Two influential writers were born 56 years apart, but both still held(tense) the same amount of significance to American Literature. These impressive authors, are Anne Bradstreet and Jonathan Edwards, who are Puritan writers from the 1600s and 1700s. Bradstreet is a poet, two of her works include, “My Dear and Loving Husband” and “Upon the Burning of Our House.” Anne Bradstreet is a faithful wife, and a well educated woman for her time. She found her inspiration from being a doting wife while being very religious. In comparison, Edwards is a preacher whose sermons speak to many people and make them convert over to Puritanism. One of his most famous sermons is, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” These two Puritan authors writers have many …show more content…
Jonathan enjoys scaring people into doing what he wants. One phrase he tells them is, “Unconverted men walk over the pit of hell on a rotten covering, and there are innumerable places in this covering so weak that they will not bear their weight, and these places are not seen.” (pg 126). He is using this to create an image of how easily it is for his congregation to go to hell. Besides being a bully, Edwards enjoys stringing people along and building up his sermons until he finally reaches his point. This is completely different to Bradstreet who is very straightforward in her poems. While Edwards’ purpose of writing is solely to persuade people to convert, Bradstreet’s is to write personal works. She writes about what she knows in life, such as how much she loves her husband . Anne Bradstreet proclaims , “If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;/ If ever wife was happy in a man,/ Compare with me, ye women, if you can” (lines 2-3). She says that to compare her to a happy wife and talks about how faithful she is to her husband. Besides making herself happy, she is also inspiring others how to act in a respectful and doting way. Clearly, Bradstreet and Edwards had(tense) very contrasting personalities and styles of
Anne Bradstreet’s inability to perfect her work before it was released frustrated her to the point where she internalizes the book’s imperfections as a reflection of herself. Bradstreet uses an extended metaphor of a mother and a child to compare the relationship between herself as the author and her book. Rather than investing her spirit in God, she repeatedly focuses on trying to improve the quality of her writing with no success, “I washed thy face, but more defects I saw” (Bradstreet 13). Like a mother protecting her child, Bradstreet’s attempts to prevent critics from negatively analyzing her work of art (20). Her continuous obsession about people’s opinions consumed in the Earthly world and essentially distracted her from developing a spiritual relationship with God. Bradstreet was enveloped by her dissatisfaction with her to the point of ridiculing herself, “Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble mind” (1). It was obvious that her mind and spiritual
“Among all my experiences of God’s gracious dealings with me I have constantly observed this, that He hath never suffered me long to sit loose from him...” (Bradstreet 68). Anne Bradstreet is showing her devotion to God and is focusing on his love and mercy. Bradstreet found inspiration in William Shakespeare but more importantly what drove her poetry was religious beliefs. Being born into a Puritan family, Bradstreet became accustomed to Puritan behavior and had a strong belief in God. Jonathan Edwards, another strong believer in God, had the same Puritan beliefs but thought if a person shall sin they would be destined to end up in hell. Edwards is an extreme pastor and this is shown in the sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” The two being the ideal Puritan religion have strong opinions on viewing God
To begin with, Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor describe their marriage and spouse with a different tone. Bradstreet uses words that
Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards and Arthur Miller were authors of Puritan writing that all contained one major object, the Bible. Jonathan Edwards, the writer of “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” spoke of the audience being damned for not turning in the path of the Lord. The Crucible by Arthur Miller was over adultery, Witchcraft and discussed God. Anne Bradstreet’s poems, “To My Dear and Loving Husband” and “Upon the Burning of our House” discussed how worldly things do not matter, and that the love she has with her husband and her Lord are whats important. The three authors are very similar, they all speak of God and use biblical illusions in their writings and teachings, giving them all similar characteristics.
Anne Bradstreet’s poetry resembles a quiet pond. Her quiet puritan thinking acts as the calm surface that bears a resemblance to her natural values and religious beliefs. Underneath the pond there is an abundance of activity comparable to her becoming the first notable poet in American Literature. Anne Bradstreet did not obtain the first notable poet’s title very easily; she endured sickness, lack of food, and primitive living conditions during her time in the New World. Despite these misfortunes she used her emotions and strong educational background to write extraordinarily well for a woman in that time.
Anne Bradstreet, whom most critics consider America’s first “authentic poet”, was born and raised as a Puritan. Bradstreet married her husband Simon at the tender age of eighteen. She wrote her poems while rearing eight children and performing other domestic duties. In her poem “Upon The Burning Of Our House, July 10th, 1666”, Bradstreet tells of three valuable lessons she learned from the fire that destroyed her home.
Determining whether the God you praise and worship is choleric because of your presence by the sins you’ve created is at never ending battle in the 17th-18th centuries. Upon the Burning of Our House is a poem, with nine stanzas, written by Anne Bradstreet explaining her understanding and ability to live and learn from sin to God. Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a work, written as a sermon by Jonathan Edwards, who preaches to all the non-Puritan sinners. His belief is that if they don’t convert and take blame for their sins, God’s anger toward them will be unbearable and force them to the pits of hell. Analyzing Bradstreet’s and Edwards’ works, a reader can distinguish the personality of the two writers and the different views of God
Bradstreet’s poetry is fully religious. Being a pious woman, as everyone was at that time period, she wrote poems claiming high morals and religious motifs. Her writings were very popular among puritans who started colonizing America. His Puritan belief was the reason of her special attitude to her life, soul and sufferings. “She thought that God was so hard on her because her soul was too in love with the world. She also wrote some poems where she asked God to watch over her children and husband” (Gonzalez, 2000).
Nell Bernstein, the author of Burning Down The House: The End Of Juvenile Prison has a very strong opinion about juvenile facilities. He believes that children do not learn to correct their behavior by being forced into these facilities because the main root of their behavior stems from their “broken” family structures, in more cases than not. This is supported from the text when he states “In fact multiple studies have shown that putting youth behind bars not only fails to enhance public safety; it does just the opposite, driving low-level delinquents deeper into criminality and increasing the likelihood that they will end up behind bars again and again.” Bernstein really tries to push his audience to agree with his opinion; to stop putting
The biggest difference that I noticed between Bradstreet and Rowlandson compared to writers such as Bradford and Winthrop was the targets of their works. It seems that the male authors were attempting to persuade others to their particular point of view. The women, however, seemed to be mainly condoling themselves through their particular situations. There are, however common themes between all of these authors that are mentioned. They all speak very clearly about God and his role in the lives of these early settlers. Their Puritan beliefs and backgrounds are relatively consistent in this manner. Colonial life for women was probably quite different than it was for men. They likely were not considered equal to men and, in all likelihood, the
Because of their Puritanical beliefs, it is no surprise that the major theme that runs throughout Mary Rowlandson and Jonathan Edwards’s writings is religion. This aspect of religion is apparent in not only the constant mentions about God himself, but also in the heavy use of biblical scriptures. In their respective writings, Rowlandson and Edwards utilize scripture, but for different purposes; one uses it to convey that good and bad events happen solely because of God’s will, and the other uses it, in one instance, to illustrate how it brought him closer to God, and, in another instance, to justify his harsh claims about God’s powerful wrath.
The literature of Puritan America reflects the beliefs and values of the settlers in many ways. The first example is from the poem “Here follows some verses upon the burning of our house”. The quote “Adieu, Adieu, all's vanity. Then straight i’gin my heart to chide…”(Line 36-37) means that she wants to fix her thoughts and actions. The reason that I say this is because the Puritans believed that only the elct get to go to paradise. In this quote Anne Bradstreet is saying goodbye to the way she was, and saying hello to the person she is going to become in order to be apart of the elect.
Anne Bradstreet and Edward Taylor are two of the most recognizable poets from early American History; they were also both American Puritans, who changed the world with their poetry. We can see many similarities in their poetry when it comes to the importance of religion and also on having children and losing children. There are however differences in the audience of their poetry and their personal views on marriage. Bradstreet and Taylor both came over to America in the 17th century and settled in New England. Though Taylor came years later we can see the similarities through their poetry.
Understanding literary elements such as patterns, reader/writer relationships, and character choice are critical in appreciating William Faulkner's Barn Burning. Some literary elements are small and almost inconsequential while others are large and all-encompassing: the mother's broken clock, a small and seemingly insignificant object, is used so carefully, extracting the maximum effect; the subtle, but more frequent use of dialectal words which contain darker, secondary meanings; the way blood is used throughout the story in many different ways, including several direct references in the familial sense; how Faulkner chooses to write about poor, common people (in fact to the extreme) and how this relates to the opinions of Wordsworth and Aristotle; and finally, the relationship between the reader and writer, Faulkner's choice of narrator and point of view, and how this is works successfully.
Up until the early 17th century, American literature was chiefly about politics, religion, and recorded events. These writings were very dry and lacked insight into the everyday lives of the authors. To put into writing any individual spiritual reflections that strayed away from the religion of the colony could be dangerous at that time; possibly resulting in banishment from the colony or worse. Likewise, any writing that did not serve at least one of the purposes listed above was considered to be a waste of time that would be better spent praising God. Anne Bradstreet defied the rules of her time by writing about whatever she wanted including personal thoughts, reflections, emotions, and events. Bradstreet was the first to write about personal matters, which is her greatest literary contribution in early American literature.