details about his survival strategies. Although he generally depicted those who held him in bondage as cruel savages, mentioned some exceptions, pointing out how certain people in these groups were kind to his their captives.

He wrote with religious goals. In fact, the religious and the political merged in his autobiographical writings, but Equiano’s abolitionist rhetoric and powerful double voice had two specific purposes he did not share with Rowlandson: to eradicate slavery, and to refute claims that blacks had no ability to write.

4. – How dealt with race issues in his writings

Equiano’s writing on the Middle Passage is a profoundly evocative and devastating account of one of the most terrible events in human history: the forcible removal of millions of Africans from their home, and their subsequent transportation across the

Atlantic in slave ships, under the most abominable and hellish conditions imaginable. Equiano’s account is a valuable source for examining the realities of the slave system, for its evocative writing and historical perspective.

Slave narratives were an important means of challenging slavery by countering stereotypes about Africans and provoking reflection on the ills of the institution. Equiano, as a reformer calling for social justice, added a new dimension to the autobiographical tradition, that of social protest. He also proved he was able to write and think and defend his ideas by entitling his autobiography with both the African and the European names, to refute claims that blacks had no ability to write.

Equiano’s autobiography was a political tool in order to abolish slavery since he sent copies to the members of Parliament when they were analyzing the institution.

5. – Propaganda function

Equiano used the doctrines of both Christianity and the Enlightenment to argue for the abolition of slavery, and described Ibo religious belief and customs from Nigeria and pointed out certain analogies between Judaism and Christianity. He extolled Christianity without denigrating his African heritage, thus maintaining a balance between both values. Equiano depicted himself as an honest individual, upon the intent on convincing readers of his moral and intellectual capacities, also giving credit to the whites who had befriended and helped him to get an education.

6. – His values and moral concerns in his writings

7. – Autobiography in his writings

The resources Equiano uses in order to persuade his readers that his work is not fiction are his own experience, information acquired from conversations with other Africans, and texts from historical sources and abolitionist literature of his time. In the re-creation of his own life he forged a compelling story of spiritual and moral conversion to serve as a model to be imitated by readers during his lifetime and by authors who followed him.

8. – How represented violence

Equiano describes the Middle Passage as a hellish period, providing details about the horrific conditions on the slave ship that killed thousands of slaves before they reached the shores of their new home. Equiano’s mention of the slave woman wearing the muzzle is brief, and his reaction is straightforward, but the purpose is clear. How can a civilized audience hear of such atrocities and not be equally shocked and horrified?

He mentions the daily starvation and suffering of other slaves; he speaks of dreadful punishments (men are beaten, burned, hanged, and “staked to the ground, and cut most shockingly, and then his ears cut off bit by bit”. Equiano imagines the effect of these details on his audience, and thus, he begins chapter 6 by informing the reader that he will not spend any more time detailing the torture of slaves “so frequent, and so well known . . . that it cannot any longer afford novelty to recite them”

9. – Historical sources

Equiano’s autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, published in 1789, is important for many reasons. It is one of the very few texts written in English by a person of African descent during the eighteenth century. It is also one of the first accounts of a journey up from slavery written by one who had personally experienced enslavement.

There is evidence that Equiano may have been born in South Carolina and not Africa. Nevertheless, his book was a very important part of the campaign to abolish slavery in the late 18th century. People at the time believed it was accurate and after it was published in 1789, it sold several thousand copies and was popular with the political elite.

The story of his passage into slavery arrived just at a moment when the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade were circulating slave ship diagrams around the country. Between 1789 and 1794, there were nine editions and it was translated and printed in many European countries. Although not the first account of slavery from an

African point of view, his book became the most popular and widely read. Equiano was also a very active anti-slavery campaigner in late 18th century London. He wrote many forceful letters to newspapers condemning slavery and appeared at public debates on the matter.

10. – Subject matter and themes

UNIT 8 – PHILLIS WHEATLEY (1753 – 1784) – On Being Brought from Africa to America / To the University of Cambridge, in New England / To His Excellency General Washington– The American Enlightenment

1. – Identify the stanza (author, title of the poem, and period). Explain the paradox in lines 28-30

*To the Students of Cambridge University in New England” by Phillips Wheatley. The poem was written in the late 18^th Century around the time of the American War of Independence when slavery was legal but increasingly debated, especially in the North, where Wheatley lived. In lines 28-30 there are two paradoxes. O the one hand Wheatley describes sin as both sweet and painful; two states that would normally be considered opposites but exist at once because of the nature of sin. On the other hand, Wheatley, who is a slave and African-born (“an Ethiop”), is empowering herself to teach the best and the brightest of the land: the students of what would become Harvard University. She is at once powerless (a slave) and powerful (a wise teacher).

-Wheatley exhorts her audience to avoid or shun sin, and her use of metaphor and Biblical allusion is essential to persuade her audience. By using the metaphor of sin as a poisonous serpent in an egg (line 26) and the students as blooming plants (line 27), she relates this spiritual and ideological battle to something much simpler and tangible: the young plants will be helpless to the hatched snake. Furthermore, the author alludes to the Biblical Christian kingdom of Ethiopia in line 28 as a way to reference the authority of her voice with Biblical support.

2. – Indicate the main rhetorical devices and comment on its imagery/ Figurative language / Poetic conventions / Irony / FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

The most common example is metaphor, masterly used by the poet Phillis Wheatley.

A number of conventional or lexicalized metaphors can be found in the poems by Wheatley that you have read and studied: “realms of night,” “veil of night”, or “golden hair” (all from “To His Excellency General Washington,” clearly an imitative poem). There are, however, other examples that attest to the originality of her imagination: SKIN COLOR IS A DYE, CHRISTIANIZED SLAVES ARE REFINED CANE SUGAR (“On Being Brought from Africa to America”), SIN IS A POISONOUS SNAKE IN ITS EGG, PROMISING STUDENTS ARE BLOOMING PLANTS (“To the University of Cambridge, in New England”).

Most of these metaphors are instrumental for the poems to be successful, both as lyrical and rhetorical pieces. The associated images channel the thematic component vividly, linking it to common experience (family life, nature, and agriculture, the animal world) and making it memorable.

3. – Who is the Ethiop? Explain this allusion

The Ethiop is Phyllis Wheatley herself. Though she was not born in that area of Africa, she has been educated and baptized as a Christian and she alludes to the African kingdom of Ethiopia, a Christian kingdom that appears in the Bible. This connects her – a young African-born slave – to the authority inherent in the Bible and makes her voice (and her message) more powerful.

4. – Comment on the historical context

Wheatley was writing around the time of the birth of the United States. At that time there was a fever of nationalist pride (recognized in her poem “To His Excellency General Washington”), but at the same time the original Puritan ideal of “a city on a hill” or “a new Jerusalem” was losing steam. Secularism was rising thanks to the Enlightenment and new ideas like Deism were beginning to take hold. (Note that Benjamin Franklin’s autobiography was contemporary to Wheatley’s book.) Also, the issue of slavery was becoming hotly debated. It had already been a controversial issue at the Continental Congresses of the 1770’s and was again debated during the writing of the U.S. Constitution in the 80’s. In the North, where Wheatley lived, slavery was increasingly losing favour, meanwhile in England the anti-slavery faction was even stronger.

5. – Metaphorical language / Metaphor à La 2

6. – Self-representation

Although Wheatley wrote his autobiographies, she employed a number of self-construction and self-representation procedure when she wrote poems about her experiences, which she believed had made her and her faith stronger. She was also certain that her writings could be useful for others. Hence her interest in presenting themselves, as exemplary for other pious Christians. Wheatley did not sound hesitant and left little room for ambiguity.

Whatley did not open her heart to her readers in order to tell them about her grief, fear, or other emotions.

She was highly literate poet who deliberately represented herself as modest and humble woman, resorting to various ironic self-deprecatory strategies which were partly the result of certain poetic conventions, and to certain extent a calculated rhetorical pose meant to protect herself from harsh criticism.

Wheatley disclosed her interest in politic (eg. supporting independence from Britain), and asserted her position on some of the most controversial social issues of the following century (e.g. slavery).

Wheatley proudly exhibited her ethnic background (by calling herself an “Ethiop” in “To the University of Cambridge, in New England”), presented herself as an intelligent, strong-willed and dignified American of African descent (“On Being Brought from Africa to America”), and as patriot and freedom fighter who wittily condemned the existence of racial prejudice and slavery in her new homeland, “the land of freedom’s heaven-defended race” (“To His Excellency General Washington,” line 32).

7. – How dealt with race issues in his writings

Wheatley claims that every Christian person in the world, no matter race, culture, and color of the skin, will be saved and will enjoy eternal life, as long as respects God. She vindicated the black’s natural right to freedom from slavery, insisting that freedom is a principle implanted by God. She subtly and indirectly confronted the issues of racism, sexism, and slavery denouncing slave owners as “Modern Egyptians”.

Wheatley’s mingling of evangelicalism and patriotism occasionally included her resistance to slavery. In “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” for instance, the direct celebration of her personal delight in Christianity includes a restrained, if resistant, “second voice” subtly speaking through two allusions to Isaiah. As presented by Wheatley’s appropriated ministerial voice, these allusions rebuke Christian slave owners. Embedded within Wheatley’s surface compliance with authorized biblical and poetic traditions, is a second voice. By being second, this voice may in a sense remain in bondage to the more dominant voice of authority, but it does indeed speak. This voice announces an unconventional message in a manner that crosses gender and social boundaries.

8. – Explain how the stanza fits into the poem as a whole

In the first quatrain, the poem seems denigration of Wheatley’s native African homeland and of her alleged full acceptance of dominant discourses. The poet expresses her gratitude for being introduced to Christianity and basically deplores the paganism of her homeland. Suddenly she adopts an accusatory tone that abruptly reverses the movement of the poem. She makes a direct challenge to racial prejudice through an allusion to injustice in line 5.

9. – Explain the references to “Gallic powers”, Columbia, and Britannia

10. – Explain the poet’s references to freedom and race

11. – How and why does the author resort to irony?

The poet’s line “The land of freedom’s heaven-defended race!” is a strong possibility of irony: the poet may be implying that a nation where Africans are enslaved cannot be called “the land of freedom’s heaven-defended race.

Wheatley’s poetic accomplishment has become more clearly understood and better appreciated in the last fifteen years due in large part to criticism that has focused on the structure and imagery of the poems as opposed to their biographical elements. The most promising analyses have focused either on her rhetorical strategies or the cultural work her poetry may have performed in Revolutionary America. No previous study has considered whether Wheatley, like many writers, had a specific audience in mind as she wrote and how that might have influenced the construction of the poems. Irony, doubling, internal stress patterns, and puns, all of which have been identified as elements of the poet’s technique, now emerge as among the devices she enlisted. Her strategy takes the audience from a position of initial confidence and agreement, to confusion and uncertainty, to a new ideological position at the conclusion of each poem. Her strategy relies on images, references, and a narrative position that would have been strikingly familiar to her audience.

There may be puns on the words “die” and “Cain” because the poet is relying on the meaning of their homophones. The pairs “die/dye” and “Cain/cane” have an identical pronunciation and the poet is using one spelling to suggest both meanings.

Paradox is a statement which appears, at first glance, to be self-contradictory, yet which, on close examination, reveals an unexpected, valid meaning. The central paradox lies in the circumstance that someone (an African, unschooled woman) who would be considered socially inferior by most, adopts a position of superiority to admonish an -intellectual, socially privileged, patriarchal- élite.

12. – References to her religious concerns

The role of religion played a major issue in early American literature. Many different authors form a variety of time periods incorporate religious ideas and philosophies into their writings. As people immigrated to America from England, they brought their religious ideals with them. In “Of Plymouth Plantation” William Bradford wrote about his experience travelling to the new world and early colonial life in America. His commentary shared views of the separatists’ religious beliefs. The Puritans had a profound effect upon American culture as a political, social, and cultural force. The

Puritans believed in the innate depravity of man. They also believed that some people were “predestined” to experience an afterlife with God. Only the “elect” or “chosen” were in a good relationship with God. William Bradford, Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson were fervent Puritans. During the eighteenth century, the religious, intellectual, and economic horizons of the thirteen English colonies expanded, challenging the dominance of Puritan culture with Enlightenment thought and uniting the different regions behind common national interests. Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography, rejected the innate depravity of human beings in favor of the assumption that people were basically good, and therefore capable of living together in sympathy and understanding with their fellow citizens.

In response to the Enlightenment’s intellectual rigor and call to ethical sentiment, the “Great Awakening” of 1735–50 encouraged a return to Calvinist zeal by stressing an intense emotional commitment and a complete surrender to faith. . Jonathan Edwards’s preaching in New England was the most successful integration of Enlightenment thought and Puritanical zeal during the Great Awakening.

Slave narratives were an important means of challenging slavery by countering stereotypes about Africans and provoking reflection on the ills of the institution. Equiano wrote his story as an outsider to the culture and as a man of accomplishments within fellow Christian in a world of white Christians who did not regard him as an equal, and sometimes not even as a human being. The puritanical strands of religious thought and moral judgment continue to influence, in varying degrees, the social and political thinking in America.

-There is a further subversive message in the use of the word “refin’d” because it evokes God’s address to the people of Israel in the words of the prophet Isaiah. The biblical allusion reinforces Wheatley’s identification of “Negroes’ with Jews, emphasizes their common suffering under bondage (in Egypt then and in America now), and strengthens their hope.

13. – Ambiguity and ambivalence

Wheatley’s gratitude for the possibility to live in America and embrace the Christian faith versus the idyllic memories of her African, pagan life (“On Being Brought from Africa to America”); her status as a woman slave and the implied superiority from which she gives advice to university students (“To the University of Cambridge, in New England”); her pride in the increasing power of America and her uneasiness that her nation still tolerates slavery (“To His Excellency General Washington”.

These examples of ambivalence are parallel with or reflected by textual ambiguity. Accordingly, we can interpret “On Being Brought from Africa to America” as a celebration of the poet’s “redemption” or a lamentation that she was uprooted; “To the University of Cambridge, in New England” as the assertion of the author’s social inferiority or, alternatively, of her religious superiority; “To His Excellency General Washington” as an example of nationalistic poetry or as an implicit condemnation of slavery.

A logical conclusion should have linked the two poet’s ambivalence and ambiguity to the various constraints – patriarchal, racist, and religious – that prevented them from being totally open.

UNIT 9 – WASHINGTON IRVING (1783 – 1859) – The Alhambra– Romanticism

1. – Historical events

The plot and the setting of the “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa” can be divided into two parts according to the chronology. The first part takes place in Castile during the medieval period. Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa is presented as a noble knight who fights to defend Castile against the Moors Conquest of Spain. The second part of the story takes place several years after the first part and in Salmanara Don Munio and his nobles were called by the King of Castile in order to fight against the Moors. In the battle Don Munio is killed and buried in the convent of San Domingo.

Furthermore, the same day when the battle takes place and Don Munio and some knights passed away, in the Holy Temple at Jerusalem, their spirits appeared to fulfil their vow of pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre

In Irving’s time, many works of fiction were presented to readers as if they were truthful narratives told by alleged reliable narrators. Irving often reversed the procedure, and turned history into fiction. There are evidences of the existence of the medieval period and the Arabic conquest of Spain and the consecutive reconquest. To make his excerpt more trustworthy, Irving creates a reliable narrator, Fray Prudencio de Sandoval, who has written the “History of King Don Alonzo VI”, in which the legend of Don Munio can be found. The main difference between Irving and other authors is that the latter use historical materials to present the side of the history they are defending. However, Irving uses historical materials so that he can create fantasy stories and legends in far-away time and space. For him, history is just an excuse to imagine a world.

2. – Characterization of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa

Good answers to this question have been focused on the characterization of Don Munio and Magua, which is stereotyped basically because the portrayal of the people depicted by Irving and Cooper was romanticized and prejudiced, and also because both writers emphasized plot events, rather than the psychological development of their characters. “A stereotype is a generalized, oversimplified character, whose thoughts and actions are excessively predictable because they have become conventional” (American Literature to 1900, exploratory question 4, p. 157).

In Washington Irving’s “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa,” the protagonist is idyllically portrayed as an adventurous, bold and courageous Spanish knight who embodies the virtues of bravery in war, nobility, loyalty to his king, and clemency with captives. The author does not describe Don Munio’s physical appearance, but reports his actions by using report as the main narrative mode of the tale. Some instances of speech reveal Don Munio’s eloquence. He is “a noble Castilian cavalier” (line 12) and “a keen huntsman” (line 19), who engages in warfare against the Moors and enjoys hunting in the forests near his castle, always in the company of his “seventy horsemen” (line 14). He is married to the gentle and timid Doña María Palacin, who is forever anxious about her husband’s fate and whose conventional feminine virtues make her the perfect counterpart to his masculinity.

Don Munio’s encounter with Abadil, a “young Moorish cavalier” (line 46) allows the Christian cavalier to exercise his magnanimity and show his “tenderness and courtesy” (line 59) towards the “son of a Moorish alcalde” (line 151) by declining to hurt him or take him prisoner. Instead, Don Munio exhibits “the courtesy and generosity of a Spanish cavalier” (line 79) by organizing fifteenday-long festivities in his castle in order to celebrate Abadil’s wedding. Abadil reports having heard of Don Munio’s “fame as a true and valiant knight, terrible in arms, but schooled in the noble virtues of chivalry” (lines 51-52) and later

describes him as “the flower of knightly virtue” and “the most magnanimous of cavaliers” (line 110). Furthermore, Don Munio is presented as a pious Christian who, after his death in battle, miraculously fulfills his vow of going on a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher at Jerusalem.

In Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, a much longer fictional narrative than Irving’s tale, Magua’s characterization is far more complex than that of

Don Munio. Although both of them are brave warriors, they are diametrically opposed in most respects. The character of Magua is examined in the following paragraphs of the textbook American Literature to 1900:

1) “The ‘Bad Indians’ are represented by the diabolical figure of Magua, who becomes a foil for the virtues of Uncas. Juxtaposed with the loyal Uncas, Magua is the archetype of the evil Indian, who poses as a trustworthy guide for Colonel Munro’s daughters, when he is in fact a traitor, who scouts for the English while spying for the French. It should be noted, however, that Magua led a happy life for twenty years until, because of alcohol, he was cast away by the Hurons and became an exile among the Mohawks, and now he blames the French for having corrupted him with the liquor which has turned him into a ‘rascal’ and brought about his disgrace among the English as well.” (p. 167)

2) “Echoes of Milton’s Paradise Lost have been perceived in the satanic Magua, who is compared to ‘the Prince of Darkness, brooding on his own fancied wrongs and plotting evil.’” (p. 178)

3. – Main stylistic features (diction)

4. – How are the main characters portrayed? To what extent does author rely on stereotyped characters?

Physical descriptions are not provided. Irving prefers focusing on their actions, thoughts, and emotions, which really defined how they are, and most importantly, how they are perceived: Don Munio as a strong, brave and honorable knight who needs to do constantly exploits and save and protect people, and Doña María as fragile, faithful and loyal, who needs constantly saving.

Moreover, in their relationship, we can see the dependency of Doña María, who represents women, to Don Munio, who represents men. When Don Munio passed away, Doña María is not able to survive without him; she passed away soon after, showing that a lady will not able to live without his knight. They do not represent real people, but idealized characters in an idealized world.

5. – Narrative modes

Descriptions are used to present time “In old times several hundred years ago”, places “In the cloisters of the ancient Benedictine convent of San Domingo, at Silos, in Castile”, and characters such as Don Munio, Doña Maria, Abadil and his fiancée. Physical descriptions are not provided. Irving prefers focusing on their actions, thoughts, and emotions, which really defined how they are, and most importantly, how they are perceived. The pace is quite slow because there are a lot of descriptions which fits very well with the romance because of the fact that in that reality, etiquette and honor codes used to be followed constantly. Description is made extensive to what is heard: “he gave a blast that rung through the Forest”, touched: “Approaching that cavalier, and kissing his hand” or tasted: “and had viands and dainties of all kinds” Irving sometimes makes explicative descriptions and his mood is calm and unexaggerated “When not engaged in warfare, his delight was to beat up the neighboring forests”, but there are other examples of decorative or ornamental description, for instance the first paragraph with a detailed description or the ancient monumental tomb.

Report: Is mainly marked by the use of action verbs : the battle between Moors and Christians (rally, rush, escape-); the death and the funeral of Don Munio (conquer, attend, erect), and the supernatural pilgrimage of the spectres of Don Munio and his army of knights which is the most extraordinary event in the legend (advance, approach, enter).

The pace is quite slow because there are a lot of events and actions to be reported. Events which fits very well with the romance: idealization of characters, knights, gentle dames, castle, faith and legend.

The use of descriptive adjectives embedded in the report is constant: “splendor of attire”, “beautiful Moor”, “magnificent presents”.

Speech: In this narration predominates the direct speech accompanied by a reporting phrase or inquit. The inquit used in these direct speeches is normally embedded in medial position (it interrupts the speech) in order to remind significantly the narrator’s presence and it also inverts the word order, which gives more emphasis on the speech. It can be found an example of inner speech and also some examples of indirect speech i.e; “[…] When told that[…] he told him of […]” “Don Munio Sancho”, said he” and direct speech “Alas, my lord! exclaimed she”. Through the speeches we can learn much about the characters. Don Munio is a “valiant knight” and “tembled in arms”, who represents the prototype of the ideal medieval knight; “schooled in the nobles virtues of chivalry”. He expresses himself with tenderness to Maria; courtesy to Abadil and with gallantry to his cavaliers. Abadil speaks with respect and sure that he is with a knight and not in danger but at the end he raises his voice desperate, because he has killed his benefactor. Doña María is fragile, faithful and loyal. They are character-archetypes, they do not represent real people, but idealized characters in an idealized world. In the Irving’s narration there is a formal phrasing with lofty diction, elaborate syntax and a general elevation of style. The characters are noble by birth and by temperament. They address and treat one another with utter politeness and reverence.

Comment: Comment is the narrative mode that dominates the story, where the fictive narrator keeps praising the virtuous of past actions and behaviour between two distinct, sometimes hostile, communities, and present situation, mostly concerned with material gains. In the last paragraph the narrator comments on the historical sources and the great value of the legend. The idea is reinforce by the narrator’s comment that “ It is too precious a legend to be lightly abandoned”. There are some examples of comment considered today as intrusive, for instance when is portraying Doña Maria as “the poor lady” or the commentary about Don Munio’s generosity: “Such were the courtesy and generosity of a Spanish cavalier” and especially at the end of the excerpt, when Don Munio and his knights arrived in Jerusalem as good Christians, the narrator’s comment: “Such was Castilian faith, in the olden time”.

6. – Illustration of the aversion to both eighteenth century rationalism and nineteenth-century materialism

In 1857 Irving wrote to Samuel Austin Allibone about The Alhambra: “Every thing in the work relating to myself and to the actual inhabitants of the Alhambra is unexaggerated fact: it was only in the legends that I indulged in romancing; and these were founded on materials picked up about the place.” Romance was a literary genre born and developed in the medieval period, when the chivalric code of honor used to rule people’s lives. Therefore, there can be found features like: Don Munio is a gentle and faithful knight who gives his life defending Castile; Doña María and Ababdil’s fiancée are completely depended on their men; also the apparition of Don Munio and his knights in Jerusalem.

The author, while opposing these two tendencies, managed to achieve the popular success that turned his literary career into such a profitable business. Rationalism is a view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification, and materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter or energy. Irving’s romanticism has nothing in common with both of these approaches; he was interested in idealized worlds and fantasy. Although his fiction is the result of lots of borrowing from European sources, Irving made his storytelling unique by incorporating his sardonic voice to his work, making it distinctive and also transforming himself into a literary celebrity.

7. – Fact and fiction

8. – Style

The notion of style has been defined above as a “writer’s characteristic way of writing or mode of expression”.

We have read a short story by Washington Irving, “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa,” and some excerpts from two different chapters from Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, a much longer fictional narrative. In order to study the style of these texts from a comparative perspective, we may start by taking into account the concepts of period (their historical and social background) and genre.

Relevant connections can be established if we take the period as a frame of reference. Both authors were under the influence of Sir Walter Scott and can be considered early American Romantics. As such, they were fond of exploring a more or less distant past, which they idealized. Due to his trips to Europe and to the influence of Sir Walter Scott, Irving was fascinated by European history whereas Cooper was attracted by the times of the pioneers and the Westward Expansion. The choice of exotic or naturally impressive spatial settings (the South of Spain, the American West) is also characteristically Romantic, and can be partly interpreted as a response to the commercial demands of that period.

The opposition Moors-Christians in “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa” and that of Pioneers-Natives in The Last of the Mohicans are worthy of attention. One ma also refer to Irving’s and Cooper’s stereotyped characterization because the portrayal of the people they depicted was romanticized and prejudiced, and both writers emphasized plot events, rather than the psychological development of their characters.

Another factor to take into account when comparing these extremely popular works of fiction is genre, so as to explain in what ways generic conventions and the circumstances of reception determine the type of language used. As writers of romance, they usually departed from realistic plots. Irving preferred fantasy, myth, legend and folklore, as evidenced in the story we have read, while Cooper was inclined to depict action in his frontier stories. Irving’s third-person narrator uses lofty, formal diction related to chivalry and battles, report of actions and direct speech as main narrative modes. A joyful atmosphere is evoked, but for the last part of the story. When dealing with Irving’s narrative devices, his use of a frame story deserves careful attention. The Last of the Mohicans can be classified as a romance, a genre which is usually told by a third-person omniscient narrator, and which combines the epic, the melodramatic, the mythical and the symbolic rather than adhering to the verisimilitudes intrinsic to conventional realistic novels. Cooper’s forceful diction conveys a very fast pace, and achieves strong effects in his grandiloquent speeches, apt for the period in which he wrote, but often scorned by our contemporary critics.

Artificiality and sentimentalism can be mentioned when analyzing other relevant facets of style, such as tone, in order to determine how the author’s subjectivity is impressed on the texts, and the kind of attitude towards the audience these texts communicate.

9. – Subject matter and themes

UNIT 10 – JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789 – 1851) – The Last of the Mohicans– Romanticism

1. – Historical events

2. – Main stylistic features (diction, tone)

Style can be defined as a “a writer’s characteristic way of writing or mode of expression” (“Glossary,” A Study Guide for American Literature to 1900, p. 216) and it includes aspects such as syntax, imagery, tone and diction. The kind of diction used in this text, which is drawn from James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans, can be considered formal, that is, lofty and dignified (see “Glossary,” A Study Guide, p. 200). Both Cooper’s forceful diction and the relatively high number of actions reported in this short passage – in which two people, Cora’s murderer and Uncas, are killed – convey a very fast pace to the text. The choice of vocabulary contributes to highlighting the violence of this climactic scene by means of words and expressions such as the following: “sprang like a tiger” (line 1), “buried his weapon” (lines 3-4), “uttering an unearthly shout” (line 4), “arose from the blow, as the wounded panther turns upon his foe”(lines 5- 6), “struck the murderer” (line 6), “seized the nerveless arm” (line 9), and “passed his knife into his bosom” (line 10). Special attention is drawn to Uncas’ gaze through four references to the expression of his eyes in lines 7, 8 and 11. The metaphorical language of this passage is related to the world of savage animals through the simile of the tiger (line 1) and the metaphor of the “wounded panther” (line 5), two visual images which are linked to Magua and to Uncas respectively. The ornate language and the melodramatic tone of the whole passage exemplify Cooper’s artificiality.

3. – Main elements of the genre

Cooper consciously tried to adapt Sir Walter Scott’s historical romance to the American scene when he wrote The Last of the Mohicans, a fictional narrative which represents a curious blending of factual history with romantic fiction. The literary genre called romance is usually told by a third-person omniscient narrator, and is primarily concerned with action, rather than with characterization.

It combines the epic, the melodramatic, the mythical and the symbolic, rather than adhering to the verisimilitude intrinsic to conventional realistic novels. This particular passage exemplifies adventure, fantasy, improbability, stereotypical characterization, and the mythical concepts of the noble/ignoble savage and the vanishing Indian.

4. – Perception of Native Americans

Two Native American warriors appear in this passage, Magua and Uncas, each of them representing an opposite pole in Cooper’s idealized dichotomy of “Bad Indians” (the Hurons, who are the allies of the French) juxtaposed with “Good Indians” (the Delawares, who are the allies of the English). Magua, who is also called the Huron (line 1) and Le Subtil (line 8), is a diabolical figure, the archetype of the evil Indian or ignoble savage, a traitor who becomes a foil for the virtues of loyal Uncas, the archetype of both the noble savage and the vanishing Indian. The perception of the two deaths reported in this excerpt is diametrically opposed. Wicked Magua is depicted as a cruel murderer when he kills poor Uncas, first identified as “the prostrate Delaware” (line 4) and later as “the unresisting Delaware” (line 9). On the contrary, Uncas is perceived as performing a heroic action of rightful revenge when he kills Cora’s murderer, risking and eventually losing his life in order to avenge her.

5. – Narrative modes

The prevailing narrative mode of this passage is report, chiefly marked by action verbs, with one example of direct speech at the very end of the excerpt. Speech is enclosed within quotation marks and it is not free, but bound, that is, accompanied by a long reporting phrase: “cried Heyward, from above, in tones nearly choked by horror” (lines 12-13). The inverted order and the medial position of this inquit formula produces a somewhat stilted effect which adds formality to the lofty or grandiloquent phrasing used by Heyward. The phrases “maddened by the murder he had just witnessed” (line 3), “indicated, by the expression of his eye, all that he would do had not the power deserted him” (lines 8-9) and “with a look of inextinguishable scorn” (line 11) may be interpreted as examples of comment fused with report. For more information, see the activity at the end of Unit 9 in American Literature to 1900 (p. 160) and the one entitled “Writing about the four narrative modes” in A Study Guide (pp. 67-73).

6. – Characterization of Magua (TEMA 9)

7. – Fact and fiction

8. – Style EN TEMA 9

9. – How represented violence

There is no glorification in battle but only the revelation of a horrid and perverse reality intended to shock the audience by provoking intense emotional responses. This is the bloodiest section of the novel and its outlines are a matter of history, though Cooper gives the instigation of it to Magua as part of his revenge. The contrast between savagery and civilized conduct is obvious, Mohicans presents essence of Cooper’s contrasting elements: “the good Indian and the bad, the dark Maiden and the fair, the genteel lover and the harsh one.

10. – Subject matter and themes

The Last of the Mohicans, is a historically-based work about the French and Indian War, which concerns the captivity and rescue of two colonial women taken deep into the woods by Indians. Cooper’s novel, replete with menacing Indians dashing a baby against a tree and doing other cruel deeds, is a continuation of the extreme violence already established in the much earlier captivity narratives of Rowlandson, Dustan, and other captivity tales. And, of course, the work contains saved and doomed ladies. The fair Alice is saved in the novel to be wed to the handsome Major Heyward, implying continuation of the white race. In contrast, the dark Cora, in love with Uncas, is killed by Native Americans. Cast as the tragic mulatta, Cora’s death suggests the non-viability of miscegenation within the new republic. And the death of Uncas portends the doom of Native American society as a whole.

UNIT 11 – RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803 – 1882) – Nature / Hamatreya– Romanticism

1. – A thesis statement

THESIS: He wanted to have an original relation to the universe, focused on the development of individual human beings, each containing the whole of creation within himself in the present time. He needs to find out answers by himself instead of believing what he is told. No idea could be more American than this rejection of the past for the discoveries of the present.

2. – Self-representation

3. – Theme or thesis and style

4. – Main stylistic features (diction)

The tone of a text is the reflection of the author’s attitude both to the theme and to the reader. In the two initial sentences of his introduction to Nature, Emerson seems to scornfully dismiss his own era, but then he proceeds to hold out hope. He poses rhetorical questions in which he claims that this era does not have an original relation with the universe and the poetry and philosophy are a continuation of the past.

However, he encourages his readers to make some introspective look and analyze their new and original thoughts. Emerson states that each individual is a manifestation of creation and as such holds the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Emerson identifies nature and spirit as the components of the universe. Nature, too, is both an expression of the divine and a means of understanding it.

5. – Historical context, author’s ideas and feelings about its social context

6. – Narrative voice and narrative mode

UNIT 12 – HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817 – 1862) – Walden – Romanticism

1. – Self-Representation

Mary Rowlandson, author of A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson, is a

2. – Theme and style

3. – Main stylistic features (diction)

4. – Historical context, author’s ideas and feelings about its social context

5. – Narrative voice and mode