How did the Puritans live?
In my literature class, I had to read a couple of poems written by a woman named Anne Bradstreet. Anne was a very interesting woman. She was raised in the sixteen hundreds. Women around that time didn’t have much to say or do because they didn’t have the same rights as men. Anne was different from the other women. Anne was way more educated and smarter than the other women because she had an interest in literature. She loved literature so much that she became a poetic herself. This was interesting to me because Anne was a puritan woman. The online Webster dictionary defines puritans as, “a member of a 16th and 17th century protestant group in England and New England opposing as unscriptural the ceremonial worship and the prelacy of the Church of England.” After reading about Anne and the definition of a puritan, I started to wonder how did puritans live?
http://www.annebradstreet.com/anne_bradstreet_bio_001.htm
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/puritan
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/uploads/authors/52bd3143cc/448x/anne-bradstreet.jpg
When I did my research on the puritan’s lifestyle, two words came to my mind. Those two words are religion and plain. I chose those words because I feel like they describe a puritan’s life very well. Puritans were big on religion. They base their whole lives around being religious because they want to go to heaven with their God. Like Shmoop says in The Doctrine, “Puritans believed in the concept of predestination: that God chose each human being from birth for salvation or for condemnation. Only God knew the fate of each person.” The love for Anne’s religion is shown in the poem titled “The Flesh and the Spirit.” Some historians say puritans weren’t afraid to die because they had a faith in seeing their God one day. Religion plays a major role in a puritan’s life.
http://www.shmoop.com/new-england-puritans-pilgrims/religion.html
The other word that describes a puritan is the word plain. The puritan lifestyle was very plain and dull. The fashion and the writing of a puritan revolved around the word plain. The puritan fashion was very dull. The puritans dressed like pilgrims. Everything on a puritan was covered so no skin was exposed. The only colors the puritan wore were black, white, and grey. The women wore coifs, shifts, waistcoats, aprons, and petticoats. The men wore felt hats, ruffs, doublets, cuffs, breeches, garters, stockings, and shoes
http://web.ccsd.k12.wy.us/techcurr/social%20studies/images/pilman.jpg
http://mrswiles.wikispaces.com/file/view/PILGRIMWOMAN.jpg/45508111/PILGRIMWOMAN.jpg
Puritan writing style was plain as well. Puritans didn’t use big words or express a lot of emotion in there writings. This is why I was interested in Anne Bradstreet. Anne wrote in cuplets and she could write a sonnet. Sonnets are difficult to write. Her writing style showed that she was educated and smart. The plain witting style is the best way to describe puritan literature.
http://www.ehow.com/info_8115548_characteristics-puritan-writing.html
Just like any other life, the puritans had their ups and downs. They treasured their lives to please their God. Everything from the fashion to the writing was plain and average. After doing this blog I feel like the puritans were good people that lived an easy life. I wonder if people still live the same way the puritans did?
Is John Smith really telling the truth?
In my American Literature class, I had to read two stories wrote by John Smith. The stories are called “The General History of Virginia” and “New England and the summer Isles.” These two stories tell the adventure of John Smith’s life. The stories are really interesting because they talked about how John Smith settled in Jamestown, Virginia and what happened in Jamestown. These stories are the early sources of American history but they brought a major question to my mind. Is John Smith really telling the truth? In this blog, I will tell my views on things that make me wonder how John Smith could be lying.
John Smith is classified as a captive narrator. Captive narrators write stories about the adventures and events of them being imprisoned by someone else. These stories attend to have heroic moments, crazy battles, and dramatic roles. A narrator like John Smith can easily lie about the events he wrote because he only tells one side of the story. That one side of the story is usually the views of the narrator. John Smith was a salesman back in New England. Salesman usually lie to sale their products, so is John Smith telling the truth in his stories?
The only reason why I’m questioning John Smith’s words is because of a couple of things in the stories that stood out to me. One thing that stood out in the stories, were John Smith’s heroic moments. In “The General History of Virginia,” John Smith wrote that he was in a battle with two hundred salvages that wanted to capture him. Two hundred people for one person is an outstanding number to me. During this moment in the story, John Smith said he had two men tied to his arms so the salvages wouldn’t hit him with arrows. The two men shields sound heroic but they were a failure. John Smith still managed to get hit in the thigh. John Smith became captured later on with an open wound on his thigh. With all the diseases and illnesses around this area, why didn’t John Smith die from an illness as a prisoner? The medicine wasn’t advanced enough to help him out with his open wound at the time. These heroic moments made me question John Smith’s stories. Another thing that stood out to me is the mysteries of Pocahontas. Where did she come from? Why did she save John Smith from begin killed? On About.com(http://womenshistory.about.com/od/mythsofwomenshistory/a/pocahontas.htm) they say, “Some historians believe that the story is not true. The earliest surviving story of the incident by Smith is quite different and he only told the version of being saved by an ‘Indian Princess’ after she became famous. Smith was known to go to great lengths to promote himself and his role in the earl colony. “They also say, “In 1612, he writes of Pocahontas’ affection for him, but his ‘True Relation’ does not mention Pocahontas or an execution threat when he tells of his expedition and meeting of Powhatan. It is not until 1624 in his ‘General History’ (Pocahontas died in 1617) that he writes of the threatened execution and Pocahontas’ dramatic role in saving his life.” These two quotes lead me to wonder, is John Smith telling the truth in his stories?
I believe that John Smith is telling the truth to a certain extent. There are evidences of the diseases and stuff like that but I still feel like John Smith changed a lot of the story just so he can make himself sound better. Like my mom always told me, “There are two sides to every story, the lie and the truth.” I still believe that the two stories are good sources for American history but I feel like people need to watch what they read because you never know how the narrator is trying to persuade you into believing something.
Video:
Powhatan Tribes- Pocahontas and John Smith – Native American
Cited Sources
Info:
Lewis, Jone. “Pocahontas Saves Captain John Smith from Execution.”About.com . Jan. 1999
http://womenshistory.about.com/od/mythsofwomenshistory/a/pocahontas.htm
Picture:
New England Chromo. Lith.Co. “Pocahontas-saves-Smith-NE-Chromo”.1870
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pocahontas-saves-Smith-NE-Chromo-1870.jpeg
Myself
My name is Courtney Gorman. I was born and raised in Douglasville, Georgia. Douglasville is thirty minutes outside of Atlanta. I’m usually known as the nice guy that doesn’t say much. I don’t say much because I like to observe people before I get to know them. Once someone knows me, they realize that I’m very random but cool. I enjoy playing, watching, and coaching basketball on any level. It is a very entertaining sport to me. I also like to draw and play video game. These things are a couple of things I like to do in my free time. When I’m bored in Jacksonville, that’s what people usually see me doing.
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