The New England Primer Analysis

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My posting is on The New England Primer. The New England Primer was a textbook with images, prayers, teachings about the Bible, and alphabets that rhymed. The textbook was for children, so they could learn and understand the meanings and teachings of the Bible. Also, The New England Primer teaches the children about religion, morals, and wrongdoings. In America during this time, The New England Primer was the most used textbook in schools. This book helped teach Americans about what the Puritans value, their ideals, and what they believe in. The Primer contains small images with words to the right of them to explain the meaning behind the pictures. For example, there is an image of the Bible. The words next to the image say, “Thy Life to Mend, …show more content…

One of the major themes is teaching the children the basic rules of Puritan religion like how to treat other people in the community. The main point of The New England Primer is to teach the children the Puritan religion and how to behave. For example, The Primer outlines for the children that they must respect God’s sanctuary, obey the people who are superior to you, and pray to God for their enemies. Since the children have to respect various people in the community, another theme is respect and love. Respect is a major theme in the New England Primer because children need to learn to respect everyone in their community, even their enemies. The Primer teaches the children to pray for their enemies which is a sign of respect. They also have to respect their parents, friends, God, men, elders, and superiors. Love is more of a hidden theme within The Primer because it is teaching children not just respect, but it teaches how to love people and treat them too. Also, The Primer is also teaching children how to love and embrace their religion, God, and Christ. Another theme is to not sin but only to do good. In the text, it says, “By no sin ftray, Make no delay, In doing Good.” This phrase is saying do not procrastinate in doing good, and do not sin because it is important to do good not bad. A recurring theme in The New England Primer is the afterlife. The text discusses in the afterlife only believers get resurrected, and they will unite with Christ. In the afterlife, the believers will rejoice with Christ and other believers. Another interesting theme I discovered is being honest. For example, the text says, “I will as much as in me lies keep all God’s Holy Commandments.” The quote represents being honest because it teaches the children to grow up and become honest with themselves as they follow and practice the holy commandments. For example, a child will learn to become honest with their self because

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