The Truth to the Puritanism Lifestyle in American Literature

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The Truth to the Puritanism Lifestyle in American Literature

There are many suspicions about weather Puritanism is accurately depicted in books. This should clear things up a bit. The depiction of the puritan life style in American Literature is in some ways inaccurate but it is mostly accurate. The Puritans' were very religious but their family and social traditions were vaguely addressed. In literature such as The Scarlet Letter, The Crucible, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God", "The Devil and Tom Walker", the Puritan lifestyle is mostly accurately depicted even though some things were left out. These accurate depictions and mostly reflected in crime and punishment, good and evil in society, religious influence, and family and social traditions.

In literature, such as The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible, crime and punishment were depicted as harsh and unusual, and they were in some cases but, in many cases the punishments were suitable to the crime committed. There is however truth to the stories, there were public confessions, and public punishments. Crimes were not as heavily judged by biblical standards as The Scarlet Letter and The Crucible lead the reader to believe. Judges were not quite as amiss as the stories elude them to be.

Good and evil in society was also ill addressed. The puritans know that good and evil was amongst them but it did not run there lives as it was portrayed in the stories. In the Scarlet Letter the characters Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale were the epitome of good and evil. Roger was often referred to as the devil and Arthur was a man of God. In The Crucible witches were everywhere they believed that witches were terrible beings and yet everyone was susceptible to being over ...

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...y depicted in the Scarlet Letter but in the book there were not as many sermons or lectures as there were on the true Puritan Election Days.

In a nut shell the Puritans? way of life, in American Literature, was portrayed in a slightly harsher manner then the reality of it, but all in all the books were surprisingly accurate. There were certain aspects of puritan life style that were scarcely mentioned and some that were not mentioned at all. There is a great deal to learn about the Puritans and American Literature can only teach a brief synopsize about it.

Works Cited

Helicon. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." A Sermon by Jonathon Edwards. 2007. Cambridge. 11 Nov 2003 .

Stille, Darlene. Anne Hutchinson. Minneapolis: Julie Gassman, 2006.

Wilson, George. Literature and its Times. U.S.: Jeff Hill, 1997.

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