American literature: key themes and historical development

¶ … Mary Rowlandson's "A Narrative of the Captivity," the author narrates a horrific series of events -- her capture by Native Americans, with whom the Puritans were at war, and the subsequent death of one of her children. Rowlandson bears up and weathers her sorrow by reminding herself that God is still with her, and that the life she is living on earth can only be taken by God: "I have thought since of the wonderful goodness of God to me, in preserving in me in the use of my reason and senses, in that distressed time, that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life" (Rowlandson 41). Rowlandson asks for a sign from God, when her other daughter will not come near her and at that instance her lost son is returned to her. God also restores a Bible to her from the Indian's plunder, which shows His hand in secular affairs. This is not seen as kindness by the Indian, but as evidence that God is with believers even at the darkest times.

"Of Plymouth Plantation" by William Bradford takes an even more deterministic view of the world than does Rowlandson. When a particularly profane young man is cast overboard, Bradford sees this as God's hand rather than an inevitable consequence of life at sea. When the ship arrives in the Americas, the crew falls to its knees and thanks God for safe passage, even though the land is filled with people whom Bradford calls savages. However, without these 'savages' the Puritans would not have survived. Following their settlement came what Bradford calls the 'starving time' in which the Puritans struggled to find and grow food in their new home. Many died cursing the fact that they ever came to the New World. Only with the assistance of the native population, with whom the Puritans temporarily made peace, was the first Thanksgiving possible. The Indian's generosity seems extraordinary, given that the Puritans were effectively invading their land. Rather than compliment these savages, any goodness shown to the Puritans is seen as evidence of God's not native goodness: "Squanto continued with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God" (Bradford 33).

Q2. Selection: "Speech to the Virginia Convention" by Patrick Henry

Phrase/Image: I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided; and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past....

Emotional Overtones: The image of the lamp suggests that Henry is functioning as a figure of enlightenment. He is bringing light to the darkness. The revolutionaries, who saw themselves as Enlightenment thinkers, are portrayed as seeing things clearly, unlike the loyalists. Yet Henry fundamentally shows himself to be a practical man. He is governed by empirical experience and observation.

Message: The British have reigned on previous promises and continue to abuse the rights of the colonists. Independence is the only solution.

Selection: "The Crisis, No. 1" by Thomas Paine.

Phrase/Image: a generous parent should have said, "If there must be trouble let it be in my day, that my child may have peace."

Emotional Overtones: Paine reproaches a loyalist with his child for wanting peace with England now, implying that conflict with an oppressive government like the British is inevitable. It is selfish to passively endure the yolk of the Crown, effectively condemning the child to slavery in the future, rather than giving the child peace in an Independent America

Message: Paine exhorts the reader to act now, rather than later, to free America.

Q3. Thomas Jefferson considered himself a man of the Enlightenment and a rationalist. "The Declaration of Independence" was strongly influenced by the philosophy of John Locke. Rather than using emotional language to abuse the British monarch, Jefferson draws upon the philosophical notion of inalienable rights, namely that all human beings are entitled to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" (Jefferson 117). This idea was considered to be logical and reasonable, in contrast to ideas such as the Divine Right of Kings, which stressed that a king was ordained by God to be the ruler, and thus could not be opposed by his subjects. Jefferson suggests that there is a social contract between the ruled and the ruler, and when the ruler is abusive and transgresses the right of the ruled, the ruled should be able to throw off that yolk, regardless of custom and historical precedent.

While it is true that Jefferson does call the King a "tyrant," when he does so he immediately lists practical grievances, to show that this abuse is not hurled without some justification (Jefferson 118). For example: "He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly and continually for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people" (Jefferson 118). Rather than dealing with the colonists, the King has merely used his power in an arbitrary fashion. It is true that Jefferson's document lacks self-consciousness about some of the abuses perpetrated by the colonists. Jefferson agreed to strike out any references to the slave trade, despite his statements of universal equality of all men, based upon the protests of some of the Southern states. Jefferson himself was a slave owner. But as he understood rationalism (with a heavy dose of pragmatism), the document was worded in as rationalistic a manner as possible, so even idealistic notions such as inalienable rights were presented in terms of an argument, and in reference to specific events.

Q4. In Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the hands of an angry God," the Puritan philosopher and preacher Jonathan Edwards stresses that the will of God alone protects the vulnerable, sinful human soul -- nothing else. Foolishly, people take refuge from fear in their healthy constitutions but that is only because they cannot see the gaping pit of hell beneath them. Man is inherently fallen, according to Edwards, and only the grace of God, not good works, can save the human soul. Arrogantly, we believe that it is by our own force of will that we achieve salvation. It is not, instead we can only be saved if we depend on God and acknowledge our fallen nature. Even then, we may not be saved, unless we are one of the Elect. God is portrayed as holding the soul of the man like a spider in His hand and as an archer refusing to let forth the bow to take a man's soul. "There is nothing you can do to induce God to spare you for one moment" (Edwards 81). The purpose of human life is to submit and for the believer to accept his or her total dependence upon God.