Religion was the foundation of the early Colonial American Puritan writings. Many of the early settlements were comprised of men and women who fled Europe in the face of persecution to come to a new land and worship according to their own will. Their beliefs were stalwartly rooted in the fact that God should be involved with all facets of their lives and constantly worshiped. These Puritans writings focused on their religious foundations related to their exodus from Europe and religions role in their life on the new continent. Their literature helped to proselytize the message of God and focused on hard work and strict adherence to religious principles, thus avoiding eternal damnation. These main themes are evident in the writings of Jonathan Edwards, Cotton Mathers, and John Winthrop. This paper will explore the writings of these three men and how their religious views shaped their literary works, styles, and their historical and political views. John Winthrop 1588-1649 John Winthrop was a pioneer for religious freedom in America. As one of the early settlers sailing west on the Arbella, he composed a sermon called A Model for Christian Charity. Winthrop’s sermon is the framework for creating the spiritual colony that he envisioned and a way to unite the people coming to a new land. The people traveling west were not from one group but rather came from many groups and backgrounds. Winthrop knew that in order to succeed in the wilderness these individuals would have to give up some of their individuality for the greater good of the colony. Winthrop felt that religion was the ultimate way to accomplish this and that Christ was the perfect model to follow. In one passage he says: For patterns we have that first o... ... middle of paper ... ...p. cccxi). London: William Ball Paternoster-Row. Walker, R. (2001). Cotton Mather. Retrieved fromhttp://www2.iath.virginia.edu/salem/people/c_mather.html Baym, N. (2008). Cotton mather. In N. Baym (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume 1 (p. 143). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Wise, P. M. (2005). Cotton mathers's wonders of the invisible world: An authoritative edition. (dissertation, Georgia State University)Retrieved fromhttp://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=english_diss Mather, C. (2008). From the Wonders of the Invisible World. In N. Baym (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume 1 (pp. 147). New York: W.W. Norton & Company. Winthrop, J. (2008). A Model for Christian Charity. In N. Baym (Ed.), The Norton Anthology of American Literature Volume 1 (pp. 82). New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Updike, John. "A & P" Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 6th Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.
Updike, John. "A & P." The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 2nd Edition. Ed. Michael Meyer. Boston: St. Martin's Press, 1990. 407-411.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2189.
Christopher Priest’s novel of the everyday miraculous, The Glamour, deals with invisibility so as to intertwine plot and story in a way that seems relatively straightforward at the beginning, only to turn into a tangle, a conundrum, at the end, much more so than the flashier (hence, more reassuring) experiments of the nouveau roman or overtly experimental fiction.
In 1630, the Massachusetts Bay Company set sail to the New World in hope of reforming the Church of England. While crossing the Atlantic, John Winthrop, the puritan leader of the great migration, delivered perhaps the most famous sermon aboard the Arbella, entitled “A Model of Christian Charity.” Winthrop’s sermon gave hope to puritan immigrants to reform the Church of England and set an example for future immigrants. The Puritan’s was a goal to get rid of the offensive features that Catholicism left behind when the Protestant Reformation took place. Under Puritanism, there was a constant strain to devote your life to God and your neighbors. Unlike the old England, they wanted to prove that New England was a community of love and individual worship to God. Therefore, they created a covenant with God and would live their lives according to the covenant. Because of the covenant, Puritans tried to abide by God’s law and got rid of anything that opposed their way of life. Between 1630 and the 18th century, the Puritans tried to create a new society in New England by creating a covenant with God and living your life according to God’s rule, but in the end failed to reform the Church of England. By the mid 1630’s, threats to the Puritans such as Roger Williams, Anne Hutchinson, and Thomas Hooker were being banned from the Puritan community for their divergent beliefs. 20 years later, another problem arose with the children of church members and if they were to be granted full membership to the church. Because of these children, a Halfway Covenant was developed to make them “halfway” church members. And even more of a threat to the Puritan society was their notion that they were failing God, because of the belief that witches existed in 1692.
...ve Indians. From the copious use of examples in Winthrop's work, and the concise detail in Rowlandson's narrative, one can imbibe such Puritans values as the mercy of God, place in society, and community. Together, these three elements create a foundation for Puritan thought and lifestyle in the New World. Though A Model of Christian Charity is rather prescriptive in its discussion of these values, Rowlandson's captivity narrative can certainly be categorized as descriptive; this pious young woman serves as a living example of Winthrop's "laws," in that she lives the life of a true Puritan. Therefore, both 17th century works are extremely interrelated; in order to create Winthrop's model community, one must have faith and closely follow Puritan ideals, as Rowlandson has effectively done in her A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson.
Many of England’s problems could be solved in America, and so colonization began. When the earliest settlers came, England had the responsibility to continue the Protestant Church, and prevent the Catholic Church from converting the entire Native American population of North America (Morison, p.105) A potential Protestant refuge could be based there in the threat of civil wars or a change of religion.
Bellow, Saul. "Man Underground" Review of Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man. Commentary. June 1952. 1st December 2001
As the story of the” Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison continues, the reader is able to explicitly see his journey in college. Invisibility as well as blindness is evident in these stories. Through the use of metaphor and vivid details the author once again conveys his message of how invisibility is a major part in his life.
Ellison, Ralph. “The Prologue of the Invisible Man.” Constucting Others, Constructing Ourselves. Ed. Sibylle Gruber. Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2002. 145-152.
Hanlon, Christopher. "Eloquence and "Invisible Man"."College Literature. 32.4 (2005): 74-98. Web. 2 Mar. 2015. < http://www.jstor.org/stable/25115308 .>
Barbauld, Anna. "To a Little Invisible Being Who Is Expected Soon to Become Visible." The Norton Anthology. 9th ed. Vol. D. New York: Greenblatt, n.d. 49-50. Print.
Shmoop Editorial Team. “Ralph Ellison: Writing Invisible Man.” Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 26 Jan 2014.
Baym, Franklin, Gottesman, Holland, et al., eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 4th ed. New York: Norton, 1994.
Klinkowitz, Jerome and Patricia B Wallace. The Norton Anthology of Americal Literature. Seventh. Vol. Volume D. New York City: Norton, 2007, 2003, 1998, 1994, 1989, 1985, 1979. 5 vols.