Essay concepts and frameworks

¶ … Capsule

Imagine if you could go back in time, far back to before this country was even born, to speak to real people in the struggle of a newly developing land. We can't, but maybe we can speak to them in another fashion, like a time capsule waiting to show future generations about the plight and triumphs of some of the earliest Americans. Thus, we will not be speaking to Joseph from James K. Martin's Ordinary Courage: the Revolutionary War Adventures of Private Joseph Plump or Eunice from John Demos' The Unredeemed Captive: a Family Story from Early America, but we will be speaking for them and passing on their story to even more distant future generations.

The first item to be placed in the time capsule will relate to the character of Joseph Plum. As a foot soldier in the American Revolution, Joseph began his stint in the Revolutionary War at the tender age of fifteen. Thus, when he was fighting, his memory was idolized because it was from a child's point-of-view. One of the most memorable pieces of the book was when Joseph actually sees George Washington while he is fighting in battle. As a colonist, Joseph is amazed to actually see such a great man fighting besides him as they both share the same cause -- independence. Since Joseph not only witnessed George Washington as he fought, but also because he idolized him, an object representing Washington's greatness would be an excellent addition to the time capsule representing Joseph and his story. Thus, the placement of a dollar bill will correlate with the realness of Washington in Joseph's retelling of the Revolutionary War events, but will also show how this single man became a great legend, even in his own lifetime. Washington was a real man, and he actually fought side by side of a thousand or more soldiers just like Joseph. Much of these soldiers probably thought it was an honor to fight beside him and Washington became a legend before the war was even over. Thus, representing the fruits of his effort, through showing how he has been honored through history in his place on one of America's most commonly used bills will show how Joseph got to witness the making of a legend first hand.

The second item to be placed in the time capsule to rely these stories to future generations will focus around the story of Eunice in Demos' work The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America. Eunice was the daughter of a Puritan minister, and together they lived in Colonial America way before the actual birth of the nation as we know it today. Eunice lived in an America that was riddled with uncertainty and danger, from the wilderness itself to the hostile Native Americans that had teamed with the French in the region to fight against the invading British colonists. Eunice herself stood for everything that the British stood for. She was Puritan, young, and innocent. When she was "kidnapped," or adopted as her Iroquois family would say, that placed such British values in general in jeopardy. However, the life she found with her Native American captives was much more appealing to her. There were less religious restrictions, and as a woman, she had much more freedom in Iroquois culture. She was not doomed to become a submissive wife within the framework of Puritan colonialism, but instead she found her freedom through her adoptive Native American family. With this in mind, one object in particular would help represent her struggle at a very early stage in American history. In the time capsule, I would place a recent 2009 article describing the voting demographics of women in the most recent presidential election. Eunice chose a life of relative freedom, sticking up for herself and basically paving a path of feminist rights in the earliest stages of American history. Thus, she would be proud to see how far this nation has come from its Puritan roots, giving women a much more active role within modern society. An article describing the voting power of women in this country would definitely be a good addition to the time capsule to represent Eunice's choices in her life and how she chose a path of more freedom rather than returning to the norm to sit idly by in a life of submission.