UNIT 1 JOHN SMITH (1580-1631)

The General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles.
1. Skim the text to get its general sense and try to sum up the plot in two or three sentences.
Plot is what happens to the characters in a story; it is an unfolding series or pattern of events.
Captain Smith, after using his guide as a shield, was found and captured by the savages, who had
previously killed two of his men and took him near the fire. There, he asked for their captain and the
savages showed him the King of Pamunkey. Smith gave him an ivory compass dial and all the savages
were marvelled by this object. Afterwards, Smith was eventually conducted to Werowocomoco and
presented to their king, Powhatan, who was together with his train; there, he was treated alternatively as
an enemy and as a guest (he was submitted to a ritual). Then, he was condemned to death, but
Pocahontas, the king’s dearest daughter, prevented her father from executing him, so Powhatan’s final
decision was a practical one: that Smith would make tools for him, just like anyone else from the
village.
2. Now, scan the text and list the names of the individual people who are mentioned. Next to
each name, write down any information provided by the author about each person. How are
these individuals portrayed? Are any of them described or are we only told about the actions they
perform?
- George Cassen: Under torture, he told the bowmen that Captain Smith had gone up to the river.
- Captain Smith: According to him, the bowmen who had killed Robinson and Emry did not dare to
approach him until he was paralyzed with cold in the middle of a small river. After being captured, he
offered a dial to Openchancanough and was honoured and well fed. When he was brought into
Powhatan’s presence in the village of Werowocomoco, he was submitted to a ritual, in which he felt
that his life had been at risk, and after that he remained there making tools for Powhatan.
- John Robinson and Thomas Emry, captain Smith’s men, who were shot with arrows and slain by the
natives, led by Openchancanough.
- Openchancanough, called “the King of Pamunkey” by John Smith. He conducted 300 bowmen who
captured Captain Smith, received a dial from him, and held the captain in custody until he delivered the
prisoner to Powhatan.
- Powhatan, called “the Emperor” by Captain Smith. This Native chief wore a great robe made of
raccoon skins.
- Opossunoquonuske, the Queen of Apomattoc, who was appointed to bring Captain Smith water to
wash his hands.
- Pocahontas, Powhatan King’s dearest daughter, aged sixteen or eighteen. According to Captain
Smith’s account, she took his head in her arms and laid her own head upon him to save him from death.
The author seems more interested in describing events, actions rather than characterization. No physical
descriptions are provided. On the contrary, physical descriptions of the Indians tend to be derogatory.
Besides, their contradictory behaviour, attacking or being kind, presents them as unreliable.
3. Notice how the author refers to his captors. Can you find any derogatory terms applied to
them?
Derogatory terms are applied to his captors: "savages”, “grim courtiers”, and explicitly compares them
to “devils” that utter “hellish notes and screeches".
4. How are the captors described? What do they look like? How are they dressed? Do they
ever speak, or do we learn about them only from what the author says they did?
The natives are depicted as loyal to their boss and they seem to have a social hierarchy structure, they
are armed with bows and arrows and well-organized.

In terms of their appearance the author describes them as exotic: he explains the way they paint their
bodies using natural oils and how they dress themselves using animals’ skins, feathers and copper.
These ornaments make them look very exotic and totally different from what an Englishman would
wear at that time.

The author never uses the direct speech, we only learn about his captors from what he says they did.
There is no chance to listen to the natives speaking or expressing a thought. All we know about them
comes from Captain Smith descriptions. The writer wants to give us the impression that savages are
irrational and primitive because they were “singing and yelling out such hellish notes and screeches”.

5. List the instances in which Captain Smith is attacked or feels threatened, and then list the
instances in which he is treated as an honoured guest by the Natives.
There are three instances in which Captain Smith feels seriously threatened: the first one when he is
attacked by the same bowmen who have killed two of his men and uses his guide and his shield.

Later, when he is tied to a tree and is about to be shot with arrows and at last when he is dragged before
Powhatan, and his head is placed on two great stones, while several people with clubs seem to be ready
to beat his brains out. On the contrary he, Captain Smith receives help or feels honoured as a valued
guest when his captors pull him out of the icy bog, warm him up by rubbing his limbs by the fire and
admire the dial he offers to their leader. Also, when the armed captors lead him to Orapaks to be
“kindly feasted and well used”, and he is given a great amount of food. Finally he also feels honoured
when in Powhatan’s presence, the Queen of Appomattoc and someone else bring him water and a
bunch of feathers to wash and dry his hands.

6. What impression of the Natives does the author try to convey by this alternation of threats
and compliments? How do you think Smith’s contemporary readers would have perceived such
behavior on the part of his captors? How successful was the author in presenting the Natives as
potential betrayers never to be trusted by the English? How reliable does he appear to readers
today?
The author tried to give the impression that the Natives were moody or temperamental, and totally
unpredictable, so that his original audience, the European readers, might easily understand why he was
always unsure of his fate. Smith’s contemporary readers probably perceived such behaviour as
primitive, extravagant and irrational. The changing attitudes ascribed to Natives reinforced any existing
prejudice about their mental instability, unreliability and treacherous nature. This depiction of the
Natives helped Smith and other colonizers to justify their actions.

However, nowadays most readers tend to question such negative notions about Native Americans,
realize their plight, and feel inclined to sympathize with them rather than with the invaders of their
territories. Modern readers realize that Smith’s depiction of the Natives is biased and prejudicial based
on the ideology of the “Manifest Destiny”, the notion that Europeans should take over the whole
American continent.

7. John Smith’s military training allowed him to use technical terms, such as “bissom”, to
explain how the warriors were placed. List the weapons that are mentioned and, next to each
name, write down any details that the author gives about them (their form and/or how they may
be used). By looking at the way the author pays attention to details of warfare, can you point out
how he reveals his military background?
● Arrows: used by the bowmen.
● Bows: used by the bowmen when they dance.
● Pieces: the bowmen wear them, but they do not use them in this episode.
● Swords: the bowmen wear them, but they do not use them in this episode.
● Quiver of arrows: the bowmen carry them (one per each).
● Clubs: used by the bowmen to hit Captain Smith.
● Hatches: handmade by the King.
He makes clear that he has a good military background as he explains with detail how the captors
organized themselves in terms of movement.
Captain Smith knew the names of every single position they made (snakelike formation, etc.).
8. Why did the author refer to the tribesmen as "soldiers," to their leaders as "sergeants," to
the tribal chiefs as "Kings" and to Powhatan as "Emperor" or "King"?
Captain Smith did not know the social organization of the Natives precisely, but he used those English
words in order to make English readers understand their division and their rank differences. In this way,
they would be able to find parallelisms with European hierarchical positions.
9. Captain Smith interspersed his General History with quotations from English translations
of classical authors. What is the main function of the quotation from Seneca in the passage
above?
The main function of this quotation is to reinforce the idea of the Natives seen as demons as they had
been previously compared to devils that yell and make hellish notes.
10. The author generally wrote in a self-promoting way in order to establish his own
reputation and prided himself on knowing how to manage the Indians. By scanning the text, can
you find any actions performed by Captain Smith that proved to be decisive in saving his life? In
general terms, how did he depict himself?
Smith constructs himself as a brave hero with knight-like traits. Among the decisive actions, he says
that he performed to save his life. He kills three of his attackers and wounds many others before he
slipped into the middle of a creek. He emphasizes his captors’ fear of him and declares that they did not
attack him until he was too cold to defend himself. He treats his captors in a proud and demanding way
asking for their captain. According with his rank, he is kindly treated and very well feed. In short,
although Smith represents himself as a courageous and proud hero, readers may consider him as a
consummated self-promoted, over-confident and exaggeratedly boastful person.
11. Apart from publicizing his accomplishments, Captain Smith often had to justify his daring
actions and defend himself from numerous accusations. In particular, he was held responsible for
the deaths of Thomas Emry and John Robinson, and sentenced to death by hanging. The timely
arrival of the Susan Constant, under the command of Captain Newport, at the Jamestown
waterfront stayed the execution. Can you find in the passages above any evidence used by
Captain Smith to claim that he should not have been blamed for the deaths of the two colonists?
Captain John Smith tries make clear that there is nothing he could have done to the deaths of Thomas
Emry and John Robinson (they were hung) because himself was captured. While Smith was looking for
food, he ordered his men to stay in a barge and wait for his return, but they were ashore and killed
when sleeping in a canoe.
12. In other words, such as A Description of New England (1616) and Advertisements for the
Unexperienced Planters of New England, or Anywhere, Or the Pathway to Experience to Erect a
Plantation (1631), Captain Smith uses the first person narrative and expresses his own subjective
perceptions and opinions about all kind of matters. Why does he omit the personal pronoun "I"
and write of himself in the third person singular throughout The General History of Virginia, New
England, and the Summer Isles? What is the effect of this strategy?
He omits the personal pronoun “I” and writes of himself in the 3rd person of singular so that his
statements are taken as universal truths and to be represented as an unanimously accepted. He really
wants to distant himself from the narrative voice and gives the impression that his account of events
objectively reflects what happened.
13. Look closely at the Pocahontas episode and try to interpret it from your own perspective.
The author clearly states that she saved him from being clubbed to death. Would she have shown
her willingness to offer her own life in place of Smith’s in such a way? Would Powhatan and his
men have yielded to the girl’s wish to save Captain Smith? How probable do you think the event
was?
The author clearly states that she saved him from being clubbed to death, but he does not explicitly
indicate any action on his part that may have prompted her to intervene, as there are no traces of
Pocahontas’ willingness to offer her own life in place of Smith's in such a way. It seems a romanticized
story created by Smith looking for more popularity of his narrative. Nevertheless, the veracity of this
episode is still in dispute.
14. Philip L. Barbour, the foremost modern Smith scholar, accepted the Pocahontas rescue
story as true. He suggested that the Captain might have misunderstood a ceremony of
naturalization and adoption in which he was symbolically killed and reborn with the status of one
of Powhatan’s sons. Pocahontas' action would have been part of a ritual which Smith could not
understand. What do you think about this interpretation?
If we think about this interpretation it would be possible to take this story as true, because Smith was
not used to the Natives’ rituals and if the meaning of what happened in that story was misled by him,
then it could be true. However, this theory is not well supported by evidence of Powhatan rituals or
those of other North American Native groups, bearing in mind that there was no trace of Pocahontas
courageous intervention in Smith’s first book and that the incident did not come to light until after
Powhatan and Pocahontas deaths, so there was no one to contradict the author. The story is suspiciously
similar to another rescue by an Indian princess described in a Spanish work that Smith might have read.
All these facts make us think that Smith may have borrowed or invented the episode for its
melodramatic effect, taking advantage of Pocahontas’ fame in England, being the story a mix of fact
and fiction.
15. Pocahontas became a symbol to all Americans, representing wilderness reclaimed by
civilization. She has inspired many novels and poems. Why do you think that the legend of
Pocahontas has achieved the status of a national myth? Comment on the fact that Pocahontas’
gesture has been interpreted as a sign of the Native Americans’ submission to their English
conquerors.
Pocahontas achieved the status of a national myth because her story has been romanticized and because
she was the proof that a Native woman could be assimilated by the European society. Pocahontas was
kidnapped by the settlers in 1613, taken to Jamestown and used as a political pawn in negotiation with
his father, Powhatan. She married an English man and she was baptized Anglican and converted to
Christianity. She was introduced to James I and made a great impression on English society. The
veracity of the incident in which Pocahontas saves him from death is still uncertain, because John
Smith wrote about it after she was dead. It might be a way of taking advantage of the fame of
Powhatan’s daughter in London society at a time when they had to justify the war with the American
Natives.
16. After his liberation, Captain Smith became interested in the Natives' languages and ways
of life. In the passages above, does he give any hints of his interest in the Natives' customs?
Captain Smith does a quite reliable ethnographic account of the Natives customs, after all he lived
among them for many years. His descriptions display fascination with the Natives’ attires, ceremonies
and weapons. It’s a fantastic source of information but it must be mentioned that this author was a
colonizer, so most of his writings aimed to justify his actions.
17. From the passages above, can you reach any conclusions about how Smith viewed contact
between the two cultures? Did he perceive the so-called “encounter” as an interaction on equal
terms? Bear in mind the basic difference between facts (actual events) and the author’s opinions
(viewpoint, personal judgement and interpretation of facts).
Captain Smith was impressed by the new culture and he did not understand many of the events that
took place during this episode. His amazement comes from the fact that he would never treat them (the
Natives) the way they treated him. This means that in Europe, they would not give presents and
precious objects to their captives.
18. As a colonial writer, John Smith had to struggle to make his language depict a new world.
What linguistic strategies did he use? Note particularly the adaptation of the current English
lexicon and the introduction of new vocabulary, restricted to a number of concrete words derived
from Native languages.
Captain Smith uses common words to explain easily the new world. He describes the tribesmen as
soldiers and officers in a European army to make the readers understand differences in rank among his
captors,he draws parallelisms with European hierarchical positions.
He also uses technical terms “bissom, arrows, pieces and swords”. All these details of warfare reveal
his military background.
19. According to Everett Emerson, Book III of The General History of Virginia, New England,
and the Summer Isles “is characterized by richness and literary integrity, and it is full of incident
and character.” Discuss this statement.
A great part of the 3rd book of The General History is about a description of the interaction between the
two very different civilizations. A big interest of the sheer survival of the colony. Smith formulates a
controversial policy towards the Native Americans. It is clear that he uses force to control the Powhatan
despite of The Virginia Company’s requests for a gentler policy toward the natives.
20. Captain John Smith was a person of singular importance in the colonization of America.
His practicality, common sense, hard work, individualism and leadership have been praised by
many Americans. Why do you think that he has often been identified as the quintessential
American hero?
Early Americans began to scan their colonial past for figures like Smith that would give a sense of
identity and past to the new world. Political orators, historians and letter writers began to find in
Captain John Smith heroic traits which seemed to them characteristically American: courage, self-
reliance, resourcefulness and faith in the future of the new land.
 UNIT 2 WILLIAM BRADFORD (1590-1657)
Of Plymouth Plantation
1. What effect does the author attempt to have on his readers by using a first person narrative
instead of a third person one?
Bradford uses in his narrative both the third and the first-person narrator. The use of the first-person
narrative is important as it gives a more personal opinion of the events. It engages the narrator in the
plot, in fact, Bradford was one of the Pilgrims. He uses it to give his personal opinion and to directly
address the reader. He gives the readers a first of hand view of what happened. It is a rhetorical device
to bring attention. As an example, he asks the reader to make a pause. He is thinking about future
readers. The text has a religious and didactic purpose.
Bradford’s main concern as a writer was the relevance of the events, rather than their attractive
presentation. John Smith’s History of Virginia is a very different text and one that Bradford would not
have looked up to as a model; besides, Smith uses primarily the third person singular. Bradford changes
from “they” to “I” when he wants to bring objective events into relation with Scripture or with his own
thoughts. The alternation of the third person plural and the first-person singular does not serve the
purpose of conveying different points of view.
He narrated the story from just one point of view, therefore the readers only know one side of the story.
If he had used a third person narrative, he would have had to be more objective with the events.
2. How did Bradford interpret the death of the young man aboard the Mayflower? In what sense
is this incident an example of God protecting his chosen people?
William Bradford interpreted what happened as divine justice. For the Puritans God serves justice
because he is in charge of the world and every creature.
The young man was a mean person and he had a nasty behaviour so he ended up “paying” for his
actions. He died unexpectedly, he was strong and really healthy but suddenly he started feeling very
sick and passed away. So, for Bradford this episode served as a clear example of divine providence,
because God punished him for what he did.
The young man is condemned, having no choice to redeem himself. The fate of the young man is
presented as a “special work of God’s providence”; his unexpected death had been decreed by God and
it serves as an example.
3. Analyse Bradford's idea of God, bearing in mind that in the covenanted churches God was
considered as a contractual partner to the believers.
William Bradford was a Puritan. Puritans moved to New England in an attempt to spread the word of
God. What Bradford believed was that, if they did that, God would always protect them. So, every risk
they took (for example, sailing to New England) they did it in the name of God, not because they
wanted something back but because they really believed in him. The decline of the cohesive
community happened when they started to focus on material things rather than religion.
4. Most events were regarded by Puritans as a manifestation of God's judgement. How did
Bradford explain the misfortunes of the Pilgrims?
Bradford interprets the events in supernatural terms, as the direct result of God’s providence. He
understood historical events as a manifestation of God’s judgment, so that the bad fortune endured by
people was a sign of divine punishment, whereas the good fortune meant divine favor, often perceived
as merciful forgiveness for the sinners past faults.
5. Analyse the author's depiction of the landscape of New England on his arrival. The key to that
attitude is already evident in that description and comment on the perception of nature it implies.
Of Plymouth Plantation shows little interest in Native culture and pays almost no attention to the
beauty of the New World's flora and fauna. The most important thing for Calvinists was to tell the
difference between the good people who lived according to God's rules (Pilgrims) and the ones
condemned to wander around Hell (Natives). References to the Natives are disdainful, “savage
barbarians” were considered as excluded from Redemption, although in the second text descriptions are
kinder because they helped Pilgrims teaching them how to plant corn.
William Bradford’s account, Of Plymouth Plantation, reflects no interest in describing the nature of the
New World. It is depicted as wild and the surroundings are of no comfort for the Pilgrims. Bradford’s
account contrast with John Smith’s description of the New World’s nature and inhabitants, ‘The
General History of Virginia, New England, and the Summer Isles’, where he describes in detail Native
American cloths, customs or weapons. For Bradford the importance resides on the history of the
Pilgrims as the ‘chosen people’ and their destiny within God’s plans.
6. Describe the balance between the threat from the wilderness and the support that, according to
the author, the Pilgrims received from God.
The Pilgrim Fathers, according to Bradford, were soon aware of all the hardships and dangers awaiting
them in the new land. Their first thoughts were that they would always succeed if God were on their
side. They confront a new wild nature that becomes a potential place to be good with the support that
they get from God.
7. What difference did Bradford point out between the "barbarians" that Saint Paul and his
followers found in Malta and the "savage barbarians" the Pilgrims found in America?
The chief influence on Bradford's writings was the Bible, which he often quoted or paraphrased. For
instance, he drew a direct analogy to Saint Paul's shipwreck. According to the author, the plight of the
Pilgrims was even worse than that of "the Apostle and his shipwrecked company." (where the
inhabitants built a fire for them against the cold and provided them with food and shelter for three
months). Bradford and the Pilgrims were not given any kind of food or offered some kind of
accommodation, because the Wampanoag had had previous contact with European explorers which
sometimes ended in violent disruption of their stable way of life. Bradford asserts that they were
attacked by the Natives which contrast with Saint Paul’s arrival in Malta, so the situation of the
Pilgrims was worse.
8. Comment on the basic difference which Bradford pointed out between the New World, as seen
by the Pilgrims, and Moses's vision of Canaan in Deuteronomy 3.
Bradford regarded the Pilgrims as the new Israelites or "chosen people" and America as "the promised
land of Canaan." The term “Pilgrim Fathers” clearly connects with the books of the Old Testament:
Israel as the chosen people, the wandering in the desert and the hope of reaching the Promised Land.
Puritans dreamed of a “New Jerusalem” where they could be safe, but a basic difference was pointed
out by Bradford, Moses could see from the Pisgah the Promised Land in Deuteronomy whereas the
Pilgrims’ only source of comfort was looking at the sky and thinking about heaven. The author stresses
that the situation of the Pilgrims was worse than any of other related events of the past.
9. From the analysis of the passages read, to what extent do you think that this work is an
intentionally ideological document?
The preaching of Reverend Clyfton turned William Bradford into Puritan. Of Plymouth Plantation
shows the ideologies of the Puritans and the religious fundamentalism that drove these people to get
involved in the New World.
In Bradford's diary, a specific ideology is spread throughout the text, "God is on our side", with a
Calvinist and puritanical thought narrating a series of events aimed at a purpose: to enhance the
spiritual life. If you have faith in God, he will protect you and you will have everything you deserve
both in heaven and on Earth.
The genre of Puritan history served the useful purpose of enhancing spiritual life by interpreting
God’s design, because human history was considered a progress of mankind toward a predetermined
end. In other words, history was perceived as a continuum, moving toward a particular outcome,
according to God’s plans. Of Plymouth Plantation is not a chronicle (a record of mere deeds or a
simple sequence of events), but a history(a series of events with a shape or purpose). This work is an
intentionally ideological document. Bradford produced a good example of providentialist
historiography because history is perceived as a continuum, moving toward a particular outcome,
according to God’s plans. Events are presented as a reflection of God’s will. And because of the
author’s reflections of the ways Providence.
10. The author of the history Of Plymouth Plantation declared that he would write in the plain
style of biblical simplicity. To what extent do you think that he achieved his goal of directness and
simplicity in the passages you have read?
The plain style was used by the Puritans with the aim of expressing themselves directly and clearly
through ordinary words. The Puritans rejected the high style since it was associated with the church and
with the aristocracy. The Puritans were intended not to please, but to instruct and to inform.
As expected, William's writing style is mostly a simple, humble and unadorned style focused on
informing, instructing and inspiring newer generations to uphold puritanical values. However,
throughout the text we bump into some allusions, antithesis or alliterations and figurative language
which are part of the rhetorical elements, and therefore, typical of the high style.
Puritans officially condemned ornate speech, which they associated with the English aristocracy, and
the preachers of the Church of England. Rejecting literary artifice, the English Puritans promoted
humble modes of verbal expression that were intended primarily to inform and to instruct, not to please.
From the outset, the author of the history Of Plymouth Plantation declared that he would write in the
plain style of biblical simplicity. However, being a true Renaissance man, Bradford was familiar with
the literary fashions of his day, which abounded in figures of speech of greater or lesser complexity.
11. To what extent is Puritan theology relevant for the analysis of Bradford's writings?
For Puritans theology was not merely an intellectual exercise. Theology was designed to transform
lives and to inspire action. One of the main reasons for Bradford writing "Of Plymouth Plantation" are
due to his Puritan beliefs. He wanted to establish a link between his Mayflower group (the group that
travelled over the sea), and all future groups of Puritans. He wanted to show that what his group did
was "great". They endured the persecution of the Anglicans in England, and then sailed over an ocean
to an untamed land, and established a colony. Bradford's story is one of hardship; the kind of hardship
that the Puritans believe shows God is testing them. Bradford wants the future Puritans to never forget
the hardships that his group had to endure.
For Puritans theology was not merely an intellectual exercise. Theology was designed to transform
lives and to inspire action. Puritan theology is very relevant for the analysis of Bradford’s writings.
Through his texts he wanted to resurrect a bygone holiness and to exhort the younger generation to live
up the religious ideals of the Pilgrims.
12. What attitude did the author express about the Native People in the first passage you have
read?
According to the Puritans, Christ died for the elect alone; therefore, Native People were considered as
excluded from Redemption. Puritans saw Indians less as "the Lost Tribes" than as "heathens." Puritans
saw them as the Canaanites or Amalekites, people whom God sent to test the nation of Israel and whose
extermination was necessary for the fulfilment of his divine plan.
13. Reread the passage from Book II, Chapter XII and comment on the opposition between
wilderness and civilization.
This second passage is completely different from the first one, here the wild has disappeared and his
view of America and the people there is very positive. We can perceive his hope in the way he writes,
for instance when he talks about the organisation of food. He now realizes that they can live in a
civilization and he describes it as an ideal one.
The Bradford’s horror of the wild has been transformed in the second passage. His perception of the
American Landscape and his attitude to nature has changed in one year as a result of colonization. The
fragment in question is very positive overall, especially if compared with the pessimistic end of Chapter
IX (Book I). Bradford writes about farming, food and the people’s joy that things were going well. He
gives details about the community dietary habits, presents an ideal image of the community and suggest
that the members of the community were satisfied.
14. Compare and contrast the two versions of the passage from Book II, Chapter XII.
 The second version, the one closer to the original one, is written in bold, gothic characters, whereas the
first one is in a type of letter we are more used to use nowadays. The second type of letters is
commonly found in old books, such as The Bible.
Another significant difference between the two versions is the spelling of some words (aboute, tooke),
which have changed through the years. And the usage of the symbol “&” instead of the word “and”.
15. Contrast the ways-in which Captain John Smith and Governor William Bradford looked at
the world and how their different perspectives were reflected in their writings. How does their
rhetoric compare?
When Smith and Bradford arrived at the New World they wanted to teach the Indians their religion and
their style of life. The Indians taught them how to farming and how to acquire money. Bradford made
money with the help of the Indians but Smith did not need as much of the Indian’s help to make money.
The main difference reflected in their writings was that Smith wrote to persuade people to come to the
New World. He says whoever that come to America will have a trade or a background to earn money.
On the other hand, Bradford wrote about the hardships and struggles of life in the New World.
Bradford wrote that as time continued to pass more people died due to lack of food and other basic
needs.
One of the main reasons for Smith to use the third person narrator is to praise himself. We see an
arrogant narrator writing about his great leadership, abilities and about the Natives who he says they
had a great admiration for him. Bradford uses the first person narration to give his personal opinion, a
genuine objectivity of the events, but sometimes he also uses the third person narrator.

JOHN SMITH SIMILARITIES WILLIAM BRADFORD

Attitude/goals Commercial Religious

Purpose Justify aggressive Propaganda for the Didactic, to attract people to NE –

colonial policy and Western expansion (one to resurrect a bygone holiness and
his role for the because God wants and to exhort the younger generation.
survival of the the other because white Bradford’s purpose in writing
colony. people are more OPP was also to set down how
intelligent) God had granted the “Pilgrim
He used General Fathers” a safe arrival in their
History of Virginia “Promised Land”
to project a heroic
image of himself

Attitude to the Admiration of the Their views about NA. Wilderness no-comfort
New World nature and richness Wild men
of the NW 2nd view more positive

Context The beginning of Virginia Company Puritan context – religious

Europe conquest of persecution
America Beginning of the
English’s settlement in Written in Plymouth 1630 - 46
Written in England America and 1650
in 1624
Beginning of the
th
17 century

Settings 1608 Virginia 1620 Plymouth

Audience He wrote to English He wrote to the community
people - to
convince people to
go to the New
World - to justify
his colonial policy

Subject matter New World The travel of the Pilgrims as the

conquest – himself chosen people and the acts of
God. God’s Providence.

Literary sources Seneca Bible – by quoting the Old

Testament, he recurrently links
the history of Israel with the
experience of the Pilgrim fathers

Historical He uses the history Blend fact and fiction Interpretation of the history in
sources to depict himself as supernatural terms, as the direct
a hero result of God’s Providence.
Disregarding Native Americans
reasons
Providentialist Historiography

Autobiographica Hero Through allusion – quotation of

l elements the Bible present himself as
righteous and observant. As a
leader of the community (if the
Pilgrims are the chosen people
then Bradford could be Moses)
It has heroic overtones

Reliability Unreliable

Style (diction, Diction: formal – Diction: formal – lofty Plain style – relatively ornate
imagery, tone, lofty and dignified and dignified (including quotations from
and other Smith significant n secular sources)
devices)
umber of words First and third person narrative
belonging to the
lexical field of
battle and a word of
Algonquian origin.
Latinate words
(entrance, ..)
 UNIT 3 ANNE BRADSTREET (c. 1612-1672)
“The Author to her Book”
1. Analyse the extended metaphor in this poem.
An extended metaphor is a detailed and complex metaphor that extends over a long section of a work
through several points of comparison. The use of this literary device to present a book as a newborn
was quite common among English poets and dated back to Plato’s time.
The author is comparing her book with a fatherless so illegitimate child, which is a sprang from her
mind and was conceived with no male intervention. She reinforces the idea that writing a book is like
giving birth, a painful but moving experience. She also uses an extended metaphor to legitimate herself
as a writer.
2. Analyse the effect of the pun in line 15.
A pun (paronomasia) is a play on words that have different meanings. The word feet in line 15 refers
to the metric pattern used in poetry, not only to the child’s feet. Both meanings are associated with the
idea of movement and rhythm.
3. Scan the metre of this poem. Is it a regular iambic one? What is the effect of this metrical
pattern?
The poem is written in heroic or rhyming couplets as the lines rhyme in pairs (aa, bb, cc, dd). This
metrical pattern conveys a sense of balance and control. It is also iambic pentameter as each of the lines
is made up of five feet (each foot formed by an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one). Iambic
is the most common pattern in English poetry.
4. Analyse the poet's attitude towards her child/book
When analyzing the author’s attitude towards her book we can perceive some kindness, tenderness and
also certain indulgence towards its faults. Despite feeling ashamed of it, the poet cannot deny it is her
own creation. Firstly, she complains about the book being printed without her consent, before it was
actually ready. But then she is given the opportunity to revise it and give it its much-wanted polish.
5. Can you find any changes of tone throughout the poem? In other words, does the poet express
any changes of attitude towards her subject and her readers?
Like many artists of her time, Bradstreet probably had mixed feelings about her book. We must take
into consideration that she has been seen as a poet of ambivalences and tensions. On one hand, her
religious and social duties as a Puritan woman, and on the other hand, her inner feelings.
The fears and insecurities expressed in the first lines can be understood by the fact that she was a
female writer in a patriarchal society. She did not want her book to be seen as a challenge by the
readers. That is the reason why she begins talking about its defects and faults. She adopts a tone that is
harsh and perhaps, self- sabotaging when describing her futile efforts to make her child more attractive.
In lines 15-16, we can notice a change of tone. Now she raises her voice, expresses her efforts to adapt
to the conventions so that her work agrees with the traditional rules.
Regarding her attitude to the reader, we can say that it is intimate and confiding, trying to show and
reveal her inner feelings.
6. Analyse the strategies used by the author in this poem in order to offset negative criticism of
her poetry and to avoid suspicion of all forms of art in general and literary women in particular.
Although modesty was required by seventeenth-century readers, we cannot be certain up to what extent
was Bradstreet being self- deprecating. Or if she was just trying to assert her own achievement. She
waves goodbye to her incomplete book, warns it about the critics and apologizes for its lack of father.
This can be considered as a strategy to avoid the public´s rejection. She adopts a sense of humility and
modesty to deviate the attention from her art. But at the same time she is giving voice to her most
intimate feelings.
7. Can you find any traces of irony in this poem?
Irony is a type of discourse in which what is stated is contrary to the idea/meaning expressed. I think
that irony can be found throughout this poem. Even when she presents her book as fatherless and full of
faults, we can see that she is actually proud of it. She uses irony to criticize the widespread belief that
women could not be writers.
She is an ordinary mother and wife who acknowledges her own work. But only those readers who can
read between the lines can unveil the truth behind the irony.
8. Find evidence of Bradstreet's gentle humour. Is she just trying to be playful and amusing?
What is the effect of self-mockery?
Bradstreet´s gentle humour is an important ingredient in the poem. By being playful and amusing, she
is addressing to a special kind of reader. One that is sensitive enough to perceive, beyond self-
mockery, a socially constrained text. The writer uses humour to bring about more controversial and
serious issues.
When in line 23 she uses the word “poor”, she is not only referring to her financial difficulties but also
about her ability as a writer.
9. What does this poem reveal about seventeenth-century ideas concerning the proper role of
women?
Anne Bradstreet sees (and depicts) herself as a good Puritan mother and wife, what was expected of a
woman at that time. But, in a more subtle way, she is expressing the fears of Puritan women. The
anxiety aroused by being publicly punished or condemned for their most personal motivations and
influences.
Women played a secondary role in society, and their feelings and beliefs were underestimated. They
were used to this. However, Bradstreet´s verses show an awakening, an epiphany of the real creative
power that every woman has.
10. Comment on the way the poet links motherhood and artistic creativity, paying attention to the
fact that her child/book is fatherless. Could this be interpreted as a sign of independence?
In this poem Bradstreet states the fact that male intervention is not essential for a woman to conceive
and give birth (in a metaphorical sense). She is an independent artist, who uses domestic experiences as
valid sources of inspiration. She is also aware of the weak position she has in a Puritan, male-
dominated society. Even though her writing is a way to demonstrate that women do have a decisive role
to play in a modern world.
Motherhood and artistic creation are related as both demands commitment, sensitivity and provoke
changes. And Bradstreet combines elements of both in a witty way.
“To my Dear and Loving Husband”
1.Note that the first three lines begin with "if." What is the effect of this anaphora?
Anaphora is a rhetorical device involving the repetition of a word or group of words in successive
clauses. Anaphora provides the poem with a rhythmical (it infuses musicality), prayer-like manner, but
it also emphasizes the love she has for her husband and that nothing can compare to it. Marriage is
based on a love so deep that two people seem like one. Even the basic language of the poem illustrates
this sameness, with the repetition in the first three lines of the poem (first 3 lines start with "if ever").
The anaphora also alludes to the theme of time. The poem’s opening lines allude to the past; the poem’s
closing lines allude to an eternal future.
2. Analyse the three metaphors in lines 5-7 noting that Bradstreet's images of desire thirst and
wealth-are derived from The Song of Solomon.
She declares her happiness and fulfilment with images of richness –mines of gold-- and conquest –the
allusion to a possible shortcut to the rich Indies. Line 7 even includes an ambiguous sexual reference,
that of the thirst that cannot be satisfied, or the love that cannot be inhibited.
However, Puritans were not supposed to place all of their efforts in the relationship on Earth, but rather,
to glorify God through their union. As the Poetry Foundation's page on Bradstreet explains, marriage
was very important and the focus on family was crucial; but “the love between wife and husband was
not supposed to distract from devotion to God. In Bradstreet’s sonnets, her erotic attraction to her
husband is central, and these poems are more secular than religious.”
3. Look at the metre of this poem and watch for any key variations, bearing in mind that
generally any variation from the norm or disruption points to special emphasis.
The poem takes the form of rhyming couplets, echoing the married couple of husband and wife.
Although most of the verses are rhymed iambic pentameters, not all of them follow this scheme. The
effect of the irregularity is notable in the first line and in the extra syllable in the last couplet. The word
"ever" is present at the beginning and at the end of the poem, and both moments also show deviation
from metric regularity mentioned previously. The closing lines of Bradstreet’s poem declare that, if
they are true to each other in this world, she and her husband will live together forever in heaven. The
repetition of the word ‘ever’ makes the poem seem like a circle. Like love, the poem has no beginning
and no end – it just goes on forever.
4. Look over the rhyme and find one word that does not fit the rhyme scheme. What effect does
this variation have?
In line 7 and 8 we can see an example of para-rhyme, also known as partial rhyme because the sounds
“quench” and “recompense” almost rhyme. The effect of para-rhyme is to challenge the reader’s
anticipation of a comfortable rhyme by providing something less obvious and thus more thought-
provoking. There is an effect of surprise because this slightly discordant feeling is unexpected. Thus,
there is an emphasis on the 8th line: the word “recompense” has extra meaning–that her husband’s love
cannot be repaid, and it highlights the shift that comes afterwards – from earthly desires to a more
spiritual love that carries on to the afterlife.
These lines are very symmetrical. The first talks about "my love," the second "love from thee." They're
like mirror images of each other, which points to the harmony that is the essence of the speaker's
marriage. At the same time, the lines rhyme imperfectly, so perhaps not everything about their marriage
is as flawless as we're led to believe.
5. Why do you think Bradstreet made the comparison between love and "the riches of the East,"
despite the fact that Puritans rarely mentioned such material purposes and emphasized spiritual
ones?
This is an example of allusion, that is, a reference to something with which readers are assumed to be
familiar. She declares her happiness and fulfilment with images of richness or a possible shortcut to the
Indies.
6. Find the words related to ownership and then trace the imagery of wealth and debt throughout
the poem. In your analysis, bear in mind that indebtedness implies a need to repay, either in one's
lifetime or after one's death.
The images of money and wealth that populate the poem: ‘gold’, ‘riches’, ‘recompense’, ‘repay’,
possibly picking up on the faint pun of ‘dear’ in ‘dear and loving husband’ (not just loved, but valuable
to her – in a way that exceeds any monetary value). She wants to show that she values her husband’s
love more than any riches of the world, nothing can compare with it (lines 5 and 6) and even that her
love is passionate and ardent (line 7: love is fire) – it cannot be compared to her husband’s, she cannot
repay him (line 8) and so she prays that God will do it for her in the afterlife (line 9).
7. Check the definitions of "ought" (line 8) and explain how two different meanings of this word
may be working together.
The noun "ought" means: 1) "aught" or "anything", and 2) "duty" or "moral obligation". Therefore, we
can interpret line 8 as "Nothing but love from thee give recompense” or "Not duty but love from thee
give recompense".
8. Explain the paradox in the last line of the poem.
A paradox is a statement which appears, at first glance, to be self-contradictory, yet which, on close
examination, reveals an unexpected, valid meaning. The poem ends with a biblical sort of paradox that
speaks more powerfully than an ordinary sentence would: if so, let us love each other so much that we
may live ever when we no longer live (die). To die and live ever is the Christian’s greatest hope.
9. Are there any indications in this poem that the author considers her social role equal or
subordinate to her husband's? Does the poet convey the idea of mutual love within marriage?
This is a love poem in which feelings of love and desire are expressed. We should bear in mind
Bradstreet’s male cultural context, which she makes apparent in her references to the masculine, public
domains of earthly wealth and geographical conquests. The poem suggests that as a woman she has her
own recompense, which consists in being loved back by her husband. She feels subordinate to her
husband and incapable of reciprocating his affections and, thus, asks the heavens to repay him.
By rhyming ‘we’ with ‘thee’ in that first couplet, Bradstreet joins her husband with her through their
marriage, but does so in a self-effacing way: rather than coupling herself with her husband through
rhyming ‘me’ with ‘thee’, she uses the collective ‘we’. Bradstreet is among the least egotistical of
poets. The social conventions of her day meant that women were meant to be subordinate to their
husbands, following the Christian idea of the father and husband as the head of the household. There is
no ‘me’ in the first couplet of Bradstreet’s poem, yet the coupling that the lines describe could not exist
without her. But she – that is, ‘me’ – does not figure in the rhyme.
10. To what extent is this poem an expression of individual feeling? Do you find any unresolved
conflicts between the author's inner feelings and the rigid tenets of Puritan orthodoxy?
Bradstreet’s verses often suggest a resistance to the Puritan rejection of the senses and earthly
possessions. The passion exposed in this poem defies the Puritan philosophy of general self-restraint
and, specifically, women’s dutiful role as wives. The assertive tone of the poem suggests that the
speaker feels more confident in her own territory, that of marriage and feelings, than in other public
domains such as writing. This poem focuses on her desire and longing for her husband, rather than on
her duty as a wife, it provides a contrasting image with the popular view of the supposedly invariable
Puritan reserve and restraint.
“Upon the burning of our house”
Written in 1666, it shows the tension the poet experienced between her domestic concerns and her
spiritual aspirations.
The poet is the speaker and talks about the material possessions they´ve lost because of a fire.
Lines 1-35: Mourning because of what she’s lost.
Lines 36-54: Turns to the Bible and its promise of an eternal home in Heaven. She finds comfort in that
idea.
Rhyme: Iambic tetrameters rhymed in couplets.
1. How does Bradstreet evoke a particular setting in this poem? Analyse its descriptive elements.
She uses very negative words, especially adjectives, to describe the scene: “dreadful, fearful, dwelling”
to give emphasis and help the reader to imagine the situation. Furthermore, the nouns and verbs she
uses are also quite pessimistic: “to leave me succourless”.
To finish the description, which ends in line 35, there is a specially sad part from line 23, where she
explains that any part of the house can be used and says that, from all the things they used to do at
home, they won’t be able to do any of them again: “under the roof no guest shall sit/ nor at the table eat
a bit”.
2. How does Bradstreet explain what happened? Analyse the narrative elements of this poem.
The narration feels quite abrupt, as it starts when the fire is already there (medias res). It is a fast
narration of the events until line 22. Then it is rather a description and the author’s thoughts. She uses
short but intense verbs, some of which have more than one meaning (maybe double intention?). She’s
telling the story and is at the same time the main character, so she expresses her feelings in the poem:
“sorrow, cry, …”
3. Analyse how the author grieves for the home and worldly goods she has lost.
She uses words with negative meanings (pessimistic). She feels very sad and, while making a
description of the house, she mourns the loss of all her goods: “here stood that trunk, there that
chest…” With the mention of the word “store”, she’s talking about her money or jewels or valuable
things, that’s why she said: “There laid that store I counted best”, being a store a place you can put
things in and also a little shop (that’s why I think she speaks about money).
4. What comparisons does Bradstreet make in this poem?
She compares the voices that shout fire with thunders (very dramatic words. Those “thunders”
predicted the storm that came to her life in the shape of a fire: Paradoxical). There are also loads of
biblical allusions. One of them compares God to an Architect, the one that created her house but also
destroyed it and the one that has promised an eternal one in Heaven.
5. Comment on the repetitive use of negatives throughout this poem.
She uses the repetition of negatives to create an awful image in the readers’ minds, trying to express her
sad and depressed feelings about the loss of her wealth and house. One of Ann Bradstreet’s
characteristics is that she looks for the pity of readers by showing herself as a victim (self-deprecation),
which we can clearly appreciate in this poem. However, to express the goodness of God, the last part of
the poem changes to a more positive point of view from line 37 onwards.
6. As a Puritan, Bradstreet was deeply influenced by the Bible. How do the biblical references
function in this poem?
The main goal of the biblical references is to tell the reader that their lives on earth might not be perfect
and they might not be rich or powerful, but what matters is after dying because that is the real eternal
life and they won’t lack anything in Heaven. Example: “All is vanity”: whatever you own on Earth is
not a necessity but vanity, there are no profits under the sun, but over it (Heaven).
7. Bradstreet took her illnesses as evidence of her need for punishment from God for her "pride
and vanity." Analyse "Upon the Burning of Our House" in the light of this doctrine.
The author probably thinks that the fire that ruined her house was just a message to remind her that
earthly goods are not necessary and that they only prove one’s vanity. Not the goofs by themselves, but
the feeling of wanting more and more and giving them more importance than what they actually have.
The fire is a message from God saying: You’re wrong thinking that this is what matters.
8. What are the main differences between the first part of the poem (lines 1 - 35) and the second
(lines 36-54]
The first difference is the tone of the 2 parts. The first one is very pessimistic and negative; the second
one is happier and more optimistic. Also, the 1st part focuses on the earthly scenery and the 2nd moves
to a more mystical one. Furthermore, the 1st part is more descriptive and narrative, telling the reader
what happened to her house and the 2nd one is more rhetorical: the author asks herself a few questions
and thinks about life and goods, making the public think with her. There are more metaphors in the 2 nd
part and more biblical allusions.
9. How well did the author express the struggle between her love of this world and her reliance on
the next? Do you think that Bradstreet finally resolved the conflict between her natural
attachment to earthly things and the awareness that material goods are not worth one's attention
when compared to eternal values?
The struggle between her love for this world and her reliance on the next is perfectly showed in line 37
because the change between talking about her loss and about God is very abrupt, like if she had
remembered all of a sudden. Moreover, she keeps mentioning her goods, like in line 52, so she’s not
completely forgotten about them. In my opinion, although she wants to express that the other life is
better and that there’s no need to worry about anything, I don’t think the author really feels what she
says. When she moved to America her life started to change and a lot of bad things happened to her,
from the burning of her house to the death of many of her grandchildren. That is why I think she’s
actually trying to convince herself and is looking for a good reason to keep believing.
10. What is the author trying to communicate in this poem? Does she seek to influence or change
the way her readers think? Comment on the poet's overall intention.
This poem tries to convince the reader of not being worried about earthly life and goods because a
better life is assured in Heaven. That is probably the main goal of the poem but, if we consider it as a
huge piece of irony (something that would not be surprising due to the author’s hard life conditions),
then it implies completely the opposite thing.
“On my Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet”
1. How does Bradstreet bring to the surface the most important features of her grandson? What
comparisons does she make to get at the essential attributes of the baby?
Anne Bradstreet compares her three deceased grandchildren with flowers, portraying their youthfulness
through the flowers’ lifespan, two of her grandchildren being compared with scarcely bloomed flowers,
whilst Simon, the latter one, with a flower bud, as he died the soonest of all three, at one month and one
day old. Using the flower image, she also depicts his beauty, and states God’s hand cropped them,
continuing with the flower allusion.
2. Analyse the first two lines of this poem. Why does it begin so harshly? What is the overall
effect of this opening?
The poem starts with Anne Bradstreet’s lament over the loss of her grandchild, Simon, showing her
inner sorrow and the conflict between her earthen feelings for him and her religious beliefs. According
to Puritanism, all events are due to God’s providence or punishment, which Anne seems to find hard to
accept, as she may not understand the course of events, or how these could be part of God’s plan, since
her grandchildren where taken away from her very soon and being very young. Therefore, the first two
lines could be interpreted as criticism, showing her internal struggle to follow Puritan belief, which she
later on in the poem seems to try to accept and follow.
3. Comment on the repetitive use of the exhortative "let's."
By the use of the imperative “let’s”, Anne seems to be trying to convince herself and the possible
reader of the facts she is exposing, thus showing her inner debate over religious faith, which seems to
be quenching. It could well be interpreted as an irony, criticising precisely what she is stating in her
exhortations.
4. Can you find an example of apostrophe in this elegy?
Apostrophe is a figure of speech in which a thing, a place, an abstract quality, an idea, a dead or absent
person is addressed as if present and capable of understanding. There is an example of apostrophe in
line 11: “Go pretty babe, go rest with sisters twain;”
5. Explain the relationship between the speaker and the listener (the character to whom the
speaker is talking) in this poem.
As well as addressing herself – and seemingly trying to persuade herself of God’s benevolence, at that
–, she is apparently speaking to a religious reader, who understands Puritan thought. However, the tone
seems quite intimate, with her feelings being expressed in not entirely Puritan manner, so it might not
have been composed for publication, but mourning, as a way of seeking emotional relief.
6. It has been suggested that biblical allusions in Bradstreet's elegies offer comfort and reinforce
trust in God, whereas natural imagery emphasizes mortality. Can you find any evidence that
supports this theory?
With humble hearts and mouths put in the dust (7) suggests man’s ignorance regarding life and death,
as dust alludes both to the creation of humans as well as to the last state of man’s existence. This
attitude of resignation without understanding, acceptance without alternative is culminated with the
words Let’s say He’s merciful as well as just (8) which suggests a learned and uncritical belief, thought
and behaviour. This attitude does not indicate a decisive resolution, but a religious explanation for the
situation. lt can be seen as an attempt to try to accommodate things; yet, there does not seem to be any
satisfaction or conviction in the mentioned verses.
7. Can you find any evidence of ambiguity and ambivalence in this poem?
There is ambiguity when more than one meaning or interpretation is possible. Ambivalence means that
more than one attitude is being displayed by the poet. It seems that she does not accept Simon’s death,
showing doubts towards God’s goodness. However, in line 12, "go pretty babe, go rest with sisters ..."
she finally seems to accept death, or to be trying to, struggling to find coherence between her faith and
her grandson’s parting.
8. Comment on the pathos of this elegy.
Pathos is the quality in a work of art which evokes deep feelings of tenderness, pity, or sorrow. The
several deaths of her grandchildren at an early age shock her. Anne struggles to understand God’s
course of actions, by whom she seems to feel abandoned or punished. In the first stanza, she reveals
that her sorrow is overwhelming and a threat to her religious faith.
9. Does Bradstreet express any feelings of rebellion against divine authority in this poem? Study
lines 4-10 and indicate the statements that may support an interpretation
In this poem, the speaker—who can easily be argued to be Bradstreet herself— bemoans the third
consecutive loss of a grandchild. She instructs herself to “not [to] dispute [His will]” (6), taking pains
to reaffirm God’s greatness—stating, “is He good” (4)—and assuring her audience that “He will return
and make up all our losses” (9). This might express either submission to God's power or lack of faith in
God's goodness.
Overcome with grief, due to the loss of “Three flowers, two scarcely blown, the last I’ th’ bud, / cropt
by the Almighty’s hand” she begins to question God’s goodness (3,4). Bradstreet writes, “yet is He
good” (4). The punctuation makes this a statement, but the word placement of “is” before “he” in the
sentence, causes the reader to wonder whether she truly believes God is good, or if it is an ironic
statement. Not only is she troubled by the loss of three grandchildren, but also wondering why a good
God would let his children suffer.
10. Reread the whole poem and explain why you accept or reject the view that Bradstreet
demonstrates the need to be resigned and to keep faith in the redemptive future, since human
reason cannot explain God's will.
[COULD BE A PERSONAL OPINION]
Anne Bradstreet confronts her feelings after the death of her grandchild and turns to her Puritan beliefs
for guidance. The poem’s form reflects this and progresses from conflict to resolution. She writes not
only for herself, but for other Puritans struggling with grief as well. Her beliefs teach her to be humble
before God, and not question his divine plan. However, it might also be a criticism to meek following
of religious faith, and it portrays her struggle to follow Puritan beliefs and cope with infant death.
Study guide:
1. Look for the theme, that is, the central idea or statement of each poem, which may be stated
directly or indirectly. How would you describe Bradstreet's handling of her themes?
- "The Author to Her Book": Woodbridge´s birth metaphor of book as offspring. The speaker> the poet,
likened to a mother whose child is her book of poems and portrayed herself as a powerless mother who
lacks the resources to care for her family.
- “To My Dear and Loving Husband": Marital love (passionate and longing love from the poet to her
husband), uses lots of hyperboles and highly allusive biblical language. In this poem she defies the
supposedly invariable Puritan reserve and restraint, and the “doctrine of weaned affections” - it
emphasized gradual detachment from everything in this world (secular love, must, however, not be
rejected because it can be linked to eternal love).
- "Upon the Burning of Our House": The tension the poet experienced between her domestic concerns
and her spiritual aspirations (her loss of material possessions and her consolation in the promise of a
permanent house in heaven).
- "On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet": Difficulty to reconcile the deep love for her grandson
and keep her faith in spite of suffering and not understanding God’s actions.
2. Try to indicate the atmosphere of each poem.
Atmosphere - the prevailing mood and feeling evoked by the poem: joy, delight, happiness, hope,
sadness, fear, anxiety, terror, loss, longing, anger, despair. The atmosphere of a poem (an attempt by
the poet to make the reader feel in a certain way) should not be confused with the tone of a poem (how
the poet feels).
- "The Author to Her Book": The poem makes the reader feel understanding and empathic with the
poet;
- "To My Dear and Loving Husband": The poem has an atmosphere of love and completeness;
- "Upon the Burning of Our House": There is a general atmosphere of sadness in this poem. She
pretends that she’ll be fine without her material goods, but her position is very ambivalent (tension
between domestic concerns and spiritual aspirations).
- "On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet": The atmosphere is sad – the poet is mourning the death
of her grandson, She does not break abruptly with the tradition of Christian elegies, which are supposed
to close with consolation (line 54: “smile again”) and the affirmation that death is part of a divine plan,
but she does not easily accept with pious resignation the death of her own grandchildren as part of the
providential scheme.
3. To what extent does Bradstreet's poetry reflect Puritan thinking? Can you find any explicit
evidence of Puritanism in her poems? Does her vision also express a departure from conventional
Puritan thinking?
Anne Bradstreet's work is renowned for her technical accomplishment, her deep engagement with
religious faith and doubt, her personal insights on life in the New World in the 17th century, and her
ruminations on a woman's role in a patriarchal society.
Bradstreet fervidly read Greek and Roman poetry as well as the great poets of her generation, like
Milton, Spenser, and DuBartas. Religion is a major theme in Bradstreet's work, but she does not
demonstrate utter certainty in her faith. Instead, she subtly explores the tension between faith and
existence, and weighs the pleasure of earthly things against the need to self-abnegate in order to be
worthy of Heaven.
“Upon the Burning of our house” depicts events that would be interpreted by the Puritans as divine
messages. Disappointments could serve as corrections for one’s fault, however, Bradstreet didn’t think
of it as a divine message.
4. Point out the elements derived from the tradition of Renaissance humanism and those taken
from the Christian tradition.
Bradstreet underwent a Puritan upbringing in a culturally liberal atmosphere. Her work reflects the
religious and emotional conflicts she experienced as a woman writer and as a Puritan. Throughout her
life Bradstreet was concerned with the issues of sin and redemption, physical and emotional frailty,
death and immortality. Much of her work indicates that she had a difficult time resolving the conflict
she experienced between the pleasures of sensory and familial experience and the promises of heaven.
As a Puritan she struggled to subdue her attachment to the world, but as a person she sometimes felt
more strongly connected to her husband, children, and community than to God.
On the one side, she felt she had to abide by the principles of Puritan aesthetics: “plain style” which
condemned figurative language.
On the other side she has been influenced by the ornament style of the Renaissance tradition: Sir
Edmund Spenser, Sir Philip Sidney, Walter Raleigh and the French Calvinist poet Guillaume du Bartas.
Also inspired by Metaphysical poets (John Donne and George Herbert) used strained metaphors and
elaborate conceits.
In “The Author to Her Book” She presents her book as a poor and illegitimate child as a token / symbol
of her meekness conceived without the help of a man. However, she acknowledges her work. This
coyness may respond to different causes:
● It is not sure that she knew about its publication> the process of printing was considered in this
culture a “vulgar” enterprise.
● The dismissal in the preface may respond to a common strategy used in the Renaissance.
Sources: Her poems drawn not only from the Bible but also from classical models and her
contemporary writers; they are full of allusions to the works of Ovid, Virgil, Cicero and Horace and
include references to Spenser, Sidney, Shakespeare, Herbert and Vaughan and Guillaume du Bartas.
That was typical for the Puritans poets, which indicate the gap between Puritan theory and practice.
About the middle of the 17th century a shift took place in the development of New England Puritanism
when the expression of the poets became more artistic. It was argued that figurative and symbolic
language could enhance the believers´ abilities to perceive divine will. Thus, rather than condemning
the use of metaphors, it was suggested that some of them could help to understand religious truths.
Her philosophical and religious poems were written in an artificial style and are less appealing to
modern readers than her later short poems on subjects of daily life: autobiographical pieces with
warmth and intensity coming near to express her true voice.
Bradstreet's poems mourning the deaths of her grandchildren resemble Elizabethan elegies such as Ben
Jonson's "On My First Son." She does not break abruptly with the tradition of Christian elegies, which
are supposed to close with consolation and the affirmation that death is part of a divine plan, but she
does not easily accept with pious resignation the death of her own grandchildren as part of the
providential scheme.
5. How does Bradstreet portray or construct herself in her poems?
Bradstreet's poetry reflects the tensions of a woman who wished to express her individuality in a culture
that was hostile to personal autonomy and valued poetry only if it praised God.
She uses poetry as a means to self-expression, at first she did not write to be published. She recognizes
her spiritual weakness – torn between her inner feelings and faith. She shows common struggles that
other women settlers had to face in the 17th century. She presents herself as woman, wife and
grandmother – her family is very important to her, maybe more than God.
Two aspects to consider of Anne Bradstreet which are shown in her work as an attempt to reconcile
them:
● Public aspect and puritan theology: her membership to the puritan community, devote and
strict (also a dutiful daughter of a prominent man and a submissive wife of a well-known colony
official). Puritan theology told her that she had to live under rigorous social codes. Puritan
theology preached that senses were unreliable and imagination dangerous.
● Private aspect: emotional wife, mother and grandmother who had to cope with her own deep
feelings and personal perceptions in the both attractive and harsh life of the colony. She found
great pleasure in the agreeable realities of the present and was captivated by the beautiful
landscape of the New World. She was also terrified in his voyage through the Atlantic,
distressed when she had to confront misfortune form of material loss or, when several of her
grandchildren died. Moreover, she experienced “religious confusion” concerning the verity of
scriptures.
As a consequence, she presents ambivalences and hesitancies of unresolved conflicts and tensions
between her religious duty and her inner feelings and a self-division between what she thought and
what she felt. Her later poems show how difficult it was for her to control some of her impulses.
6. Although Bradstreet's poetry was successful when it was first published, it was generally
ignored for the next two hundred years until it was "rediscovered" or re- evaluated by critics in
the twentieth century, including feminist critics. Which elements do you think may have attracted
these critics?
Her poetry was generally ignored (most likely because it did not get in to the cannon) until
"rediscovered" by feminists in the 20th century. These critics have found many significant artistic
qualities in her work. Most critical approaches nowadays analyse her poems focusing on the specific
historical and cultural context in which she created them. What would attract the feminist critics would
be the fact that Bradstreet was the first American woman-poet and she lived in a Puritan patriarchal
society.
7. What instances of subjectivity and objectivity can you find in these poems?
Subjectivity suggests that a writer is primarily concerned with conveying personal experience and
feeling. Objectivity suggests that a writer attempts a neutral and detached approach.
Bradstreet was all about showing her perspective, hence, we can see subjectivity in her work.
8. What role does femininity play in Bradstreet's poetry? Is there anything particularly feminine
about Bradstreet's poetic strategies?
In "The Author to Her Book" she considers her poetry to be her child. She compares writing poetry to
being a mother. There are no men in this poem, except near the end, which is where the speaker flat out
says her book had no “father,” only a mother. This poem makes the powerful argument that women can
write poetry just as well as men, even without their help.
This metaphor was common among Classical writers and philosophers: Plato. It was also used in the
16th-17th poetry: Philip Sidney, Sir Edmund Spenser, John Donne and Guillaume du Bartas, her “literary
godfather”.
Bradstreet wrote several poems for her husband, e.g. “To My Dear and Loving Husband” that show a
wife passionately in love with her husband; with longing, joy and admiration, she devotes her lines to
him. She embraced her role of a wife, mother and homemaker as the good will of God, however, she
did not always agree with God’s plans.
9. To what extent does Bradstreet use figurative language in these poems? What is the best
restatement of "Thy love is such I can no way repay" (line 9)?
Figurative language helped the Puritan poets convey ideas about their religious faith and their personal
lives.
- Metaphor – direct comparison of two unlike things without using like, as, resembles, or than (Ex.
Our house is our nest.) Line 9: The speaker says her husband's love is so great that there is no way she
can "repay" it. Seems that, for the speaker, love is a transaction that should even out in the end.
- Extended metaphor – a comparison that is drawn out and compares at length and in many ways (Ex.
The author is comparing her book with a child and presents it as a fatherless one.)
- Personification – when a nonhuman thing is given human qualities (Ex. Our house wraps our family
in a warm embrace.)
- Hyperbole – the truth is exaggerated for emphasis (Ex. I prize thy love more than whole mines of
gold)
- Allusion – a reference to something to enhance meaning (biblical, historical, literary, geographical,
artistic, etc.) When poets refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental.
Bradstreet uses many biblical references
Figurative language must be distinguished from literal language because it departs from the literal
meaning of the words used. It is important not only to recognize figurative language in poetry, but also
to understand the effect it creates by appealing to our senses, our emotions and our imagination.
10. Compare the metre of the four poems in order to point out similarities and differences. Can
you suggest any reasons why the author used tetrameters instead of pentameters in one of the
four poems?
The rhythm of tetrameter makes the tone of the poem very colloquial, the Puritan plain style used
simple sentences and common words from everyday speech. Iambic tetrameter has been used for a long
time and mostly in ballads or any emotional poems. It works rhymed or un-rhymed. People have used
iambic tetrameter for emotional appeal mostly. Although Anne Bradstreet’s “Upon the Burning of Our
House” contains some figurative language, it is a good example of the plain style.

The Metre and rhythm

Heroic couplets= rhyming couplets (aa, bb, cc, dd); that is, verses of ten syllables (divided in five
feet, each food has two syllables) named iambic pentameter, in which an unstressed syllable is followed
by a stressed syllable.
-Iamb: x I (one unstressed syllable followed by a stressed one, e.g. away)
- Trochee: / x (one stressed syllable followed by an unstressed one, e.g. lovely)
- Anapest: x x / (two unstressed syllables followed by a stressed one, e.g. with a leap; unabridged:
seventeen).
- Spondee: I / (two stressed syllables, e.g. white founts; pen-knife)
- Dactyl: / x x (one stressed syllable followed by two unstressed ones, e.g. desperate)
……………………………………………………………………………………………
- Tetrameter: four feet.
- Pentameter: five feet. The line of five iambic feet, which is called iambic pentameter. is preeminent
in English poetry.
- Heptameter: seven feet.
- Octameter: eight feet.
……………………………………………………………………………………………
When the final vowel sounds are the same, as well as any consonant sounds that follow the vowels, we
call it exact rhyme, which is also named perfect rhyme or full rhyme (e.g. the word cat rhymes with
bat, fat, hat and mat).
A rhyme that is not exact because there is a repetition of the consonant sounds following the vowel
sounds, but the vowel sounds are not identical, is called para-rhyme, partial rhyme, imperfect
rhyme, half rhyme or slant rhyme (e.g. the words room and storm).
…………………………………………………………………………………………….
Different types of Stanzas
- Couplet: a stanza formed by two lines that generally rhyme and have the same length. Although
couplets form distinct units, they are frequently not separated from each other by a space on the page. If
the pair comprises lines that have different lengths, it is called a distich (usually a dactylic hexameter
followed by a dactylic pentameter).
- Tercet: a three-line stanza.
- Quatrain: a four-line stanza. It is the most common stanza form in English.
- Sestet: a six-line stanza.
- Octave or octet: an eight-line stanza. The most famous is the ottava rima, consisting of iambic
pentameters rhyming abababcc.
 UNIT 4 MARY ROWLANDSON (c. 1637-1711)
A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
1. How did the author picture the raiding party in the opening passage of her narrative? What
terms did she use to refer to the attackers? Would you term such dehumanizing representation as
``racist stereotyping´´? Remember that the early Puritan settlers did not perceive the Natives as
human beings.
Mary Rowlandson apparently connects the natives to the hell and the devils, so they are portrayed as
``bloody heathens´´, ``murderous wretches´´, ``wolves´´ and ``ravenous beasts´´, which is a racist
stereotyped description of them. Besides, she was a Puritan and Puritans saw natives as God’s enemies
who should be defeated.
2. In what sense could captivity narratives such as Rowlandson's have been used as anti-Indian
propaganda in order to justify the expropriation of land previously occupied by Native People?
Note the symbolic role of the attackers as a malign force, that is, as the representatives of the
forces of Satan, who threatened the Puritan hopes of establishing a kingdom of God in the New
World. Apart from the Puritans, other colonists regarded the Natives as the most important
impediment to their territorial expansion in the New World.
The Puritan spiritual leaders wanted the New England colonist to see the natives as supernatural forces
that embodied the evil. Whereas there was a tribe of starving people suffering the seizure of their lands,
for the settlers they had been sent by an angry God and therefore they had to be annihilated. Thus,
through this genre, though “captivity narratives”, they could justify their means and have full
permission to expropriate whatever they wanted. We can consider it as propaganda because they
manipulated the events by highlighting the horrible acts of the Indians and omitting their own in order
to bias people against the Indians.
3. By comparing the opening passage of the Narrative with the extract from the "Ninth Remove,"
can you notice the author's shifting attitude toward the Narragansetts? Why do you think this
change in her point of view came about?
There is a change in the perception of the tribe through the development of the narrative. In the open
passage the Indians are picture like bloodthirsty beasts who do not use any communication among them
or with the settlers during the battle who only motivation seems to be the taste for violence.
Nevertheless, in the “Ninth remove”, She thanks God because Indians have been respectful with her
and she points that she has met “all sort of Indians” which is reinforce by telling some pleasant
experiences that she has lived with them like sharing their food, allowing her to go to visit his son etc.
During the captivity she had the opportunity of living among them and know their customs deeply
which provoked a change in her attitude.
4. Can you find any words derived from Native languages? Make a list of them and write down
their definitions. Why did the author include such words in her text? What can we infer about
native daily life from Rowlandson´s Narrative?
Wigwam: hut made of animal skins.
Squaw: Native American woman or wife.
Papoose: Native American baby.
I guess Mary used Native words because Natives knew exactly what they meant and thus, she made her
story more ``real´´ and ``authentic´´.
I think that the daily life of Natives was pretty similar to Mary’s one. In fact, she writes about many
Native practices in which she participates.
Rowlandson describes how they travelled with their belongings in groups, so we can know that they
were nomads.
5. Mary Rowlandson was surprised at her own capacity for endurance and continually thanked
God for such a gift. Apart from God's help, can you find in the passages above any traces of her
survival skills? Note the transformation she underwent.
She underwent a process of adaptation that is noticeable throughout the passages. Taking into account
that her first aim was survival, Mary had to adapt and leave aside some preconceptions; for instance, at
first, she detested their food, namely bear meat and she said she “would rather starve and die before
eating that filthy trash”, while at the end, she finds it good and savory. Taking into account bear meat
was not so a rare thing among the colonists those days, she compares the ways it was cooked by the
English and finally thinks the Indian style is really appetizing.
6. Mary Rowlandson has been praised for her capacity to bring her emotions as a captive into
perfect agreement with puritan doctrine. How does the Narrative demonstrate Puritan thinking
at work? Does she use her experience to reaffirm her beliefs about good vs. evil? Can you find
any particular instances in which the author´s grief overcomes her general acceptance of divine
will? Analyse the process through which the author transforms each event or occurrence into a
sign of God “goodness”.
The narrative demonstrates Puritan thinking for example in the fifth remove. In that excerpt, she
justifies the incapability of the English army to follow and rescue them by arguing that they were not
ready for salvation on God´s eyes. This is linked with the Puritan doctrine, according which, the ordeal
of captivity was considered a religious trial sent by God. She also reinforces her narrative with some
passages from the bible, to show that other before them have suffer Lord´s tests. She shows herself
consistent in the application of puritans believes, but when dead strikes her family (her little daughter
dies) She suggests that suicidal thoughts may have crossed her mind. E.g. “I have thought since of the
wonderful goodness of Good to me in preserving 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” (third
remove).
The narrative begins with the dichotomy between bad and good. She portrays the colonist as good
Christians and the Indians as evil beasts. However, her opinion changes as she discovers different
nuances in Indian´s behaviour which leads her to affirm that she has a good friend among them.
7. Analyse Rowlandson's use of the four narrative modes: How are the modes articulated? Is
there a balance, or are some modes more important than others?
Rowlandson only uses direct speech one time (``Lord, what shall we do?´´). There is an absolute lack
of (direct or indirect) speech in the part of the natives, who are able only to shout, sing and insult. The
most used narrative mode is report, so she can describe all the situations and scenes she is living and, at
the same time, she can express what she thinks about it and how she is affected by. Description is
intertwined with report to impress even more. Comment is very common and clearly noticed.
8. Look at Mary Rowlandson as the protagonist of her book, taking into account that there is
always a potential distance between the author and the first-person narrator. To what extent is
the Narrative a genuine self-portrait? Comment on the internal tension deriving from the
author´s honest expression of her personal feelings and the external pressure to conform to
Puritan Orthodoxy.
The distance between the author and the first-person-narrator embodies the fight between her real
experience, (the real facts) and the mindset of a Puritan writer obliged, to a certain extent, to write
according this doctrine. She portraits herself as a dynamic person, and we can interfere a psychological
evolution that helps her to become a better survivor among the natives. She is the main character of her
own story and try to be reliable according to the facts. Moreover, she separates the events she witnessed
from the ones she was told of, so as to be more precise. Her honesty reaches its peak when she
confesses to having stolen the meat of other prisoner, absolutely contrary to her Puritan doctrine.
9. Do you consider Rowlandson's Narrative a good example of the typically Puritan plain style,
which is supposed to be simple and direct?
In her style there is an absence of rhetorical ornamentation which creates simplicity and directness in
the text. She aimed to communicate her ideas as clearly as possible without any of the literary artifice.
Puritans encouraged to write narrative as a means of teaching and educating people, explaining the
ideas clear and concisely and also free of rhetoric devices.
10. Can you find any hints of a subversive or contradictory subtext hidden behind the surface of
the manifest text?
In the ``Fifth Remove´´, in the crossing of the river, shows how the Indians want to escape from the
colonial troops taking with them to all of the members of the community, even the weakest ones, in
contrast to the English army, which used to run away leaving behind the prisoners.
11. Look carefully at the passages above and comment on the author's use of the Bible.
As a minister’s wife, Mary Rowlandson was very familiar to the Bible, and it is not strange that she
could use some passages that she learnt by heart in order to write her book. She makes some
parallelisms between her captivity and the Exodus, which is included in the Psalms, and recalls King
David to trust in the Lord’s deliverance from captivity.
12. Did Rowlandson's eventual redemption affirm her faith in God? Did her world view change
during her captivity? Comment on the concluding remark with which the Narrative ends.
Mary Rowlandson´s struggles were interpreted by her as a proof of divine sign of her spiritual
salvation. She learnt, during her captivity and afterwards, to overcome any adversity and to put her trust
in God. She also changes her perception of people personality and behaviour by stopping her thoughts
of a world in terms of bad and good. She became more openminded and accepted that Indians could be
capable of good actions as Puritans are.
13. How does Mary Rowlandson's presentation of herself compare to that of Anne Bradstreet?
Puritans looked for portraits of virtuous wives and mothers: they should be honest, merciful and
humble, as Mary and Anne portrayed them. Both Anne and Mary also include many autobiographical
elements about losses and traumas. Both used a strategy of self-abasement to protect themselves from
male critics. Both of them ``rediscovered´´ their faith in God when things got really bad.
14. Compare these passages by Rowlandson with John Smith's earlier account of his captivity,
paying particular attention to: a) the presence or absence of religious thoughts, b) the way they
represented their captors as diabolical savages, and c) any differences between the authors that
may be attributable to gender.
John Smith’s captivity just lasted three weeks compared to the eleven of Rowlandson; moreover, the
veracity of Smith’s accounts is always in doubt. The story that John Smith writes is more related to the
adventures that he experienced, while Rowlandson focuses her book on religious principles. They agree
on their descriptions of the natives as savages, devils and heathens, but when quoting, Smith uses Latin
and Greek cites from secular authors while Rowlandson makes use of the Bible. Their styles are
completely different mainly to describe themselves; John Smith created a character very similar to a
typical male hero whereas Mary Rowlandson presents herself as a poor sinner acknowledging her
failures according to the Puritan doctrine applied to a woman at that time.
15. How does Mary Rowlandson's presentation of history compare to that of Captain John Smith
and Governor William Bradford?
Mary Rowlandson forgets aside any rhetorical device in favour of the accuracy to tell her story, and the
same as Bradford, she writes according to the Puritan rule interpreting the invasion of the English in the
American territories as a divine demand, and this is what made their stories biased, believing the
colonists were the victims of the Indians while it was exactly the contrary, overlooking how the native
tribes were dying of starvation and disease. With a Puritan background it is very easy to fail to be
faithful to the history, let alone the exaggerated adventures of Captain Smith mostly concerned about
presenting himself as a fiction hero.

John Smith Mary Rowlandson William Bradford

Presentation of He blends facts and Accurate Accurate

historical events fiction

Interpretation of From his perspective - Providential terms - Providential terms

events and his benefit
- Denial of invasion - Denial of invasion
- Manifest destiny - Manifest destiny
- Omission of key - Omission of key factors
factors for the for the interpretation
interpretation which which created a biased
created a biased historical accounts.
historical accounts.
 UNIT 5 JONATHAN EDWARDS (1703-1758)
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
1. State briefly the main theme and thesis of this sermon.
The main theme is the awakening of deviated believers of the congregation, explaining to them the
dangers they are facing up to the eyes of God.
The thesis develops trough the danger of dying in sin that everyone is exposed to, that it’s an imminent
danger and humans can do nothing to dodge it, and that if it hasn’t happened yet it’s because it’s not the
time for it, but it’s just there because nothing can save anyone from hell except the mere pleasure of
God”.
Edwards wants to set fear in the heart and in the mind of his listeners and remember those how
powerful is God and how miserable sinners are. He uses metaphors and examples of usual and known
things to touch the spirits of his audience. He warns everyone that God, in his omnipotence, is
controlling everything and everyone has to wait his wrath and consequences that could happen at any
moment. Consequently, observing a good behaviour will pleasure God and being a sinner will be the
trigger that at anytime will send you to hell with no excuses.
2. The author used terrifying imagery and this and other sermons of the same period. Make a list
of the images that may have frightened Edwards’s audience, and arrange them thematically into
groups. Remember the concept of image: the writer likens an inwards state or experience to
something outward which conveys the same experience.

The author appeals to familiar things for the audience, beginning with biblical references:
“Under all the cultivations of heaven, they brought forth bitter and poisonous fruit”, like the
listeners can cultivate their behaviour and fall into temptations and sins.
 “Relating the punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed”, the
destruction of the cities of Sodoma and Gomorra, completely erased from the face of the earth, as
they can be eliminated and condemned.
Introducing the audience to what they are exposed about God and naming directly Psalm 73.18-
19:
“Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; thou castedst them down into destruction: How
are they brought into desolation as in a moment!”. Like places can be destroyed, they can be
destroyed.
Once they are warned, he uses a fallen image with verbs like “fall”, “thrown” and “slide” to set
this in their minds, remembering “The fallen Angel” to hell. Saying that sinners can “descend and
plunge into the bottomless gulf”, comparing them with a falling rock that can’t stop a spider web
and “as one that stands or walks in slippery places is always exposed to fall”.
In the “Application” he uses metaphors and similes:
· Nature: Edwards names the sun, the earth and the air.
o Disasters: “That world of misery, that lake of burning brimstone, is extended abroad under
you”, “the dreadful pit of the glowing flames of the wrath of God”, comparing hell with the
wrath of God and knowing that many houses were burned by the Natives and it was a powerful
image in their minds. Whirlwinds and great waters, storm and thunders.
He compares a storm with the wrath of God, they were controlling the weather for their
plantations, and there are black clouds and thunders. In the same way uses “whirlwind” and “great
waters”, that only God can “holds the waters back”.
o Animals: Sinners are like “spiders”, “some loathsome insect” and “the most hateful
venomous serpent”, disgusting for most people.
Natives: With the “Indian Wars” and the figure of the Natives, he sets that God is like a vengeful
indian with a bow and one arrow pointing to your heart, that can be shot at any moment and
destroy the sinners.
3. Although other sermons illustrate much better Edwards’s attitude to nature and his sensitivity
to its beauty, analyze the images from the natural world that are used in the context of this
sermon. Take into account that Edwards includes nature as a source of revelation, on the
grounds that the created world provides ample evidence of God’s power and glory.
The author refers to the nature from the beginning: “Under all the cultivations of heaven”, a cultivation
is modeled by humans, as their behaviour, but only God is really controlling all.
Compares sinners with “spiders”, “venomous serpents”, that will fall into hell and nothing will stop
them as a spider web can’t stop a rock, using animals and a rock to reflect the bad side of sinners and
how weight their sins.
He uses climate and terrestrial phenomena, like “storms with thunders” and “great waters” to show the
power of God.
He introduces elements of nature like the sun, telling that it was not created to serve Satan, or the earth,
not created to satisfy their lusts, the air, that was not created to maintain life while serving God’s
enemies. So, when they were created, it was for the good and not for evil.
For his audience, most of them rural and growers, he uses terms that they can understand: “You would
be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor”, something insignificant that can be moved easily by
the wind, burnt by flames, something so simple and fragile.
He finishes sending their audience up to the mountain, an elevated place where it’s supposed to be
closer to God and were God talked to his prophets.
4. Edwards is said to have invented a “language of sensory experience that stirred the passions of
his country congregation.” Give three examples of the preacher’s appeal to the senses.
We can say that the main images that contribute to the success of this sermon are not only visual but
also of kinesthetic character, therefore, we can cite the following:
First: "Their foot shall slide in due time". In this verse the vengeance of God is threatened over the
wicked unbelieving Israelites. The expression "His foot will slip in due time," is related to the
punishment and destruction to which these wicked Israelites were exposed. Even though God
performed wonderful works for humans, they did not know how to thank him.
Second: “without being thrown down by the hand of another”; Mainly this implies that humans can fall
by themselves, without being knocked down from the hand of another. Because of this, that stops or
walks on a slippery floor, it does not need anything more than its own weight to knock it down.
Third: “Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great
weight and pressure towards hell”. Man's own wickedness lets him fall to hell by his own weight
5. How successfully do the images work in this sermon? Are they all artistically effective?
In this Sermon, Edwards unleashes his wit through metaphors and images. He links the spiritual world
with the physical world of the listeners.
This sermon is typical of a revivalist who preaches during the Great Awakening to indoctrinate people.
The sermon breaks down the topic with demonstration of Scriptural Evidence
On the one hand reference of relevant scriptural passages that support the meaning that the preacher has
drawn from the epigraph
On the other hand, establish the validity of the doctrine speaking about personal life.
The subjects touched upon in the sermon are mainly human sinfulness, the uncertainty of existence,
God’s ultimate power over salvation, the need for a Christian lifestyle, the chance of redemption, and
the importance of conversion – were very familiar to New England churchgoers. According to Puritan
doctrine, the process of conversion was more complicated than simply professing allegiance to a
church; conversion involved the influence of divine grace, which could cause a person to be truly
awakened to God and Christianity. Once converted, a person had a chance of salvation, but only God
could induce conversion.
6. Note the author’s frequent use of the word “wrath” and analyze it in each context, taking into
account that some of the most striking images in the sermon are those which display the fearful
wrath of God.
Some of the most striking images of the sermon are those that show the fearful the wrath of God, anger
an infinite God, as well as the misery to which you are exposed because God will inflict to your end.
Although it would be terrible to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God in a moment if you
do not agree to convert you must suffer for all eternity.
Edwards uses the word "anger" a surprising fifty-one times. God the he warns, he will not be patient
with his wandering flock forever. Here are some examples of the use of "anger" in the text:
In the waning patience of God: "The wrath of God is like the great waters that are dammed by the
present; they increase more and more, and they rise higher and higher, until an exit is …"
The vulnerability of humans: "The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made
Ready on the rope, and justice bend the arrow in your heart ... "
In the hands of an angry God: "The God who sustains you over the abyss of hell, as much as one holds
a spider, or a disgusting insect on fire, hates you, and is terribly provoked: his anger towards you burns
like fire ... " The wrath of the infinite God.
The misery to which you are exposed is what God will inflict to that end.
It would be terrible to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God in a moment; But you must
suffer for all eternity.
7. Analyze the biblical language of this sermon, paying particular attention to the author’s
transformation of his sources. Note how he uses allusion much more often than quotation.
Edwards wants to ensure that no one takes the wrath of God lightly and uses Biblical language and
references to justify what is said. In the first part of the sermon Edwards starts with a quote from
Deuteronomy and allusions from this same book of the Bible, reinforcing them with quotes from
Psalm. The conclusion of the sermon is also a quotation from the book of Genesis. The author uses
allusion much more often than quotation, therefore transforming his source through the biblical
language of this sermon. Edwards knows that by using biblical references this sermon will be stronger
and more reliable since the Bible is considered sacred and not questionable. The reason why he prefers
allusions instead of quotations could be because the text is livelier and also because he assumes readers
already know the Bible.
8. It has been observed that the preacher of this sermon expresses and increasing concern for his
audience. Do you agree?
Jonathan Edwards expresses an increasing concern for the people in the congregation and delivers this
sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” designed to bring the people back into the Puritan
fold. His message is not designed to speak to the intellect of his parishioners, but to convey the
consequences of living in sin through raw and emotional images that the people listening to the sermon
can relate to. Throughout the sermon, Edwards not only emphasizes the Puritan central tenets but also
the need for immediate action. He concludes with this final plea and warning: “Let every one that is out
of Christ, now awake and fly from the wrath to come. The wrath of Almighty God is now undoubtedly
hanging over a great part of this congregation. Let every one fly out of Sodom: "Haste and escape for
your lives, look not behind you, escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed."
9. Professor J.A. Leo Lemay, a great scholar of American colonial literature, has postulated that
much of the escalating emotional appeal of Sinners is due to its increasing immediacy of:
a) Personal reference (by shifting from they to we to you)
b) Time (by shifting from the past tense to the present, and by heightening the effect with a
repetitive now)
c) Place (by shifting from Israel to here).
Analyze the sermon in the light of this theory.
When Edwards wrote this sermon, he did it with a purpose. He wanted to demonstrate that living in sin
is dangerous and can have dreadful consequences. In order to achieve this goal, he chooses his words
carefully.
a) Personal reference: The sermon is aimed at the sinners in the congregation and at the beginning of
the sermon he explains what happened to Israelites referring to them as “they” but in the application he
shifts the subject of his sermon to “you”. So, all of the Bible’s warnings about the fate of the
unrepentant sinner are concentrated directly to the unconverted persons before him.
b) Time: He shifts from past tense explaining the quotes and allusions to the Bible of what happened to
the Israelites to the present so the sinners in the audience can imagine themselves in the situations the
sermon explained.
c) Place: Again, shifting from the wicked Israel to the place and audience present when he delivered the
sermon.
This way he points out that what happened to the Israelites (leaving the marked path), so many years
ago and in Israel can happen again with his people at that time and in their congregation. So, it can be
said he takes the Israelite case as an example so that his parishioners do not make the same mistakes
and can be saved and enjoy the eternal life.
10. This sermon slowly builds up toward a climax. Look at the text and indicate where the
moment of greatest tension is.
It is true the sermon starts mentioning what happened to the Israelites when they didn’t follow God’s
law, but the climax builds up when Edwards thoroughly describes God’s wrath and then offers to the
sinners the chance to be saved through Christ. He defines in one paragraph what will happen to the
sinners if they do not converse into Calvinism, and present images comparing them to loathsome insect
over the fire (line 113), the most hateful venomous serpent (line 117). At the end of the text, in the
paragraph that starts with O sinner!... he presents last option to be saved if they don’t live without sin;
sinners are in a fearful danger and they life is at God’s hand, a God whose wrath has been provoked and
forgiveness seems almost impossible.
11. In other sermons, Edwards movingly tried to portray God’s love. Analyze the author’s
concept of God in this sermon.
God made wonderful works but when he felt betrayed by the unbelieving Israelites, that love turned
into wrath. This is an image of a powerful God who moves into a an angry, resentful and merciless
God. His wrath is against all human beings who doesn’t live according his law. However, it is quite
contradictory because people live because of the mere pleasure of God that hold you up” (lines 45 and
46) showing here some compassion but later the wrath of God seems endless. I dare to say that
Edwards describes two versions of the same deity, people are with him or against him, these are
condemned to flames but, apparently, God is giving them a second chance because the floods of God’s
vengeance have been withheld (line 82).
12. Both similes and metaphors are figures of speech in which one thing is described in terms of
another, or something is likened to something else. The only difference between these two figures
is that in a simile there is an explicit comparison (recognizable by the use of the words “like” or
“as”), whereas in a metaphor the comparison is implicit. Analyze in their context the following
similes:
Your destruction would come like a whirlwind: a whirlwind is a tall, spinning column of air that
moves across the surface of the land or sea (Cambridge dictionary) that normally destroys everything
that nobody and nothing is able to scape. Here Edwards tries to explain that the wrath of God will be so
strong that all human beings will suffer his power.
You would be like the chaff of the summer threshing floor: chaff is the outer layer that is separated
from grains such as wheat before they are used as food (Cambridge dictionary). This chaff is normally
useless. This simile means that after God’s punishment, sinner will be so useless that they are not going
to be able to get over.
The wrath of God is like great waters that are dammed: if we think about the power of water in a
flood, we can imagine the destruction that could produce the wrath of God. The idea of destruction is
the same that in the first simile with the whirlwind. Water is calm in a dam, but if the dam is destroyed,
the power of destruction is immense as the wrath of God could be.
And the following metaphors of hell:
· That lake of burning brimstone: brimstone is chemical Sulphur and it destroys everything that
touches. If we image hell as a burning brimstone, that means that as we arrive there, we will be
destroyed without leaving any signal of us. Salvation is not possible.
· The dreadful pit: a pit is a large hole in the ground that is normally deep, if you fall down you
probably will not survive. If we imagine that this pit is hell, you will agony the rest of the eternity
because nobody is able to safe you.
· The bottomless gulf: a gulf is a very large area of sea surrounded on three sides by a coast
(Cambridge dictionary) and bottomless means that has no bottom. If we imagine hell as a bottomless
gulf, you are condemned to falling down eternally, nothing is going to stop you.
13. According to Cicero, oratory should instruct, convince and excite the reader. To what extent
do you think that Edwards achieved such goals in front of his audience? Note that Edwards has
been considered a master at the art of persuading
I think Edwards is a really good orator is a man very intelligent and forceful person according to Cicero
the orator must to be a moral guide of the state they knew how to use some technique to influence over
the people to manipulate in political and religious decision. Jonathan Edwards connect across the
religion and people with some examples from the bible using the ability verbally to convince the
parishioners the same philosophical principles that they pronounce it.
14. Edwards was not only a man of faith with strong religious feelings, but also a man of thought.
He argues for a synthesis of faith and reason. What features of this sermon reveal that its author
lived in the “Age of Reason”? Notice not only his tendency to explain rationally (which implies a
faith in human ability to reason logically), but also his recurrent use of the word “reason”
throughout the sermon.
The Age of Reason: Being An investigation of true and fabulous Theology is a deist treaty, written by
the English radical and 18th century American revolutionary Thomas Paine, also son writers before
Paine use this common deists arguments and political power to Christian Church. In relation with this
we can mark the general idea inside the sermon of Edwards some argues and synthesis of faith and
reason.
The reason why they have not fallen yet, nor fall now, is only because the time appointed by god has
not come,
And there is no other reason to give why you have not fallen into the hell since you woke up in the
morning, that the fact that the hand of God has sustained you. There is no other reason to give why you
have not gone to hell, since you sat here in the house of God, causing your eyes pure for your sinful
and ungodly way of attending to their solemn adoration. Yes, there is nothing else to give as a reason
why you do not fall into hell in this precise moment.
Every part Edwards result the reason like a privilege from God to consent in human capability to life
across the line between God and humans
15. According to Benjamin Trumbull, Edwards delivered this sermon in a level voice but, in spite
of his calmness, “there was such a breathing of distress, and weeping, that the preacher was
obliged to speak to the people and desire silence, that he might be heard” (A Complete History of
Connecticut). In the revival of 1741-42, practically the whole adult population of Northampton
was brought into the church. How effective do you think this sermon would be if it were delivered
nowadays? Is there anything in it that may impress modern readers? Can you find any traces of
what some modern readers may call “grotesque harshness”? Why do you think that this sermon
has instigated so many dismissive caricatures of its author?
This sermon in this autor Jonathan Edwards now not could be dangerous for auditors like now we
group up with different information and this type of grotesque and harshness information cannot be
acceptable now. Every person who decide his future and this type of sermon in that moment can be
acceptable because they want more followers. Followers influence by some politicians and ideologist to
recruit and call up the more churchgoer possible. In a moment of change where a country begins to
develop converge different things associated with different people with different ideologies and
thoughts. After the colonization of the country and the evangelization of the inhabitants, it is normal for
different ideologies to converge as a result of confronting them. At that time the church has power over
the locals. Fortunately, in this moment in the occident world, it is not usual.
In my opinion is a negative sermon also predicts the end of world if we don’t continue with the correct
moral and become now old fashion because people now not Will be more influenceable like in the past,
also we can be influenceable for all type of information around us.
This sermon in this autor Jonathan Edwards now not could be dangerous for auditors like now we grop
up with different information and this type of grotesque and harshness information cannot be
acceptable now. Every person who decide his future and this type of sermon in that moment can be
acceptable because they want more followers. Followers influence by some politicians and ideologist to
recruit and call up the more churchgoer possible. In a moment of change where a country begins to
develop converge different things associated with different people with different ideologies and
thoughts. After the colonization of the country and the evangelization of the inhabitants, it is normal for
different ideologies to converge as a result of confronting them. At that time the church has power over
the locals. Fortunately, in this moment in the occident world, it is not usual.
In my opinion is a negative sermon also predicts the end of world if we don’t continue with the correct
moral and become now old fashion because people now will not be more influenceable like in the past,
also we can be influenceable for all type of information around us.
 UNIT 6. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790)
Autobiography
1. Analyse any two of Franklin’s precepts in their social and historical context, bearing in mind
that the author ordered the virtues from easiest to hardest to achieve.
Tranquility: Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
To be tranquil means to be in a state of calm through the life. Tranquility plays an important key for a
man and his path to success.
For B. Franklin, tranquility is the ability to remain undisturbed in spite of “unavoidable disturbances”.
Hence, tranquility is built upon a foundation of acceptance.
Franklin tells us to stop worrying about those things which are not real problems and, therefore, we
should simply accept as they are.
Chastity: Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness weakness, or the injury of
your own or another’s peace or reputation.
The Enlightenment was a time when men tried to perfectionate human society. For Benjamin Franklin
sexual intercourses were only to procreate or for health reasons in order to avoid any harm to the
reputation of those involved. A man had to avoid some behaviours when looking for self-perfection,
but it is curious to see that Chastity was among the hardest precepts for Franklin to reach.
2. Consider the relevance of the following sayings from Poor Richard's Almanac for the analysis
of the thirteen virtues singled out by Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin listed thirteen virtues that he felt were an important guide for living. These virtues
can be divided into those related to personal behaviour (temperance, order, resolution, frugality,
moderation, industry, cleanliness, and tranquillity) and those related to social character traits (sincerity,
justice, silence, chastity, and humility).
“Tongue double, brings trouble”,is related with two of the virtues related to social traits: silence and
sincerity. Silence advices us to be mindful of what we say to others. Hurtful words can last and
sometimes for a lifetime. Silence is often better than trivial conversation.
Sincerity suggests that we must be authentic in our communication with others. Say kind and
encouraging words to others from the heart.
"Humility makes great men twice honourable," Maybe the closest meaning to 'Humility' is to have a
mentality to serve nor to be served or 'know your place'. It could also be used to decrease 'Pride'. This
saying can be related with the virtues of sincerity and humility.
"Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise,” This method has been
recommended since antiquity. The philosopher Aristotle advised rising early, for such habit contributes
to health, wealth, and wisdom. This saying can be related with the virtues of order: bring order to every
area of our life. Resolution: Commit to the important things. Persevere despite obstacles. Honour your
word. Industry: Become mindful of our priorities in life. Strive not to waste time on what doesn’t
matter.
"God helps them that help themselves," This saying means that we cannot depend solely on divine
help, but must work to get what we want. It can be related with the virtues of resolution and industry.
"He that hath a trade, hath an estate," This means "if you have goals in life you have a purpose." It is
also related with the virtue of industry.
"Have you somewhat to do tomorrow; do it today." It could be interpreted in many different ways
depending on how you look at it. You can see it as though you never know what tomorrow holds.
Therefore, if you have to do something tomorrow, and have time to do it today, go ahead and get it
done. It can be related with the virtues of order and industry.
3. How does Franklin try to achieve a balance between individual freedom of conscience and the
social need for order?
Franklin stated that the way to “moral perfection” is to work on thirteen virtues (temperance, silence,
order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, chastity, and
humility) as well as “prudence.” He believed that people could and should act for their own interests
as long as those interests were not in conflict with the society. Apart from advising the citizens to create
and join associations, he also founded and participated in many. Franklin was a defender of federalism,
a critic of narrow mindedness, a visionary leader in politics and an advocate of religious liberty.
In his Autobiography, he praised the traits of saving, hard-working and money-making. For Franklin,
the search of material wealth is only moral when it coincides with enhancing the public good and
voluntarism—what is often called “enlightened self-interest.” He believed that reason, free trade and a
cosmopolitan spirit cultivate peaceful relations. Franklin thought that “independent entrepreneurs make
good citizens” because they pursue “attainable goals” and are “capable of living a useful and dignified
life.” In his autobiography, Franklin favored voluntary associations over governmental institutions as
mechanisms to channel citizens’ extreme individualism and chase of private ends into productive social
outlets.
4. Compare Franklin’s system of values with that of Jonathan Edwards, bearing in mind they
were opposites in many ways in spite of being contemporaries.
When it comes to Jonathan Edward’s system of values, the human being is continuously biased by
religious belief of God, heaven and hell. In fact, individuals should devote their lives to do good things
and behave as the Holy Scripture said; as it is stated in his piece of work “Sinners in the Hands of an
Angry God”, if sinners didn’t do that, they would be whensoever sentenced to Hell by God.
Furthermore, even if humans strived to save their souls from hell by behaving correctly, it was useless
as long as they did reject Christ. Edward constantly depicts his theological premise through the Bible.
He contrasts the divine power with human powerlessness. God is identified as the ultimate order and
rationality: the humans that are not with him, are against him and consequently the only thing that
could save humans from hell would be God’s mercy. It is clearly noticeable Edward’s using fear to
persuade his audience.
On the contrary, regarding Ben Franklin’s system of values, the human being itself was the core of
everything. In 1760 Franklin created his own system to develop his character, it appears in his work
“Autobiography” as thirteen virtues to which he aspired. They were considered as a prominent guide
for living. Franklin continued to become one of the most productive, successful and self-actualized
people of the history. His character development system strived for improvement in all aspects of life,
to follow the path to personal betterment and perfection. A man had to avoid some behaviors in order to
achieve self-perfection.
In conclusion, Jonathan’s viewpoint towards helping others was through believing and having faith in
God and working hard for being a good believer. Whereas Franklin’s point of view towards happiness
was to make own efforts and hard work in order to achieve personal accomplishments. The biggest
difference between them is that mistakes for Edward were “sins” and for Franklin were “errata”, which
gave the opportunity to improve.
5. An autobiography is a portrayal of the self (generally an attractive image) rather than simply
an expression of the author’s feelings. Writers of autobiographies always create themselves as
characters, which are always somewhat different from their authors. Throughout his
Autobiography Franklin endeavored to create a hero who was a “typical American of the kind he
wanted to settle in his country” and presented himself as a “benevolent live-and-let-live Deist who
does well by working hard and doing good to his fellow men regardless of such matters as their
station in life, politics, or religion”. Did the author succeed in painting a credible portrait of
himself, or do you think that modern readers may perceive the deceitful pose of a man who was
advertising himself? How does Franklin’s self-representation compare to the ones of the authors
you have already read? Note how Franklin can be analyzed in contrast with the writers whose
work focused on the relationship between their lives and God’s providential actions.
Autobiographies are subjective and creative, as the writer decides which stories he tells to convey his
purposes. This type of narratives are acts of rhetoric in which their authors usually want to convey a
meaning and impact on the readers so as to persuade them about certain ideologies.
He achieves being perceived as a benevolent and real man due to stating that he had committed many
“mistakes” (not as sins people needed to repent of), which anyone could stop committing by hard work
and practice. Thanks to his last virtue “humility” he helped himself not to be taken as an arrogant or a
pretentious man. He achieved painting a credible portrait of himself because he didn’t appeal to
religion, but to the ideals and empirical reasoning of the Enlightenment in which he was living in.
Franklin can be compared to John Smith’s self-representation as a hero. Both became successful on
their lives through showing themselves as perfect models to be followed by their fellows. However,
Benjamin denotes more humility thanks to his 13thvirtue and thanks to his admitting not being perfect,
but a man who committed several “errata”. Benjamin’s autobiography seems to be a legacy more than a
self-promotion (as he doesn’t write about his important role in the Revolution or in the creation of the
Constitution).
We could also compare Benjamin to all those writers who got happiness through their hard work and
perseverance on following Puritan’s ideals. The biggest difference between Franklin and the previous
Puritan writers is that the latter’s success lead on God’s hands, while Franklin said that men controlled
their own lives. The pursuit of happiness and success is something that depends only on the hard work
of the independent men (not in God’s will or providence), who could reach a moral self-perfection
through hard work (both Puritans and Franklin thought perseverance was the key to happiness).
6.To what extent is Franklin's Autobiography a typical work of the Age of Reason? Could the
author seem naive in his reliance upon reason, or did he also take into account the irrational
force of human emotions?
Benjamin is a man of the Enlightenment who not only followed the stylistic conventions (prose, clear
style) but also reasoned his statements, to fulfil his didactic purposes. He was influenced by writer of
the Age of Reason like Addison, Locke, Voltaire, Rousseau, etc. His virtues are about using the self-
advancement to convey a mutual benefit for the whole community to achieve the common good.
His Autobiography is an example of the works of the Age of Reason for the following reasons:
1-Work written in prose and clear style: it makes it easy and affordable to everyone to read and
understand it, which comes along to his didactic purpose of showing anyone the way to reach
happiness, self-perfection and success in life to become their best versions able to help others improve.
2-No emotions, just reason: Benjamin doesn’t mention emotional topics, but he speaks only about
himself in a not intimate way. He conceals more than he reveals about himself. This allows him to get
into others for moral perfection.
3-Empirism: creating a method to reach moral perfection shows his trust on scientific progress as a tool
to reach perfection. His purpose is clearly didactic: he wrote it to help people reach knowledge and
progress. This makes him even more trustworthy and respectable.
4-Rejects religiosity on behalf of reason. When Benjamin talks about mistakes, he doesn´t mention sins
but errata, which can be avoided by personal perseverance and hard work. He never mentions God
being the responsible of men’s achievements. He clearly thinks men’s success is on men’s hands.
5-Enlightment doctrines: Benjamin believes in the natural goodness of human beings (who don’t
commit sins but mistakes), who could reach human race’s perfection by following and working hard on
his method. His words suggest tolerance to people who haven’t reach success or perfection and a wish
to use the benefits of his method for the common good, showing his believe in universal brotherhood.
7. In an essay entitled “Benjamin Franklin” (written in 1917-18 and published in the volume
Studies in Classic American Literature) D.H. Lawrence stated that he admired Franklin but did
not like him and charged him with setting up a “barbed wire moral enclosure” of “shalt-not
ideals.” D.H. Lawrence rejected being turned into a “moral machine” or “automaton” and, since
he thought it was “rather fun to play at Benjamin,” he proposed an alternative series of maxims
by Lawrence with those of Franklin’s Autobiography.
Franklin was a man of the Age of Reason while D.H. Lawrence was a modernist, a movement of the
beginning of the twentieth century shocked by the World War I. “Lawrence’s reading of the American
literary past follows closely his theory of instinctual ‘blood consciousness’. ‘Americans have never
loved the soil of America as Europeans have love the soil of Europe. America has never been a blood-
home-land. Only an ideal home-land. The land of the idea, of the spirit. And of the pocket. Not of the
blood.” (From Puritanism to Postmodernism by Richard Ruland and Marcolm Bradbury)
In an essay entitled “Benjamin Franklin” (written in 1917-18 and published in the volume Studies in
Classic American Literature) D.H. Lawrence stated that he admired Franklin but did not like him, and
charged him with setting up a “barbed wire moral enclosure” of “shalt-not ideals D.H. Lawrence
rejected being turned into a “moral machine” or “automaton” and, since he thought it was “rather fun to
play at Benjamin,” he proposed an alternative series of maxims by Lawrence with those of Franklin’s
Autobiography.
Franklin’s idea of not speaking, his precept of Silence, unless there is a benefit for himself or others
contrasts with D.H. Lawrence’s statement that one has to be passionate about his own’s ideas. D.H.
Lawrence psychological primitivism confronts Franklin’s moral rationalism.
Lawrence believes in the soul over the mind, in the search of the roots not on the construction of a
society with moral ideals. There is a disagreement, Lawrence’s rejection of a method for molding
men’s acts and the demand on the existence, of an inner self or different selves, the primitive self, the
‘vast forest’ over the controlled self, Franklin’s “neat back garden”.
For Franklin, a man from the Age of the Reason, humility was to imitate Jesus and Socrates. Lawrence
ridicules this statement, he considers that in order to be humble one should accept all men and women
with their different inner souls.
8. According to J.A. Leo Lemay, Benjamin Franklin “gave us de definite formulation of the
American Dream”. Remember that some of the most important aspects of the American Dream
are: the rise from poverty to wealth, from dependence to independence, and from helplessness to
power. This means that there is hope for each person to change one’s life, shaping it into
whatever form one may choose.
Franklin helped to forge the myth of the American Dream, his figure became the symbol of American
civilization. Benjamin Franklin’s importance as a symbol increased as the people saw his personal
success parallel with the prosperity of the new country. Franklin was the first famous self-made man,
that is, the basis of the so called “American Dream”. Franklin fitted perfectly a myth that comes until
our days. He was born in an average family that left England for economic reasons. He had no formal
education, he was a self- taught man who reached social and political success as well as wealth with his
hard work.
Franklin’s maxims embodied the spirit of the capitalism in a time with a rising middle class. He wanted
to improve his own situation and he shared his ideas with others so that they could also improve. To
improve meant not only socially but also economically. He wrote about how to be socially successful
and how to achieve wealth in the Poor’s Richard Almanac, later improved in another book, The Way to
Wealth.
In his Autobiography Benjamin speaks always about ‘benefit’, his idea of order is also related to
‘business’, notice that ‘industry’ is one of the precepts chosen by him as necessary. So, Franklin depicts
an individual whose aim should be to improve, wealth as a goal.
9. When writers give an account of their lives they get involved in a creative balancing activity,
because all autobiographies are simultaneously objective and subjective. How does Franklin
balance objectivity and subjectivity in the passages you have read? Note how, although
autobiographers are not supposed to invent fictitious incidents, they select certain incidents, and
discard others. Likewise, they emphasize some of their traits and try to hide others.
Franklin addresses his audience in the first person singular. By this he sets clear that it is his personal
opinion what he is trying to convey, and he does so with authority but from a subjective point of view.I
conceiv´d[…], I concluded[…], I found […], My intention[…]. This was part of a set of rules for
conversation he imposed himself in Philadelphia which instead of winning or losing they encourage for
sharing, cooperating, and learning something on every intercourse.
An autobiography is supposed to be "a written portrayal of the self-containing objective facts and
subjective feelings" but there are important events left apart in Franklin´s Autobiography such as the
Revolution and the Constitution, where Franklin played significant roles. "He has chosen to write about
himself but say remarkably little about himself" (Michael Zuckerman). Such an oversight was part of
his strategy to connect with the common reader, picturing himself as the hero of his narrative of self-
scrutiny and highlighting the lesson of his early life: the lesson of moving from self-advancement and
self-promotion, to civic endeavour, to mutual benefit, to doing things for the common good.
He recounts his early life and pictures himself in the place of a young Franklin who was about to learn
his most important lesson, encouraging the reader by this to identify with his character which is not
Franklin the author. He is objective in recounting how he proceeds to achieve his goal, but he surveyed
the events of his life looking back at them from a considerable distance, standing still and analysing
them in the light of his mature worldly wisdom, and his personal opinions are not anymore, the ones of
that young Franklin he is presenting to us.
10. The Autobiography is "written in a neoclassical version of the Puritan plain style,without
formal beauty or pretensions to emotional force" (K. Silverman). Franklin's "mastery of style-
that pure, pithy, racy, and delightful diction-[...] makes him still one of the great exemplars of
English prose" (M.C. Tyler). Franklin developed his supple prose style as a tool to communicate
his ideas clearly, since his stylistic creed was "one cannot be too Clear." Analyse the passages you
have read from Franklin's Autobiography commenting on the way the author expresses himself,
noting that his diction (choice of vocabulary and arrangement of words) and tone are colloquial
without being familiar.
The Autobiography is written in a neoclassical version of the Puritan plain style to communicate his
ideas clearly to his audience. Likewise, the speaker gives an account of his personal life in the first-
person singular which moves the speaker closer to his audience and his tone is colloquial in order to be
intelligibly to the common people he is addressing to. Franklin´s diction helped him to characterize the
hero in his autobiography which we need to bear in mind it is not himself. He presents "Franklin the
hero" as an exemplar and encourage the reader to imitate him as he introduces his project for moral
perfection which he started in his early life and lead him towards what he became later.
 UNIT 7 OLAUDAH EQUIANO (c. 1745-1797)
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African (1789)
1. What resources of credibility does Equiano use in order to persuade his readers that his work
is not fiction, but an authentic and extremely accurate account of actual facts?
Equiano uses the following resources in order to persuade his readers that his work is not fiction:
-The title of the story in which we read that the story is about his life and it is written by himself as a
testimony of what he lived.
-He wrote it in first person and included the different emotions he felt in every situation.
-His own experience, the information he took the other men who travelled with him.
-Texts from historical sources and abolitionist literature of his time (i.e. Gronniosaw and Cugoano).
2. What strategies does Equiano use in order to portray himself as "a man and a brother" in his
appeal to his white audience?
On one hand he speaks about feelings, how he felt when he was kidnapped, fear of what would happen,
sorrow about how families were separated, and they wouldn’t see each other again, astonishment when
he saw how white men treated his comrades… On the other hand, he uses Christianity to defend his
cause. He called them “Nominal Christian”, because if they support slavery they are not good
Christians, they are committing a sin when they ill-treat slaves. He also uses Enlightenment principles
to make his audience think about how slavery can be supported by those who proclaim the ideas of
liberty and equality.
He depicts himself as a person with the same feeling as any other person. As a mature religious man
with the same God. And as gentleman cultivated, as we can see in the portrait of his book.
3. Analyse Equiano's skilfully deployed strategies of self-representation, starting with the idyllic
portrait of his early years and paying particular attention to the changes that take place from the
moment he is suddenly torn from his peaceful environment. How does he use his marginal status
to observe and describe the evil behavior of his white enslavers from the innocent perspective of
an amazed child who come from a remote and strange land? Contrast this innocent eye
perspective contrasts with the one adopted by the author at the end of the second chapter, when
he is no longer a naïve alien boy, but an acculturated and extremely articulate man who
addresses his fellow Christians within the same system of values. Comment on how each of these
two perspectives corresponds to a distinctive voice and how both voices interplay in the passages
you have read.
He started as a naive and innocent African boy who feared that white people were going to eat him, and
he didn’t know anything about life out of Africa. Also, he depicted white people as criminals who were
making a lot of cruel things to their own benefit. But he learnt fast and started to play the role of
picaresque hero or anti-hero in order to survive. When he is a free man, instead of criticising white
people he prefers to contribute to the abolitionist cause by writing letters to newspapers and officials,
and afterwards his Narrative. Also, he uses Christian religion and Enlightenment principles in order to
make white audience reflect on how slavery can be supported by those who proclaim the ideas of
liberty and equality and love for God and the humankind. These two perspectives of different periods
of Equiano’s life reflect perfectly different ways of thinking and the circumstances he has found along
his life.
4. Note that Equiano, throughout his narrative, is consciously and overtly engaged in self-
construction.
If, according to him, he was “neither a saint, a hero, nor a tyrant”, how did he want his readers to
perceive him, then? Bear in mind that one of the reasons why Equiano chose the autobiographical
mode was to present himself as an eye-witness giving a convincing personal testimony. In your analysis
take into account that even the most truthful autobiographies are never purely factual because the
autobiographer’s recording or chronicling is by definition neither neutral nor passive, but subjective
and creative.
Equiano claims he is not a saint, a hero or a tyrant; in the first part of his Narrative, he presents himself
as an anti-hero who tries to adapt himself to the difficult circumstances of his life in order to survive. In
the second part, he grows up and wants to take responsibility of his life, because he is not a slave
anymore. Obviously, he wants the audience to perceive him as a human being, as a person, and he
presents himself as an eye-witness giving a convincing personal testimony showing his feelings,
impressions and thoughts.
5. Reread William Bradford's account of life aboard the Mayflower and his arrival in the New
World. Then, compare it with Equiano's aboard the slave ship and his first impression upon
landing. Try to point out the similarities and differences between both perspectives or points of
view.
Both authors narrated stories about how people reached America from Europe and Africa and
obviously those stories were somehow rough and cruel. In order to express more moving feelings these
authors turned to the autobiographical form and also used religions source. Whereas in Mayflower,
Bradford express his point of view to justify this situation, on the contrary Equiano express his
discontent and stand for up to change it.
Bradford's story is told by a Puritan perspective, being all the events and facts were consequences of
God's will, and being the Natives depicted as devils and savages who were living in sin not being saved
by God.
When Equiano bought his freedom, he left America to avoid discrimination and becoming a slave
again.
6. Compare Equiano and Mary Rowlandson in order to comment on how the former combined
the traditions of both the American autobiography and the Indian captivity narrative.
Although captivity narratives featured the white Christian captured by savages with only his or her faith
to sustain life and slave narratives depicted a slave as he or she moved from a life as property through
the eventual quest for freedom, the two narrative genres share strong similarities.
* moves from an idyllic state to one of captivity
* must learn to survive in an alien culture
* desire for freedom vs. fear of dangers of escape
* spiritual and/or moral strength gained through suffering
* the description of a forced existence in an alien society where the protagonist develops survival
strategies.
Equiano combined the traditions of both the American autobiography and the Indian captivity narrative.
He makes sure to demonstrate his spiritual path to religious salvation; like much of the period's
Methodist writing, he emphasizes the importance of dreams and visions to his spiritual life.
7. How did Equiano try to refute common racist misconceptions about Africans so as to change
his audience's attitude toward black people? How did he make his readers aware of the horrors
of slavery?
Equiano's writing on the Middle Passage is one of the first accounts of the reality of slave trade for
black people. A new perspective, from the slaves’ point of view, which added humanity to the slave
figure, thus countering existing stereotypes. In it, white people were described as ghosts or devils who
were wronging other human beings, including children, producing a strong impact and sense of
injustice and wrongdoing.
Contrary to former narratives, which propagated slavery and depicted slaves as unintelligent
subhumans, unable to learn or behave, Olaudah’s narrative depicts black slaves as human beings, and
includes his own feelings and thoughts in the narrative, presenting slave trade as an evil anti-Christian
practice. Presenting himself as a self-made man, close to the European ideal of a gentleman and a
reformer, refuted exotist attitudes and countered views of otherness towards black people.
The different moods adopted in the narrative, according to the situation described, being at times
humorous, others, humble and others, dark or critical of the cruelty of slavery from a Christian
perspective, were a powerful way of engaging readers and challenging inherited beliefs.
Equiano’s autobiography was a powerful political tool for the anti-slavery campaign, for which he
collaborated with well-known public figures and members of Parliament and added a new dimension to
the autobiographical tradition: that of social protest, with himself as an example and proof of the
humanity of black people.
He also proved that he was able to write and think and defend his ideas by entitling his autobiography
with both the African and the European names, refuting claims that blacks had no intellectual abilities,
and expressing the need of equal rights and social justice for black people and the cruelty and ills of the
slave trade.
8. Equiano's double voice is compellingly powerful and highly eloquent. Comment on the way the
author expresses himself to heighten the impact of his account and carry his message effectively.
Equiano makes use of rhetorical devices such as emotional appeals, citation of authoritative sources,
use of logical proof, among others, to convey specific feelings, emotions and messages, and to gain
credibility.
Although he sought support for the anti-slavery movement and was aware of the importance and
capability of the white readers of crushing the slave trade, if they chose to do so, he was also aware that
any mistake on his part would be considered insolent and could alienate the reader, including the
simple fact of writing his autobiography. Thus, in order to gain support and avoid offending any of his
white readers, he made use of a double voice, creating a balance between a humble, yet moralising
tone, based on Christian beliefs and an Enlightenment man’s firmer and more objective one, and
combined travel narrative with personal statements against the mentioned trade, as well as expressing
his feelings and thoughts through a first person perspective, which brought the readers closer to his
story.
The humble tone can be seen throughout his narrative, especially at the beginning of the first chapter,
where he claims that he has chosen not to ‘aspire to praise’, in order to avoid censure.
On the other hand, deep feelings are conveyed through abundant use of adjectives, such as ‘surprised’,
‘hungry’, or ‘scared’, which humanised the black population, seeking to destroy stereotypes, and
particularly the last two paragraphs, where he narrates the selling and separation of relatives and
friends, bring the reader closer to the horrors of his experience and that of black slaves, through the use
of intricate and explicit descriptions.
The long, complex, and compound sentences he makes use of, convey objectivity and demonstrate his
as well as his thoughts’ complexity.
His narrative contributed to the antislavery movement and to literature.
9. Compare Equiano with Franklin as authors of autobiographies. What do these self-made men
have in common? In what differing ways do they try to assume authority?
Concerning style,
suggest any reason to explain why Equiano ́s prose is more formal and ornate than Franklin?
Olaudah Equiano and Benjamin Franklin were two self-made men whose autobiographies show their
lives, improvements and accomplishment. Both of them have a didactic purpose and they were deeply
concern with slavery. They struggled for freedom and achieved a respectable status in society through
their own efforts. Although both had to struggle to gain respect and power, their adversities were quite
different. Equiano was born free but he was captured and sold as a slave. Some years later, he had the
chance to pay his manumission and be free again. He had to struggle in a society full of prejudice about
his race and demonstrate that he was a skillful man as others. Franklin did not undergo these
difficulties, he was a free white man. He had to work hard to find success in his society. He represents
“the American man”, his beliefs with reason and common sense and his skills made him famous.
Olaudah Equiano´s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The
African is a masterpiece of African American Literature (slave narrative). This demonstrated to the
world that a black slave can have the intelligence for higher goals in life. His autobiography was a
political tool and a social protest, he shows how a black man also can became a self-made man despite
extremely adverse circumstances. The diction and style is very highly educated and uses elaborated and
ornate language because he wants to show his writing skills. Franklin did not need to demonstrate them,
just his position was the proof that he could do it.
Both are examples of success in life, they were determined, self-made and their autobiographies are
guides of American Dream.
10. Analyse how Equiano depicts violence throughout the passages you have read.
Using the first-person narrator along the passage provides a horrifying testimony of what happened
during that Middle Passage across the Atlantic Ocean. This narration is even more touching if we take
into account that the witness is an eleven or twelve-year-old boy. The dreadful situation describes could
be well-known among the slave purchasers at that time. However, it was seen as normal since black
people were considered to be inferior
Equiano’s despair and horror can be appreciated since the first time he saw the slave vessel and he even
felt like an animal when he was tested so as to confirm how healthy he was.
This horrific treatment is completed with details about constant beatings, daily starvation, the suffering
of other slaves, loathsomeness stenches inside the ship and even dreadful punishments, like hanging.
The author also explains his fears about his destiny and what is going to happen with him.
 UNIT 8 PHILLIS WHEATLEY (c. 1753-1784)
“On Being Brought from Africa to America”
“To the University of Cambridge, in New England”
“To His Excellency General Washington”
1. Discuss the poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” as an elaboration of the theme
“fortunate fall,” that is the belief that enslavement was an introduction to Christianity and,
consequently, to eternal salvation. Then consider whether this reading of the first part of the
poem at a lineal level provides a satisfactory interpretation of the whole poem.
In the first quatrain of “On Being Brought from Africa to America” the poetic voice, who is Wheatley
herself addresses to a white American audience by expressing her gratitude for being introduced to
Christianity and, consequently, to eternal salvation. Wheatley refers to white Americans as merciful
and wise and to the Christian God as a saviour, whereas she calls her land “Pagan” which could be
considered offensive at the time. She also depreciates herself by saying that she is a benighted soul.
Wheatley seems subservient to the dominant discourses in colonial Boston.
That would have been a satisfactory interpretation if the tone of the second half of the poem was not
abruptly changed to a subversive and accusatory one. Wheatley makes a direct challenge to racial
prejudice in this quatrain what makes us examine again the first part of the poem and realise that
Wheatley used certain stylistic strategies to undermine the dominant discourse. These strategies are
1. The use of intentional ambiguity: e.g., “redemption” may refer both to religious salvation and
redemption from slavery and “Savior” can be interpreted both as the deliverer of sin and from slavery.
In this way, Wheatley may be talking about her freedom in her land. She didn't know what was
redemption or saviour because she didn't know what was slavery. She was free.
2. The use of verbal irony. Wheatley says that it was “mercy” which brought her. She certainly means it
was “cruelty.”
It is also ironic the use of the term “benighted” taking into account that she remembered that her mother
was a sun worshipper. She probably means that she was separated from her family and culture.
To sum up, although Wheatley is proud of being introduced to Christianity, the reading of the first half
of the poem doesn't provide a satisfactory interpretation at a literal level because of the tone shift in the
second half. It is at a figurative level when it can be found a subversive message that fits more with her
continuous defence of freedom.
2. Discuss the poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” in the light of Olaudah
Equiano’s words about racial prejudice (pg. 137)
“On Being Brought from Africa to America” may be considered controversial because sometimes has
been cited as an instance of Wheatley’s denigration of her native African homeland and of her alleged
full acceptance of dominant discourses in colonial Boston. This controversy is because Wheatley
doesn't convey her message directly as Equiano does: e.g. she uses irony and intentional ambiguity. She
probably chooses to be less direct because she was still a slave at the time she wrote her poem.
Both authors defend their ideas of equality and freedom. Wheatley finds her ideas present in
Christianity. Equiano, in this specific fragment, finds his reasons for freedom in Nature and Reason
itself.
3. According to John C. Shields, the poem "To His Excellency General Washington" is "more a
paean to freedom than a eulogy to Washington." Explain why you agree or disagree with this
interpretation. When you analyse the slave poet´s references to freedom, note the ironic definition
of America as “the land of freedom´s heaven defended race! (line 32). Remember that when
authors resort rhetorical irony, they mean the exact opposite of what they say, because irony is a
manner of discourse in which the implied meaning is contrary to the stated words.
The tone of this poem shows a shift away from previous works by Wheatley. The poem is divided into
five stanzas where she addresses pagan forces like muses or goddesses that help rebels, who are
commanded by General Washington, to gain independence from Britain. Despite the title of the poem,
the references to Washington are limited to the third and the fifth stanza and they portray him as a tool
to the main purpose of the poem: exalt the freedom claim of American colonists and subtly slave’s
freedom. From line 24 to 28, once Washington is introduced, she focuses on asking for divine
intervention to help Washington troops in their task.
In her claim for freedom, she also uses irony to point how the so-called land of the free uses slave
labour as a base to his production system. This can be seen as a suggestion to the founding fathers,
being Washington among them, to make them notice that the new nation to be born should do
something to guarantee equal freedom for all their population if they want to be truly considered “The
land of freedom”. The issue of slavery was becoming hotly debated. It had already been a controversial
issue at the Continental Congresses of the 1770s and was again debated during the writing of the U.S.
Constitution in the ’80s. In the North, where Wheatley lived, slavery was increasingly losing favour,
meanwhile, in England, the anti-slavery faction was even stronger.
“To His Excellency General Washington” as an example of nationalistic poetry or as an implicit
condemnation of slavery.
4. Analyse any instances you can find of Wheatley's acute racial awareness or self-consciousness
in her writings, bearing in mind that she drew frequent attention to her African Heritage. Pay
particular attention to line 7 of the poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” and
comment on how the poet deals with the colour stigma of Cain's sin attached to black people, an
idea which has been used to validate the perception of the white's racial superiority. Comment
also on Wheatley´s identification as an “Ethiop” in the poem entitled “To the University of
Cambridge, in New England” (line 28)
In the poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America”, she complains about the paganism of
African people and she expresses gratitude for being taken to America where she could become a
Christian. Although this could seem derogatory to black people, in the second quatrain of the poem, she
defends that black people are equal in God’s eyes and rejects that the colour of their skin has influence
in their souls.
She also shows pride in belonging to a country addressed in the bible as the “blameless race” when she
uses the term Ethiop. Though she was not born in that area of Africa, she has been educated and
baptized as a Christian and she alludes to the African kingdom of Ethiopia, a Christian kingdom that
appears in the Bible. This connects her—a young African-born slave—to the authority inherent in the
Bible and makes her voice (and her message) more powerful.
We can perceive in her poems that she feels equal to the rest of the people, although, as a black woman,
she may be considered inferior in that century. It is her devotion to God and her condition as a Christian
who puts her in that position from her humble point of view.
5. Although Phillis Wheatley recorded few memories of her childhood in Africa, she remembered
that her mother was a sun worshipper who “poured out water before the sun at his rising” and
prostrated herself in the direction of that rising sun. This memory of her mother's morning ritual
libation has been related to the fact that solar imagery plays an important role in her poetry.
Discuss any references to the sun that you can find in the poems you have read paying attention
to their dark-light and night-day imagery. When analysing the night symbolism, bear in mind the
importance of the word “benighted” in “On Being Brought from Africa to America.”
Phillis Wheatley makes use of an imagery language on her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to
America” which plays with dark/bright as a metaphor of the ignorance and the paganism against the
knowledge and the Christian faith. She was brought from Africa, a 'Pagan land' and she found in
America redemption for her soul, which she refers as “benighted”, synonymous of ignorant. This word
could be also split in three, 'be-night-ed', so this is also a reference to the darkness. Eventually, in the
second part of the poem in spite of the colour of her skin is black, she advises the Christians that it is
not an inconvenience to “join th' angelic train”, that means to reach the salvation. So, we can find in the
poem that the colour of the skin is not related to the colour of the soul
Wheatley uses besides this imagery in the poem To the University of Cambridge, New England. It's in
line 4 where she talks about the “Egyptian bloom” to refer to his homeland again, and, in line 6 she
writes about “those dark abodes”, from where the God's hand brought her in “safety”. Certainly, she
would have never take contact with studies and the Christian faith if she had stayed in Africa. Anyway,
this divine hand was the slave-dealing.
“To His Excellency General Washington” is full of these references. Wheatley evokes the grandiose
neoclassical imagery ornamented with 'bright' since the first line, she evokes here the “Celestial choir”
from the “realms of light”. The author uses several expressions as “she flashes dreadful in refulgent
arms” (line 4); or “bright beams of heaven's revolving light” (line 7), in this line Wheatley refers to the
Sun and its movement, maybe inspired by the memory of this mother pouring out water at the sunrise.
She uses these shiny terms to emphasize the rebel's courage and to bless them in the Revolutionary
War. She aims to build an epic tone with it.
In the next stanza, she continues with this rhetoric and writes about making freedom more human
(Liberty) as a goddess that binds her “golden hear” with olives and laurel (line 10) “wherever it shines
the native of the skies” (line 11). In line 19, Wheatley compares the army with Autumn golden reign'
leaves, it is also a reference from John Milton's Paradise Lost, where he describes the legion of Satan,
“thick as autumnal leaves”. Eventually, in the last stanza, she blesses Washington with the highest
honours: “A crown, a mansion, a throne that shine,/ with gold unfading, Washington! Be thine” (line 41
and 42) So, the gold, the blaze, the shinning and similar terms in the poem are tokens of victory and
glory.
6. Analyse the tone of Wheatley's poems paying particular attention to any relevant shifts.
Remember the tone reflects the poet's attitude both to the theme of the poem and to the reader.
In the poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” the author uses two different tones in each of
the two halves of the poem. In the first four verses, Wheatley expresses her gratitude to being
introduced to Christianity with a friendly and non-threatening tone. It expects to attract her audience,
but in the second half of the poem, we can perceive a clear tonal shift. She recriminates white
Christians being racist because they justified the enslavement of the people of Africa because of the
colour of the skin, so she uses here an accusatory tone. Then she expresses that they are black as Cain,
this means that white and black people are both sons of Adam and Eve and, in consequence, able to be
saved by God.
Phillis Wheatley adopts a different tone in her poem “To the University of Cambridge, in New
England.” She employs a position of superiority to her audience, in this case, the elite of male students
of Cambridge, to admonish them. She chooses this tone because they belong to the highest position of
society and she is a black girl without privileged educational resources that feels compelled to reproach
them to make the most of their fortunate positions and avoid sin and sloth. She can't afford to refer to
them as equals, she must put herself above them to be taken seriously.
In “To His Excellency General Washington” Wheatley uses an epic and patriotic tone. She expects to
encourage Washington and the American rebels towards victory and freedom. In this text, she shifts
away from the Statements of Christian piety and embraces the statements of classicism through pagan
themes. The author invokes muses and evokes neoclassical imagery to refer to the grandiose of the
American Nation and Army and its aims of freedom.
7. Discuss Wheatley's attitude to slavery and freedom throughout her poems and in the light of
her letter to Reverend Samson Occom.
Wheatley states, in one of the comments in the letter address to the Reverend Samson Occom, that
craving for freedom it was implanted by God in every human soul, therefore, there is a natural right to
be free. She draws parallelism between Africans and ancient Hebrews, and Americans and modern
Egyptians. According to her thinking American people are in constant contradiction when they claim to
be the nation of freedom but they use slaves as a labour force. This topic is also addressed in her
poems. In the one hand, we can observe in the poem: “On being brought from Africa to America” how
she presents a comparison between Jews and “Negroes” emphasizing their common suffering under
bondage, the former by Egyptians, the latter by Americans. The experience of Jews it is used to raise
hope to get their freedom as they did.
In the other hand, in the poem “To his Excellency General Washington” She reiterates the contradiction
present in America in the verse “the land of the freedom´s heaven-defended race”. She tries to make
noticeable to the nation-to-be how their search for freedom from Britain clashes with slavery.
We can perceive in all these works mentioned, how she appeals to God’s mercy and takes as an
example God´s past actions with other enslaved people, to claim to Christian American people their
right to be free
8. Compare the metre and the rhyme of the three poems and comment on the main differences
between the effect of the heroic couplets and that of the blank verse.
In “On Being Brought To America”, and in “To His Excellency General Washington” P. Wheatley uses
Heroic couplet. This is Iambic pentameters rhyming in pairs. She tries to imítate A. Pope. She applies
this grandiloquent style according to the importance of the matter treated in the poem. Although this is
a rigid style, Wheatley manages to emphasize the terms she wants through alterations of the regular
pattern of the iambic pentameter. Thus, breaking the rhythm and making the poem more emotive.
In the poem “To the University of Cambridge, in New England”, she uses blank verse, which is
rhymeless iambic pentameters. This style is said to be more flexible but actually, it makes the poem
less emotive and more similar to prose, more fluid and also similar to an everyday speech from
educated people. Maybe because in this poem she addresses the students of Cambridge, so unlike in the
other poems she is looking for a sense of closeness.
9. How does the virtue of the female captive in Wheatley's poems compare to that of Mary
Rowlandson?
Mary Rowlandson was captive for a couple of months and during that period she tried to look for
freedom, although she didn’t succeed. In her Narrative tells how difficult it is to be captive and is
thankful to God she is not being sexually assaulted. As time passed she realized that the Natives were
not those brutal savages she thought them to be, although she always retained the colonial mindset. She
had faith that her captivity was going to end at some point and that it was a try she needed to pass so
that she could enjoy eternal life. Bible and religion give her comfort in tough times.
Phillis Wheatley was not free either; she was an African slave searching for freedom in America. She
was a black woman, so she was the epitome of the “Other” – she had to overcome racial, gender and
social obstacles on the way to publication. In a way, she must have felt free when she became a
Christian and found God’s guidance, but she wanted slavery and bondage to end and all of this is
expressed throughout her poetry. While she was a slave she was given many freedoms (e.g. education),
she could not say what she really felt, though. She was bound by the newfound religion and her loyalty
to the Wheatleys who treated her so kindly.
Both Rowlandson and Wheatley were two women who were looking for their freedom, not only in a
physical sense but also in a spiritual one. Both resorted to the Bible to convey their didactic purpose.
10. Link Wheatley's religious references with other moral concerns in the works of authors you
have already studied throughout the American literary tradition.
Wheatley’s poetry shows that she is happy about becoming a Christian and enjoying eternal
redemption. If we take into consideration the importance of religion to Wheatley we can link her to
William Bradford, Mary Rowlandson and Jonathan Edwards. In the writings of the four of them
religion can be considered the main theme and articulates their lives. Without religion, they feel
unprotected and are afraid of not being saved and as consequence of this spending the eternity suffering
in hell. Also, they think that God’s will is what prevails and everything on the Earth is a result of it. The
puritanical strands of religious thought and moral judgment continue to influence, in varying degrees,
the social and political thinking in America.
Equiano and Wheatley were former slaves and wanted to show through their writings it should be
abolished. Both condemned racial prejudice and slavery manifesting a postcolonial-like perspective.
Wheatley’s critiques are less explicit, whereas Equiano’s are more direct. Their works reflect there is
no connection between spiritual darkness and skin colour– they called for freedom (political, artistic
and personal) and equality for everyone.
Study guide questions:
1. To what extent may the tonal shift of the last our lines of “On Being Brought from Africa to
America” cancel the explicit meaning of the first part poem?
Wheatley expresses her gratitude for being introduced to Christianity in the first four lines of her poem
“On Being Brought from Africa to America”. She uses a confessional voice to attract her genteel
audience and admits her pagan origins in Africa and accepts that in America she could understand
“That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too” (line 3). In this way, Wheatley presents a speech very
pleasant with white people, who basically was her whole audience and also who consents slave trade
and racist conducts.
Then, when she has caught the readers in a comfortable position, she rebukes them their discriminative
attitude as Christians to deny black people the possibility of redemption and save their souls, because if
they are descendants of Cain they are also from Adam and Eve, therefore they also are sons of God. So,
the second part of the poem is censorious with the establishment connotations about black people that
some white and Christian people could have in the 18th Century which are in agreement with the first
four lines of the text. So, with this tonal shift, Wheatley cancels the implicit idea of that black people
are inferior because they are pagans and their skin is black. In this manner, she denies explicitly any
connection between spiritual darkness and skin colour, because despite in origin her soul was
“benighted” (line 2), she could “join th' angelic train” (line 8).
2. What subversive messages could be conveyed by the author’s biblical allusions?
In the poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America”, the term “Saviour” can be interpreted both as
“deliverer from sin” and in conjunction with God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery in Egypt.
“Redemption” may refer both to religious salvation and redemption from slavery. “Cain” refers to the
Genesis story. Cain slew his brother Abel and was marked by God so that nobody would kill him. In
the past, this mark has sometimes been taken to be the origin of dark-skinned people.
In the poem “To the University of Cambridge, in New England”, in line 4 “Egyptian gloom” refers to
Exodus: “And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven; and there was a thick darkness in all the
land of Egypt three days”. The name of Ethiopia evoked for the poet’s audience the ancient kingdom
often mentioned in the Bible, a positive racial allusion to her racial identification because, within a
biblical context, it brings to mind Moses’ Ethiopian wife Zipporah, the Queen of Sheba (Sheba being
an Old Testament term for Ethiopia) and other Ethiopians noted for their piety throughout the Bible
(Ebed-Melech, the Ethiopian, in Jeremiah 38 and 39; the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8: 26-39).
3. What are the potential effects of Wheatley’s puns?
Pun is a play on words that have different meanings. Puns can function as a rhetorical device, where
the pun serves as a persuasive instrument for an author or speaker. The pairs “die/dye” and “Cain/cane”
have an identical pronunciation (they are homophones) and the poet is using one spelling to suggest
both meanings.
In “On Being Brought from Africa to America” Wheatley uses colour imagery: “benighted,” “sable”
and she suggests that “black” is “a diabolical die". While emphasizing colour she not only makes race
central to the poem, but also suggests that colour is not intrinsic but rather a social construct -
especially in line 6 with her pun on the word “die” (as in dye). Moreover, since we cannot be sure
whether Wheatley intended for there to be quotation marks around the words “Their colour is a
diabolical die”, Wheatley could be implying that on a literal or moral level, “some” people, namely,
white racist and proponents of slavery are the evil and immoral ones. This becomes clearer if we
remember that more than being African, being Christian was the central concern of hers. Accordingly,
her admonition at the end of the poem is telling of her race, class, and self-consciousness: “Remember,
Christians, Negroes, black as Cain/May be refin’d and join th' angelic train” (7-8). She says that
Africans can be“refined” which may be understood as ‘made white’ (like sugar) and purified and
consequently - go to heaven. Certainly, her chances of exposure to Christianity were limited while in
Africa among her own people. Could her soul have been “benighted” not because of her skin colour but
because she didn't know “That there's a God, that there's a Savior too?” She suggests that with
education and Christianization Africans can achieve equality with whites is both bold and revolutionary
because in the 18th century many did not see Africans as humans, let alone possessing the capability or
souls necessary to be Christians or master the arts and sciences. Wheatley may be also implying that
she did not know Christian religion, but the whites have no excuse for their behaviour.
Her strategy takes the audience from a position of initial confidence and agreement to confusion and
uncertainty to a new ideological position at the end of each poem. Her approach is calculated to make
several complementary points: Christians who support, practice, or even tolerate slavery are guilty of
the basest hypocrisy; it is possible for Africans to be redeemed and become Christians; and, most
importantly, the inability to accept these arguments reflects an inherent moral failing in the reader.
4. To what extent do certain references to the historical context of Wheatley´s texts encourage the
interpretation of the three poems at more than one level?
“On Being Brought from Africa to America”
She shows gratitude for the possibility to live in America and embrace the Christian faith but we can
also perceive some idyllic memories of her African, pagan life. At first, the poem could seem
derogatory to black people but in the second quatrain, she denies any connection between the colour of
the skin and the colour of the soul (she refuses the notion that black people are dammed). So, the poem
can be seen as a celebration of the poet’s “redemption” or a lamentation that she was uprooted.
“To the University of Cambridge, in New England”
We can be conscious that her status as a woman and a slave can suggest if a superficial reading of this
poem is done, that she was ashamed of her blackness. But in fact, she uses the poem to give advice to
university students. She complains about hypocritical Christians who fail to practise what they preach
and points out how, if an African like her who was raised in worst conditions is admonishing them,
they should examine their conscience.
So, the poem can be seen as the assertion of the author’s social inferiority or, alternatively, of her
religious superiority.
“To His Excellency General Washington”
In this poem she shows her pride in the increasing power of America and she addresses pagan forces
like muses or goddesses to help rebels, who are commanded by General Washington, to win the
independence from Britain. But from another perspective, she reflects her uneasiness that her nation
still tolerates slavery “the land of freedom´s heaven defended race!” (line 32). So, the poem can be seen
as an example of nationalistic poetry or as an implicit condemnation of slavery.
5. What possibilities of meaning are opened up by considering the connotations of the term
Ethiop in the poem “To the University of Cambridge, in New England” Remember that
connotations are the implicit meanings associated with a word in addition to its explicit meaning,
or denotation.
Though she was not born in that area of Africa, she has been educated and baptized as a Christian and
she alludes to the African kingdom of Ethiopia, a Christian kingdom that appears in the Bible. This
connects her—a young African-born slave—to the authority inherent in the Bible and makes her voice
(and her message) more powerful. She uses this term to show some proud.
6. How does the paradox in lines 28-30 of the poem “To the University of Cambridge, in New
England” contribute to undermining the surface meaning of the poem?
Paradox is a statement which appears, at first glance, to be self-contradictory, yet which, on closer
examination, reveals an unexpected, valid meaning.
In the sermon-like tone, the slave poet draws a clear distinction between the backgrounds of herself and
the Harvard College students she addresses. Wheatley opens with a statement about how recently she
was brought from Africa, “land of errors.” In contrast, the students have had the benefit and privilege of
studying the world’s best wisdom. However, the poet reminds them that religion stands over science by
calling them “sons of science.” The two major notes that Wheatley strikes repeatedly in the poem are
her race and the urgency of renouncing sin. A devout Christian, she does more than serve as a witness
to God’s mercy and humans’ need for salvation. She testifies to the power and glory of the merciful
God who brought her safely from a dark place; it is possible that she is referring to Africa, but she may
well be referring to the dark slave ship that transported her to America where, though well treated, she
is still enslaved. Again she draws attention to her race and servitude by reminding the students that an
“Ethiop” (African) is warning them that sin leads to ruin and damnation. The biblical references are a
great means to convey her aim (in her times) – by implication, she seems to be leading them to the
conclusion that enslaving fellow humans is a deadly sin.
In Wheatley’s poem, the paradox lies in the circumstance that someone (an African, unschooled
woman) who would be considered socially inferior by most, adopts a position of superiority to
admonish (since the white dominant group is in need of a moral rectification) an -intellectual, socially
privileged, patriarchal- élite. With this paradox, Wheatley highlights the central idea of the poem – the
students should reconcile knowledge with faith; she is telling them to avoid sin and sloth.
7. To what extent do the hyperbolic neoclassical voice and the decorative imagery in the poem
“To His Excellency General Washington” highlight the contrast between Wheatley’s explicit
invocation of America’s glorious struggle for liberty and her implicit evocation of the bondage of
black slaves in “the land of freedom’s heaven-defended race”?
The tone of this poem, adapted to the heroic subject that the author is exalting, illustrates a shift away
from the voices Wheatley used in her former statements of Christian piety. The author here seems to
wholly embrace classicism by her choice of pagan themes and speaks in a hyperbolic neoclassical voice
that both echoed and contributed to the rhetoric of the rebels in the Revolutionary War, an aspect which
won her considerable popularity during that historical period. In her quest for authority or search for
validation, she invokes the muses rather than relying on the biblical prophets who had so deeply
influenced her previous writings. Here again, while evoking the suggestive decorative neoclassical
imagery, she subtly subverts the grandiose aims of her explicit praise by resorting to irony when
referring to America, the country that had enslaved her and still kept under bondage so many people of
African descent, as “the land of freedom’s heaven-defended race”, who are in practice not all
Americans (line 32).
Lines 7 and 8 relate “light” of “heaven” with “night” and “sorrows”, which means that there’s a
contradiction between white and religious people with black and pagan ones. The light ones are
involved in a veil of ignorance, anxious and dreadful national interests and they need to make peace
thanks to Washington’s leadership and the goddess directions that the poetical persona invokes. The
goddess in line 9 means liberty personified, associated with Athena. Eolus is the god of the winds, the
winds of a revolution that make the thick autumnal leaves fall (a reference to Satan’s legions in
Paradise Lost) and “move the warrior’s train”, not militarily for war, but diligently for liberty and
social virtue.
8. What does personifying America as Columbia contribute to the construction of meaning in the
poem “To His Excellency General Washington”? Note that the feminized personification of “the
land Columbus found” became commonplace in the years following the American Revolution.
The feminized personification of "the land Columbus found" became commonplace in the years
following the American Revolution. The name of Columbia was used as early as 1761 to designate
English America as opposed to Britannia.
9. What binary oppositions can you find in the 3 poems? What part of the opposition is favoured?
How are those oppositions reversed? How does that reversal call into question the surface
meaning of the expressions used?
The main binary oppositions in the three poems are: black-white, Pagan-Christian and good-bad (or
evil) where “white”, “Christian”, and “good” are clearly favoured.
However, if we make a deeper read of the poems, we’ll be able to see that those binary oppositions are
reversed at some point through the use of words.
The black VS white opposition can be seen in all the poems, but we’ll take an example from the second
one: “To the University of Cambridge”. Wheatley is addressing the students in Cambridge, who were
all white by then. She talks about mercy and uses religious allusions to convince them. She’s trying to
give them advice on how to be a good Christian. However, almost at the end of the poem, on the 28 th
line, she says: “An Ethiop tells you ‘tis your greatest foe”. She remarks her own skin colour on purpose
to emphasise the attack against the addressees. By reminding them she’s Ethiop, she’s also saying that a
black person is telling them how they should act because they couldn’t know by themselves.
Furthermore, apart from extolling the blacks against the whites, she’s calling the students “stupid” in
some way, as a black person has had to help them. That’s how Wheatley says one thing but means the
opposite one.
The Pagan VS Christian opposition is best seen in the first poem, in which Wheatley is talking to all the
Christians. In only 8 lines, she questions the Christianity of Christians, reminding them how Cain was
forgiven by God. However, she remarks that she was born in a pagan land and, despite that fact, she has
been able to understand that if God forgave Cain, who was supposed to be the progenitor of all
coloured people, blacks could also go to Heaven. She addresses directly to Christians to tell them that
they should not exclude blacks, because God also gave them redemption. “Remember, Christians,
Negroes, black as Cain,//May be refin’d, and join th’angelic train”.
Lastly, the opposition good VS bad (evil) is best seen in the first poem again, in the figure of Cain and
Christianity. Cain was supposed to be a bad person, and Christians are proud of their great humanity
and goodness. However, Wheatley shows how Cain’s “sons” (black people) try to have normal lives
and be happy and Christians discriminate them and treat them as inferiors. In that way, the binary
opposition is reversed completely, being this poem a big affront against whites and Christianity. There
is nothing more evil than denying Heaven to someone, and that’s exactly what Christians do to blacks
so, apparently, they’ve forgotten one of the greatest tenets of Christianity: kindness and goodness.
10. How do intentioned ambiguity and verbal irony function in the three poems?
In “On Being Brought from Africa to America” the word “TWAS” in capital letters followed by
“mercy” refers to a distinction between their mercy and the one from her Pagan land. Her “benighted
soul” was in a state of darkness for not being taught and didn’t understand or ignore salvation, but also
a darkness of blame and sorrow, as they were innocents. Here is a contradiction with “black” as
innocent, not “white”, and it is again contradicted in the verse “their colour is a diabolic die” and in
“black as Cain”, which has the sense of “black = blame”, the first case being only of skin and the
second metaphorical as the dark soul.
In “To the University of Cambridge, in New England”, our textbook says lines 3-6, if extracted from
their context, could suggest that the author accepted the view that slavery was a positive institution
since she professes gratitude for having been rescued from “the dark abodes” of “the land of errors, and
Egyptian gloom”, but we should pay close attention to the ambiguities which appear in lines 12 and 17-
20. In lines 28-30, she points out the paradox of hypocritical Christians who profess to be the
messengers of Christ and yet fail to practise what they preach. She implies that they are in serious need
of moral rectification if an African, that is, a marginal outsider without the privileged educational
resources that the students of Harvard College have, feels compelled to admonish them. She is
persuasively telling the young Harvard men to avoid sin and sloth and to make the most of their
fortunate positions.
In “To His Excellency General Washington”, according to our textbook, while evoking the suggestive
decorative neoclassical imagery, she subtly subverts the grandiose aims of her explicit praise by
resorting to irony when referring to America, the country that had enslaved her and still kept under
bondage so many people of African descent, as “the land of freedom’s heaven-defended race” (line 32).
 UNIT 9 WASHINGTON IRVING (1783-1859)
“Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa”
1. Analyze Washington Irving's concept of "Spanish romance" and consider whether his
explanations provide a good introduction to the theme of the “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de
Hinojosa.”
Irving’s Spanish and Arabian romantic stories of love and war and chivalry, are associated by him with
passages in the "Arabian Nights”. Most of the "Spanish romance” second paragraph is devoted to praise
the exemplary cohabitation of Christians and Muslims in Gothic Spain. Such elements provide a good
introduction to the theme of lofty knights, honor and blessed spirits presented in the story.
2. The introductory remarks to the “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa” are written in an
ingratiating prose style. What kind of audience do you think the author is addressing? Do you
think that this kind of writing might have been prompted by the author's opposition to "the
degeneracy of the present times" which he had already denounced at the age of nineteen? As a
reader, how do you feel about these remarks nowadays?
What stands out most of all is what he accomplished in his short stories. Above all what he did was
help America developing a distinctive and unique literary voice of its own by writing his fiction.
Romantic elements that we see are the way that Irving takes European based legends and archetypes
and re-writes them. Romanticism opposed the rationality of the Enlightenment, meant a turn away from
neoclassicism, and was later opposed by realism.
3. Analyze the plot and setting of the “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa.” Are the
episodes arranged in a chronological manner? When and where do they take place?
The plot and the setting of the “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa” can be divided into two
parts according to the chronology. The first part takes place in Castile during the medieval period. Don
Munio Sancho de Hinojosa is presented as a noble knight who fights to defend Castile against the
Moors Conquest of Spain. The second part of the story takes place several years after the first part and
in Salmanara Don Munio and his nobles were called by the King of Castile in order to fight against the
Moors. In the battle Don Munio is killed and buried in the convent of San Domingo. Furthermore, the
same day when the battle takes place and Don Munio and some knights passed away, in the Holy
Temple at Jerusalem, their spirits appeared to fulfill their vow of pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulcher.
4. Analyse how Don Munio and his wife are portrayed, both as individuals and as types, paying
particular attention to the author's tendency to rely on stereotyped characters. How does Irving
tell the reader about Don Munio and Doña Maria? Does he use the description of their physical
appearance, or does he rather emphasize their actions, thoughts, and emotions?
Physical descriptions are not provided. As a matter of fact, Irving focuses on their actions, thoughts,
and emotions, which really defined how they are, and how they are perceived.
--> Don Munio: strong, brave and honorable knight, prototype of the chivalry code
--> Doña María: fragile, faithful, loyal and dependent.
They do not represent real people, but idealized characters in an idealized world. They are
stereotypical characters who represent the greatest virtues of a Medieval world, rather than individuals.
By using them, Irving tries to recapture ancient virtuous modes of behavior in contrast with American
contemporary ones.
5. Discuss the way in which Irving addressed the practice of telling short stories using as an
example the frame of the “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa”. Note how the frame is
located at the end of the introduction entitled "Spanish Romance" and at the end of the story
itself. Do you think that the author gains distance by his use of this narrative device? What other
reason may have led Irving to present his stories in this kind of frame?
The frame story as a narrative technique was innovative in Ivring’s times. This technique
implies that the author becomes a mediator between the original storyteller and the readers. By using it,
the author not only gains distance and avoids responsibility of the facts presented, but also he feels free
to adapt legends while dispensing with historical accuracy.
In order to make his excerpt more trustworthy, Irving creates a reliable narrator, Fray Prudencio
de Sandoval, who has written the “History of King Don Alonzo VI”, in which the legend of Don Munio
can be found. Irving uses historical materials so that he can create fantasy stories and legends in far-
away time and space. For him, history is just an excuse to imagine a world where knights save ladies,
and the latter died for their men. We must take into account that the States were at that time a young
nation in need of its own myths and legends.
6. Analyse the author's use of the four narrative modes: description (of people, objects, or
geographical settings), report (of actions), speech (either direct or reported) and comment (e.g.
moralizing disquisition or digression). How are the modes articulated? Is there a balance, or are
some modes more important than others?
** DESCRIPTIONS are used to present time (“In old times several hundred years ago”), places (“In
the cloisters of the ancient Benedictine convent of San Domingo, at Silos, in Castile”) , and characters
such as Don Munio, Doña Maria, Abadil and his fiancée. Physical descriptions are not provided. The
pace is quite slow because there are a lot of descriptions which fits very well with the romance because
of the fact that in that reality, etiquette and honor codes used to be followed constantly.
Description is made extensive to what is heard (“he gave a blast that rung through the Forest”), touched
(“Approaching that cavalier, and kissing his hand”), or tasted (“and had viands and dainties of all
kinds”).
Irving sometimes makes explicative descriptions and his mood is calm and unexaggerated (“When not
engaged in warfare, his delight was to beat up the neighboring forests”), but there are other examples of
decorative or ornamental description; for instance, the first paragraph with a detailed description or the
ancient monumental tomb.
** REPORT is mainly marked by the use of action verbs:
-->the battle between Moors and Christians (rally, rush, escape-)
--> the death and the funeral of Don Munio (conquer, attend, erect)
--> the supernatural pilgrimage of the spectres of Don Munio and his army of knights which is
the most extraordinary event in the legend (advance,approach, enter)
The pace is quite slow because there are a lot of events and actions to be reported. Nowadays, as
direct speech is the main tendency, appealing for report so often seems to be too slow. In addition, the
use of descriptive adjectives embedded in the report is constant (“splendor of attire”, “beautiful Moor”,
“magnificent presents”) accentuating even more the slow pace.
** The direct SPEECH, accompanied by a reporting phrase or inquit, predominates in this narration.
The inquit is normally embedded in medial position (it interrupts the speech) in order to remind
significantly the narrator’s presence. It also inverts the word order, which gives more emphasis on the
speech. It can be found an example of inner speech and also some examples of indirect speech (“[…]
When told that […] he told him of […]” “Don Munio Sancho”, said he”), and direct speech (“Alas, my
lord! exclaimed she”). Through the speeches we can learn much about the characters.
** Regarding to the COMMENT, it is the narrative mode that clearly dominates the story, especially at
the end. However, as the comment is made with the narrator's observations and judgments, there is
present through the text with the choice of adjectives and adverbs. So, the aim is to provoke on the
reader a positive or negative attitude towards the characters, as the fictive narrator keeps praising the
virtuous of past actions and behavior. In the last paragraph the narrator comments on the historical
sources and the great value of the legend. The idea is reinforced by the narrator’s comment that “It is
too precious a legend to be lightly abandoned”.
There are some examples of comment considered today as intrusive: for instance, when Doña Maria is
portrayed as “the poor lady”, or the commentary about Don Munio’s generosity (“Such were the
courtesy and generosity of a Spanish cavalier”), and especially at the end , when Don Munio and his
knights arrived in Jerusalem as good Christians (“Such was Castilian faith, in the olden time”).
7. What traces have you found of the author’s tendency to sentimentalize?
Irving slipped into the sentimental when dealing with emotions. He mainly relies on sentimentalism
throughout two important bonds among humans: the marital relationship and friendship. His wife,
Doña María, suffers her husband´s constant absence who undertakes permanent risk in battle. Her grief
is emphasized with her own voice using reported speech on several occasions such as L83, in which she
exclaimed his departure in consternation: “Alas, my lord”. Sentimentalism is also found on descriptive
states of anguish because of the love she professed to her husband and his unbearable death. Another
episode of sentimental remark is the reaction of the Moorish knight when killing Don Munio, which is
also favored by direct reported speech L109: “Woe is me!”. That provides a sorrowful scene of Don
Munio´s death while the reader keeps in mind the marvelous wedding they celebrated together
contrasting with the unfortunate encounter in battle. All these emotional effects show excessive reliance
on the sentimental upon readers to be taken as relievable.
8. Critics have often referred to Irving´s feelings of nostalgia for an idealized past. Can you find
any evidence of the author´s nostalgic mood in the writings you have just read?
Irving attests a personal taste in the old Spanish chronicles. As a romantic writer, he describes exotic
landscapes and their pleasure for the past, particularly for the medieval era. Sentimentalism prevails
over rationalism. His journey throughout Spain was playing an important role in the romantic
imagination. He recognizes his predilection for these subjects in the Spanish Romance introduction.
Irving seems an enthusiastic narrator relating the beauty of the past time, when used to be “noble acts
and generous sentiments” as if those values were forever lost. It was a time of high principles as honor
and chivalry that regulated the respect between two different cultures: Christians and Muslims. They
lived together in spite of fundamental disagreement and periods of war.
Irving exalts an idealized coexistence, a romantic perspective that aims to escape through the power of
imagination from reality.
9. Discuss to what extent the author indulges in romancing throughout the “Legend of Don
Munio de Hinojosa”.
Irving explicitly affirms that he enjoys “romancing”, that is to say, telling stories that are not true
because legends are described in a way that make it sounds better than the original story. This reflects
the romanticist interest for the past preferring the medieval rather than the classical. The movement
emphasized intense emotion including apprehension and horror. Irving creates a world of dreams apart
from the factual realities of the present. In Don Munio’s legend, he includes the pilgrimage episode as
weird phenomena to introduce hope, illusion and mystery after the misfortunate events.
10. How does Irving’s style compare to the plain style of the Puritans? Do you find his polished
style graceful and elegant, or too ornate and artificial? How does the author’s refined style
contribute to the creation of a particular atmosphere?
Puritan plain style intends to transmit an important moral message; Irving’s style is not such a plain
one, but it is ornate and artificial because he wanted to write an idealized story, and for that purpose, he
had to create a world of fantasy. So, he used an ornamental style to create a certain atmosphere, through
diction (he uses words about war, court, emotions and feelings) and imagery, which evokes an idealized
place, shows the hardness of the battle, an unbelievable apparition in Jerusalem and the sorrow of the
death.
11. How does Irving’s literary representation of violence contrast with those other examples?
How would you define his concept of war? Does he try to present it in a realistic way, or does he
prefer to idealize and glorify it?
“Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa” involves a captivity narrative; in this work, captives are
treated as guests of honour.
This Spanish legend was used to expose Irving’s preferences. He appeals to the readers’ response to
convince them of the story’s values, which are based, mainly, on courteous behaviour. This story
contrasts real wars between American Natives and European colonists or between Americans and
British; Irving’s work presents a magic and ideal portrait of past wars as models which should be
imitated.
 12. “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa” does not end in a happy-ever-after manner.
What do readers get instead of a happy ending? What is the effect? What kind of feelings does
the author want his audience to experience when they finish reading the tale? May readers
conclude that the writer has played with their expectations? Are there any hints at the beginning
of the story that allow readers to anticipate its ending?
In Tales of the Alhambra, Irving left aside historical writing to adopt the genre of the Sketch Book,
which combined personal observations and folkloric stories.
Romance genre was born in the medieval era, a period in which people’s lives were conditioned by the
chivalry honour code and ladies were saved by knights. We can found all these features in the “Legend
of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa”: Don Munio is a knight whose main aim in life is to defend
Castile; Doña María and Abadil’s fiancée depend completely on their men to survive; the fragment of
the apparition of Don Munio and his knights in Jerusalem to achieve their promise of pilgrimage is
useful to idealize even more the end of the story, whose main purpose is transmit the readers that
honour and faith are key and stronger than death.
13. In his youth, Washington Irving wrote witty parody and bold satire, and often displayed a
rather irreverent kind of burlesque humour with which the author often amused his audience.
Later on, he developed a gentler and more subtle humour, of which you will find an instance in
his description of the Spaniards of his time, compared and contrasted with other contemporary
Europeans. Comment on the humour of this particular passage from “Spanish Romance”, and
then explain why no comic aspects are to be found in the story that follows.
In the passage of “Spanish Romance” in which the author describes the Spaniards of his time,
compared and contrasted with other contemporary Europeans, we could say that it exists irony, a subtle
humour but also a burlesque tone in the comments. First, he recognizes the Spaniards’ faults and he
adds that “they are many”. Then, he emphasizes that they are “the most high-minded and proud-spirited
people of Europe”, which it could be considered as positive traits if it was not because he follows
saying that this sense of pundonor is carrying beyond the bounds of sover sense. We can guess some
subtle humour and maybe irony when he finally says that although sometimes these personality traits
often kept they in indigence, ever protected they from vulgarity.
However, in the “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa” there is no comic aspects. The reason is
that the narrator keeps praising the virtues of past actions and behaviour between two distinct,
sometimes hostile, communities, the Christian and Moslem.
14. In Irving’s time, many works of fiction were presented to readers as if they were truthful
narratives told by alleged reliable narrators. Irving often reversed the procedure, and turned
history into fiction. How does he use history in the story you have read? How does he deal with
the issue of the reliable narrator? Is he interested in appearing trustworthy? Does he perceive
history as progress? In what ways does he differ from other American writers who had
previously used historical materials?
Irving uses history in the story in many ways. First, he assures that It exists the monuments of the
chivalrous family of Hinojosa in the cloisters of the ancient Benedictine convent of San Domingo, at
Siles. Then he concretely refers to the figure of a knight and tells the existence of a “sculptured” relief
on the sides of his tomb. Finally, he connects the real sculpture to the “Legend of Don Munio Sancho
de Hinojosa”, the story.
A reliable narrator is one whose statements of fact and judgement are invested with narrative authority,
and therefore are accepted by the reader without question. In the story, the narrator begins telling us
that it exits the tomb of the knight and in this way Irving deals with the issue of the reliable narrator to
make the excerpt more trustworthy. Besides, Irving creates a reliable narrator, Fray Prudencio de
Sandoval, who had written The History of King Don Alonso VI .
The main difference between Irving and other authors is that the latter use historical materials to
present the side of the history they are defending. However, Irving uses historical materials so that he
can create fantasy stories and legends in far-away time and space in order to satisfy his own and his
audience’s craving for new sights and sensations.
15. To what extent do the text you have read illustrate Irving’s aversion to both eighteenth-
century rationalism and nineteenth-century materialism? Why do you think that the author,
while opposing these two tendencies, managed to achieve the popular success that turned his
literary career into such a profitable business?
First, let’s to define the concepts. Rationalism can be defined as the belief that Knowledge of the world
can be obtained primarily through the reason, so that logic leads to truth. Rationalism was opposed by
Empiricism.
Materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter of energy. Irving romanticism has nothing in
common with both of these approaches. In fact, Irving’s work displays the transition from
neoclassicism to romanticism and combines elements of both movements in order to arouse intense and
uncommon emotions, the artist’s imagination dwells in remote settings far away in time and in space,
often even escaping from its material environmental into a world of fantasy.
Although his fiction is the result of lots of borrowing from European sources, Irving made his
storytelling unique by incorporating his sardonic voice transforming himself into a literary celebrity.
Sardonic:The attitude to people or things is humorous but rather critical.
The author, while opposing these two tendencies, managed to achieve the popular success that turned
his literary career into such a profitable business. Rationalism is a view appealing to reason as a source
of knowledge or justification, and materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter or energy.
Irving's romanticism has nothing in common with both of these approaches; he was interested in
idealized worlds and fantasy. Although his fiction is the result of lots of borrowing from European
sources, Irving made his storytelling unique by incorporating his sardonic voice to his work, making it
distinctive and also transforming himself into a literary celebrity.
 UNIT 10 JAMES FENIMORE COOPER (1789 - 1851)
The Last of the Mohicans
1. Analyse the author's use of the narrative modes of description and report. How are these two
modes articulated? Is there a balance between them, or is one more important than the other?
The author makes a fine point of being descriptive, ranging from the type of trees passing by the color
and distinct hues of and Indian's skin. Moreover, Cooper has great concern for visual accuracy and
intensity in his narrative description, and he skilfully unifies vivid descriptions with the report of fast-
paced actions in order to achieve color and suspense.
Report, which is the essential mode of fiction, is chiefly marked by the use of action verbs. The
importance given to action somehow explains the novel’s appealing to a male reading audience,
especially when considering that most of it is concerned with saving two maidens from being killed,
and also liable to be raped.
Description includes not only the presentation of things that can be seen, but also those that can be
heard; for example, when Magua begins yelling the appalling Indian war whoop, which triggers the
Indians attack to the English, slaughtering them and drinking their blood. Another acoustic description
takes place when the scout shoots his weapon and “poured out its contents” killing Magua. The vivid
description makes the reader listen the blast and the Indian falling into the abysm.
2. Analyse the author's use of the narrative modes of speech and comment.
This novel is written in third person omniscient, meaning the narrator allows to see the characters'
thoughts and feelings as well as actions.
Direct speech is present at Cooper’s text. Although reduced to the minimum, it does have the virtues of
simplicity and clarity, both of which are appropriate for his plot, setting, and characters. It helps to
develop the character that represents. The dialogue between Cora and Magua exemplifies the woman’s
courage, and the spoken by Uncas and Magua or the cry of the imploring Heyward serves the purpose
of depicting the Indians under the dichotomy of “noble savages” or “risky devils”.
Although comment is not absent from Cooper’s narration, the use of it is in essence intrusive. It is
remarkable, for example, in his portrayal of the Hurons: the adjectives used for Magua and the Hurons
are an example of narrative intrusiveness because these characters are negatively presented and
condemned.
3. The Last of the Mohicans is by far Cooper's bloodiest novel. Analyse his literary treatment of
the scene paying close attention to the particularly cruel brutality Cooper attributes to the
“blood-thirsty savages.”
Firstly, this is the bloodiest section of the novel and its outlines are a matter of history, though Cooper
gives the instigation of it to Magua as part of his revenge.
Secondly, the contrast between savagery and civilized conduct is obvious, Mohicans presents the
essence of Cooper’s contrasting elements: “the good Indian and the bad, the dark Maiden and the fair,
the genteel lover and the harsh one.
Finally, in chapter XVIII the scenes represent the inhuman and the bloody and even reaffirm the tacit
representation of the animal that uses violence as a way of life to survive.
4. Compare the massacre of Fort William Henry with the slaughter carried out by the
Narragansetts during the Lancaster raid, according to Mary Rowlandson's narrative (Unit 4).
Cooper, apart from using other sources, was profoundly influenced both by authentic captivity accounts
such as Rowlandson's and by fictional re-elaborations which adopted the main conventions of the
genre. In the early Puritan narratives, all the events were not the result of unexplained chaos but part of
a divine plan and their publication was an act of Christian duty.
Mary Rowlandson’s narrative provides examples for typological identification on the community level.
Consequently, the captive is seen as a representative of Christians among barbarians. Demonic animal
imagery is also represented by Mary Rowlandson’s description of her captors as “ravenous Beasts,” ”a
company of Sheep torn by Wolves, and hell-hounds,” or as “roaring Lyons, and Salvage Bears”.
By the nineteenth century, however, what basically, remained was a total and almost incomprehensible
violence (often depicted for commercial purposes) which filled readers with a burning hatred of the
Native Peoples. Cooper's frontier novels focus on the issue of his literary treatment of Native
Americans. In The Last of the Mohicans, the author established the stereotyped image of the Indian
warrior.
Throughout the novel, the Indian allies of the English are depicted as noble savages, whereas the Indian
allies of the French are called “demons of hell,” “risky devils “children of the devil, “barbarous actors”
and “monsters of the band”. One horrific and standard captivity image is the baby dashed against a rock
or tree or otherwise killed in a gruesome manner. This dramatic event is a common staple in the
captivity tradition.
5. Analyse the literary treatment of Cora’s death, taking into account that her own sense of
fatality may have precipitated her sacrifice. Examine the various elements that contribute to the
melodramatic effect of the scene on the rocky ledge, noting how the language of the defiant
maiden may have a share in bringing about her death. Do you think that, as some critics have
suggested, the author wanted to imply that it was partly her own fault that she died? Remember
that captivity narratives stressed the protagonists’ survival skills and their ability to facilitate
their rescue. Bear in mind also the issues of miscegenation and race relations in general, which
Cooper’s contemporary readers did not fail to notice in the novel, and some of them even
commented on censoriously. An early reviewer commented in 1826: “Cora is quite a bold young
woman, and makes rather free, we think, with the savages. This, probably, she felt the better title
to do, in respect of the dark blood which flowed in her own veins.”
Cora would rather die than become Magua’s wife, so when she feels that there is no hope, she is
determined to follow her thoughts. She says she will not go further and makes her choice, though she
knows it is death. Cora is courageous, brave, determined, she is nothing like her sister, who is weak and
useless, but it is Cora who dies. Cora descents from a West Indian, though she is Colonel Munro’s
daughter her racial heritage stigmatizes her in some way. Her attraction to Uncas is another factor for
her literary death. There was no way that the union between Uncas, an Indian, and Cora should have
been accepted by Cooper’s contemporary readers, it was more acceptable that she died as the brave
heroine, rather than a marriage with Uncas.
6. In the last climatic scene, Cooper intensifies the tragic consequences of the attraction between
Uncas and Cora. Analyse their relationship as shown in the last scene, noting how “the last of the
Mohicans” is dangerously driven towards Magua by his eagerness to save his beloved Cora, and
how her death affects his frame of mind in the struggle.
When Uncas sees that Magua threatens Cora, he rushes to save her, but his apparition precipitates her
death by one of Magua’s men. Uncas loses his mind and is killed by Magua, who is mad himself by
Cora’s death. This is the climax of the novel. The opposing forces are brought into tragic confrontation,
and the final pursuit is ended. Both, “Good” and “Bad” Indians are perceived as unable to become
acculturated or “civilized” because they are seen as radically different from Euro-Americans and
hopelessly unequal. The death of Uncas is also the only way that his love story with Cora could end.
Though Cora had black ancestors, she was the daughter of Colonel Munro, there was no possibility that
she could marry Uncas, an Indian, though he was a “good” Indian, he was a savage, there was no place
for him in the new American civilization. Their love was doomed since the society would not accept
their union. The death of both characters is the natural end that their relationship could have. The
readers could feel sadness for the love that Uncas and Cora could not consummate, but only because
they were death.
7. Echoes of Milton’s Paradise Lost have been perceived in the satanic Magua, who is compared
to “the Prince of Darkness”, brooding on his own fancied wrongs and plotting evil.” Cooper’s
extensive use of Miltonic allusion proves that the English poet provided him with a model to
depict Magua with the grandeur of the Fallen Angel. Compare and contrast the death of Uncas
on a hill top (after an ascent toward the upper world, like so many heroes of ancient myth) and
that of Magua plummeting a thousand feet to destruction after having been shot (like the descent
of a diabolical figure into hell). Note the spatial coherence in the presentation of each death scene.
Echoes of Milton’s Paradise Lost have been noticed in the satanic Magua, who is compared to “the
Prince of Darkness”, who besides being a gothic trickster, invokes the epic stature of Paradise Lost and
the Bible.
Cooper’s extensive use of Miltonic allusion proves that the English poet provided him with a model of
Satan for Magua who as the stereotypical Satanic Indian thirsty for the white man’s blood in revenge
for the losses inflicted on him and his people and arch villain in the text “rules his subordinate devils
through cunning and oratory and consistently stands apart from both the more low-minded and the
more thoughtlessly ferocious savages”.
Epic confrontation between Uncas as a Noble Savage and Magua as a Satanic Indian takes on the
significance of a mythic struggle in which the Noble Savage dies on the mountain top, therefore goes to
heaven in contrast to Magua who perishes in the abysm and goes to hell.
It has been shown that Cooper follows the British Romantics based on something existed beyond the
physical world. He eventually commits Satan’s sin by deifying his own values and demonizing the
other against which he rebels.
8. How does Cooper characterize Magua? In other words, how are Magua's characteristics
conveyed?
As an antagonistic character seen mostly from across the line of conflict, Magua is yet one of the best
developed ones in the novel. Magua is a constant threat, motivated by revenge, a man of great strength
and cunning. He is an individual in his own right, pursuing his personal cruelty and desires, but he is
also representative. As such, he embodies the salient attributes of evil, yet he is not merely evil. Within
his way of life, he has a worthy ambition to reinstate himself with his people, to regain a chance to lead
an existence that to him is noble and right. His real attitude toward Cora is revealed when finally he is
unable to kill her, and his immediate attack on the man who does stab her to death. Since Magua, who
represents the evil Indian, is not all bad, he prevents us against a too easy assumption that Cooper
invariably separates his Indians into the good and the bad.
9. Taking into account the excerpts you have read, how do you think the author tried to assert his
masculinity (presenting himself as a respectable gentleman) and at the same time attract a male
audience?
In Cooper's time, many American male readers did not respect the novel as a genre because they
considered it "feminine.".
The Last of the Mohicans represents a curious blending of factual history with romantic fiction, using
conventions of several literary genres such as the captivity narrative, historical romance, and the epic
tradition. Cooper unifies the descriptions with the report of fast-paced actions in order to achieve
suspense and colour in the story. The importance given to action somehow explains the novel’s lure to
a male reading audience,
10. Washington Irving has often been contrasted with James Fenimore Cooper, whose narrative
voice conveys a more powerful self-assurance and whose writings have always been considered
more combative, “solid, robust and athletic.” Although both writers were for a time expatriate
American celebrities in Europe, and both were influenced by Sir Walter Scott, in many ways
Cooper appears as the antithesis of Irving. Compare the stylistic features of their writings paying
attention to the ways in which they use the four narrative modes. You may also comment on how
Irving and Cooper deal with the war theme in the passages you have read.
When comparing both works Irving’s “Legend of Don Munio Sancho de Hinojosa” and Cooper’s “The
Last of the Mohicans” chapter XXXII, we can perceive that the description of time, place and objects
at Irving’s work is not extensive. Details are provided to suit the purpose of the story (lines 1- 10).
Although characterization is not deep, seems to be more detailed than the rest of the descriptive
components. There is not physical or emotional description of the characters, they are depicted by their
possessions, their nature, their actions and the social rank they hold (lines 11-16; 18-27;1-39). On the
other hand, we find in Cooper’s work a more vivid an intense description of the landscape, the actions
and the objects. However, the characterization is also stereotyped, since it falls on the idealized
dichotomy of the “Good Indians” represented by Uncas and Chingachgook; and the “Bad Indians”
represented by Magua. Captain Heyward represents the romantic hero and Alice, is the weak maiden to
be saved. There is no physical description either.
The focus seems to be on the report of actions, since these happen one after the other without much
delay. They are also used to describe characters’ attitude (lines 69-71, Irving; 54-55 Cooper). In
addition, Cooper unifies the descriptions with the report of fast-paced actions in order to achieve
suspense and colour in the story; while Irving includes some adjectives – that may belong to the
descriptive mode- in the report of actions, such as “powerful” in line 105, “beautiful” in line 45 or
“good” in line 58.
Regarding the speech, most of it is direct and it functions to help to fit the character in the stereotype
that represents. Abodil and Don Munio are knights and they speak as knights (lines 50-57). And Doña
Maria expresses herself as the fearful wife (lines 59-62). The register is formal, the diction is lofty and
the syntax is complex. In lines 40-41 and 47-49 we can find examples of inner indirect speech, and
indirect speech respectively. Direct speech is also present at Cooper’s text, but reduced to the
minimum and it helps to develop the character that represents, since the language spoken by Cora is
articulated (lines 16, 18, 28) and the one spoken by the Indians is almost intelligible (lines 14, 15, 25,
29, 30, 74-75).
According to the comment, we can see clearly that predominates at the end of the Irving’s story (line
160-161). However, since the comment is made with the narrator’s evaluations, observations and
judgements; we can also appreciate its use through the text by the author’s choice of adjectives and
adverbs. In this way the author is provoking on the reader a positive or negative attitude towards the
characters. For instance, the selection of adjectives by Irving in line 12: “noble” and in line 58: “good”
to describe Don Munio and the one chosen by Cooper at line 67: “honest” to describe Gamut. This
narrative mode is encrusted in the depiction of Don Munio, Doña Maria and Abadil and especially at
the end of the excerpt, when Don Munio and his knights arrived in Jerusalem as good Christians.
Comment is not absent from Cooper’s narrator besides being intrusive. For example, in his portrayal of
the Hurons; the adjectives used for Magua and the Hurons are an example of narratorial intrusiveness:
these characters are negatively presented and condemned.
Irving’s style is ornate and artificial because his purpose was to write an idealized story, in other words,
a romance. Therefore, he needed to create a fantasy world, a world which sounds to the reader far away
and unreachable, and the better way to do it is to over-ornament it. The imagery evokes an idealized
place of Castile, the toughness of the battlefield, but the battle happens in the name of loyalty, nobility
and faith. There is glorification in battle and no violent images are shown in the plains of Salmanara.
The historical background of Cooper’s novel is the clash between the French and the English for
colonial control of the land. Without doubt, the novel is one of the bloodiest in America literature. It
presents passages of total and almost incomprehensible violence never linked to religious explanations.
That tragic bloodshed stems from the fact that, in general historic background and dramatic fictional
foreground, human beings are involved in a concept of progress that irresistibly pushes the frontier
westward.
Study guide:
1. What struck you first when you read these passages? Did they remind you of something else?
The ponderous, ornate prose and inflated diction. The violent massacre of Fort William Henry. The
violent behaviour of the savages. Some similar texts, such as Mary Rowlandson's account of the assault
on Lancaster.
2. What people are depicted and what objects are described in these passages?
Fenimore Cooper does not give much information upon the characters' thoughts or motivations. The
action is more important. The interpretation of what the characters do and say is limited. Unca is brave,
protector and defiant, Cora determined and strong willed, Magua is defiant, cruel and threatening,
Heyward is terrified and naive.
3. What textual elements contribute to the visual accuracy of the first passage? How important is
the only reference to color to be found in this passage?
“But, as the female crowd approached them, the gaudy colors of a shawl attracted the eyes of a wild
and untutored Huron. He advanced to seize it without the least hesitation.”
“The savage spurned the worthless rags, and perceiving that the shawl had already become a prize to
another, his bantering but sullen smile changing to a gleam of ferocity,”
“At that dangerous moment, Magua placed his hands to his mouth, and raised the fatal and appalling
whoop”
“They who heard it listened with a curdling horror at the heart, little inferior to that dread which may be
expected to attend the blasts of the final summons”
“The flow of blood might be likened to the outbreaking of a torrent; and as the natives became heated
and maddened by the sight, many among them even kneeled to the earth, and drank freely, exultingly,
hellishly, of the crimson tide.”
4. What actions or events are reported in the two passages?
The two excerpts from chapter 17 and 32 represent the two climaxes of The Last of the Mohican, one at
the very center of the novel and the other at the end of it. The scene of the massacre, in which the
Hurons slaughtered hundreds of retreating English soldiers and civilians, concluded the first volume of
the original 1826 edition. The final climactic scene of chapter 32 narrates the unsuccessful attempt to
rescue Cora, who has become Magua's object of desire, and Uncas's death which signifies the end of
the Mohicans.
5. How does the writer use the narrative mode of comment throughout the passages? How does
he reveal his personal attitude through this piece of fiction?
At the beginning of chapter XVIII, the author refers to his portrayal of "the massacre of William
Henry" as "the bloody and inhuman scene rather incidentally mentioned than described, in the
preceding chapter." The imagery within this sentence really set up the setting. Cooper uses comments
in order to allow the reader to go beyond the literal meaning of the story.
Cooper’s use of comment is in essence intrusive, he uses derogative adjectives in order to present and
condemn some characters and situations. Instead of saying things in simple terms, comments help him
to accomplish his themes giving the reader the setting and more information about the stories.
6. What is the dominant narrative mode in both passages? Is it description, report, speech or
comment?
Although he uses the four narrative modes in both passages, report and description dominate the text.
The focus seems to be on the report of actions, since these happen one after the other without much
delay. Cooper narrates a story of contact between cultures where multiple intersect. In Cooper’s work
can be found a vivid and intense description of the landscape, the actions and the objects. We learn
about the characters as the novel progresses through the speech, descriptions, and sometimes intrusive
narrator’s comments.
7. What binary oppositions do the passages suggest? Consider both concrete and abstract
features (e.g. light vs. darkness, frailty vs. strength).
Throughout the novel Cooper explores the interracial relationships between Indians and whites and
how these relationships have caused many of the characters to lose a place in their culture and even
brought entire races, such as the Mohican tribe, to extinction. Binary Oppositions, such as pure blood
versus mixed blood, noble Indian versus savage Indian, and forest versus civilization are also apparent
throughout this novel. More extensive evidence of the way in which the meeting of disparate cultures is
the characters' relationships to one another—dark-skinned Cora versus fair-white Alice, savage Mangua
versus civilized Heyward, pagan versus Christian — The Last of the Mohicans is worthy of study
because of its unique fictional emphasis on the convergence of black, Indian, and white peoples, a
cross-cultural contact that highlights key concerns such as integration, land and ecology, and identity,
in the American imagination.
8. What is the unified effect or overall impression produced by the passages when you reread
them closely, analyzing how their elements are woven together? What is most disturbing about
them?
When reading The Last of the Mohicans, we must be aware that the historical backgrounds have been
adapted to the narrative's needs. The word "last" in the title correctly describes the fate not only of the
Mohicans, but also of the other tribes whose land and lives give way before the force of westward
expansion. The text provides a doubled image of both demonic and noble "savages" within a captivity
narrative replete with miscegenation anxiety, producing a powerful site upon which the notion of the
nation can be built. It evokes the doctrine of predestination. In the America of the early nineteenth
century, the other, that is the not-American, was easily established by his or her non-white color.
Cooper's act of narrative recovery pulls from the colonial conflict the seeds of a nation's obsession with
its bloodlines.
9. What is the theme of the passages?
The Last of the Mohicans, is a historically-based work about the French and Indian War, which
concerns the captivity and rescue of two colonial women taken deep into the woods by Indians.
Cooper's novel, replete with menacing Indians dashing a baby against a tree and doing other cruel
deeds, is a continuation of the extreme violence already established in the much earlier captivity
narratives of Rowlandson, Dustan, and other captivity tales. And, of course, the work contains saved
and doomed ladies. The fair Alice is saved in the novel to be wed to the handsome Major Heyward,
implying continuation of the white race. In contrast, the dark Cora, in love with Uncas, is killed by
Native Americans. Cast as the tragic mulatta, Cora's death suggests the non-viability of miscegenation
within the new republic. And the death of Uncas portends the doom of Native American society as a
whole.
10. What were the audience's expectations about this theme when the book was first published?
Can you explain why this text became so popular and influential?
In terms of the later form of the Western, The Last of the Mohicans contains two elements that would
become quintessence of the form: the chase (which in Cooper's case is prolonged and occupies in its
various stages a great portion of the novel) and the duel or shooting competition as a means to prove
skill and bravery. Herein is the big pattern of the book, based upon the suspenseful technique that
Cooper made famous in novel after novel: pursuit-capture-escape-and-pursuit. He attempts to entertain
his nineteenth-century reader with the elements of improvised adventure and of current sentimental
love novels.
Most significant, however, Cooper produced one of the most enduring characters in American
literature, Natty Bumppo (Hawkeye). Hawkeye is one of the first, and perhaps still one of the most
prominent, examples of the frontier hero. The appeal of the novel is not due alone to the fascinating
story unfolded. It comes from the character of Hawkeye himself, the ideal hero, a messianic mythic
hero who is also a recognizable man and prototypical “White Indian”.
 UNIT 11 RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803 - 1882)
Nature
1. Discuss the feelings expressed by the author in his introduction to Nature, paying attention to
his increasingly hopeful tone.
The tone of a text is the reflection of the author's attitude both to the theme and to the reader. In the two
initial sentences of his introduction to Nature, Emerson seems to scornfully dismiss his own era, but
then he proceeds to hold out hope. He poses rhetorical questions in which he claims that this era does
not have an original relation with the universe and the poetry and philosophy are a continuation of the
past.
However, he encourages his readers to make some introspective look and analyze their new and
original thoughts. Emerson states that each individual is a manifestation of creation and as such holds
the key to unlocking the mysteries of the universe. Emerson identifies nature and spirit as the
components of the universe. Nature, too, is both an expression of the divine and a means of
understanding it.
2. Emerson believed that every person was capable of direct access to the Universal Soul.
Comment on this major thesis of the essay, expressed in the first paragraph of its introduction.
He wanted to have an original relation to the universe, focused on the development of individual human
beings, each containing the whole of creation within himself in the present time. He needs to find out
answers by himself instead of believing what he is told. No idea could be more American than this
rejection of the past for the discoveries of the present.
3. Discuss the passages that specifically exemplify the author's love of nature not "in its
philosophical import," but "in the common sense."
Unitarians had always exalted the study of nature as a way to admire God's creation. Emerson's early
relationship with nature had a religious character which later tended toward secularization but never
lost the spiritual tenor of his upbringing. AS he became increasingly dissatisfied with certain aspects of
Christianity, he developed his early interest in natural science. For Emerson nature refers to essences
unchanged by man and also a kind of mirror which reflects back to the people the truths which lie in
their own minds. Being a lover of nature means that his inward and outward senses are truly adjusted to
each other. He is extending the definition of nature to anything which humans may make of it. In other
words, the "artificial" is actually "natural" since he finds the essence of all material essentially
unchanged by our actions.
4. Amos Bronson Alcott wrote about Nature: "It is the production of a spiritualist, subordinating
the visible and outward to the inward and invisible. Nature becomes the transparent emblem of
the soul." Comment on Alcott's remark in the light of what you have read about and by
Emerson.
Emerson attempts to show the meaning of Nature to the minds of men. He highlights the bond between
a person's mind/emotions and nature. He frequently stresses that going into nature to find its beauty is
futile. Its beauty is to be glimpsed as one works, not specifically sought. A life which is lazy or trivial
cannot create the vision which truly makes nature shine in all its glory.
5. An anonymous critic wrote in 1838: “We would call all those together who have feared that the
spirit of poetry was dead, to rejoice that such a poem as Nature is written. It grows upon us as we
reperuse it. It proves to us that the only true and perfect mind is the poetic.” Comment on the
poetic qualities of Nature and on the way Emerson constructs himself as a poet throughout the
passages you have read.
In the introduction the second sentence builds an anaphora for the third one: they share the same
structure (It + verb + Direct Object). There is a visual descriptive image in “the foregoing generations
beheld God and nature face to face” that extends when adding “we, through their eyes”. Another
anaphora in he next two sentences: “Why should not we…”. Feelings are exalted with words like
“enjoy” and the mystical words “poetry”, “insight”, “religion” and revelation” are mentioned. The
poetic I (more specifically, the poetic “we”) is confronted and much more preferred to “their” because
the goal is to unite compromised and energetic new people. Visual image in “embosomed for a season
in nature, whose floods of life stream around and through us”. We could also consider the Agent
function of Nature here and along the essay as a poetic device because it is considered a living being
with her own will. There is a rhetorical question and a metaphor in “why should we grope among the
dry bones of the past” (referring to past generations and its out of date tradition), followed by another
metaphor in “or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe” (maybe referring
to have an old fashioned lust that does not belong to new generations). In the sentence “the sun shines
to-day also” there is an emphatic image with the word “today” which works also as a pun, with the
implicit meaning of “to day” (the light, the new generations, the action), not “to night” (the dark, the
old generations, the nostalgia). Another visual image that cosifies work is “wool” and “flax”. There is
an enumeration with an asyndeton (omission of necessary conjunctions) in “there are new lands, new
men, new thoughts” followed by a contrastive polysyndeton (addition of unnecessary conjunctions) in
“let us demand our own works and laws and worship”, which is a command that gives a sense of
continuity, a new present flow for nouns of cohesive actions compared with the more static and isolated
nominals, showing a will of union.
There are many more following examples of figurative and poetic language, but we should move to
Emerson’s poetic image. This image is certainly evident in the beginning of “Chapter 1. Nature” when
in the second sentence the author says, “I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with
me.” He says: “It is this which distinguishes the stick of timber of the wood-cutter, from the tree of the
poet. The charming landscape which I saw this morning, is indubitably made up some twenty or thirty
farms. (…) There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the
parts, that is, the poet”, which gathers two purposes in one: to show how the poetic vision contrasts
with the owner one, and to associate himself with this poetic vision and contrast himself from “most
persons who do not see the sun”. When he says, “I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration” and continues
explaining his mystical ecstasy and compares himself with an “eye-ball”, that he is nothing and sees all,
that he is a particle of God, is something really usual in many mystical poets; although it can seem so
strange for other people. There is a natural image and paradoxical personal view in “the waving of the
boughs in the storm, is new to me and old. It takes me by surprise, and yet is not unknown.”
6.-Indicate any evidence you can find throughout Nature that he wrote in forceful language,
pointing out any passages you consider particularly provocative. Note, for instance, the broad
dismissive sweep at the very beginning.
At the beginning, Emerson get the readers’ attention with the sentences “Our age is retrospective” and
“the foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we through their eyes”. Both sentences
are provocative. He tries to make their audience think about their doctrines, their laws, their faith. Then,
he asks why they do not search their own beliefs, instead of going on with the foregoing generations’.
And he encourages to do it “Let us demand our own works and laws and worship”. His statements are
direct, he expresses his opinions in a harsh manner “We are now so far from the road to truth, that
religious teachers dispute and hate each other, and speculative men are esteemed unsound and
frivolous”. He advises his readers to turn away from the "dead" letters and toward nature.
7. To what extent is this essay a critique of "the establishment"? To what degree does Emerson
encourage his audience to construct a new national identity free from the debilitating burden of
the past?

He sets aside all technology, institutions, books, and the entire “establishment" to focus on the
development of individual human beings, each containing the whole of creation within himself in the
present time. Emerson draws heavily on ideas from the past, especially Platonism, but he definitely
gives them his own spin.
In this essay Emerson places in doubt “the establishment”, doctrines, laws, beliefs… and focus on the
development of individual humans being and their contact with nature. He thinks that nature is like a
mirror that reflects back to the people the truths which lie in their own minds. Being a lover of nature
means that his inward and outward senses are truly adjusted to each other. Emerson’s purpose was to
rethink “the establishment” and built their own beliefs.
8. Analyse the central metaphor of Nature, an original and compelling ocular image, which is the
most quoted phrase of the essay: "I become a transparent eye-ball."
Emerson consciously used metaphors as a medium of cognition, and in order to make them really
striking, he sometimes resorted to grotesque extravagance. He repeats the word "eye" six times in the
passages you have read, and that it is sometimes a pun for "I" because this essay is about how to see
nature through our "eyes" and through our "selves."
Here he is trying to put into words an inexpressible mystical union with the universe/Spirit which he
feels, losing his individual identity in this momentary sense of wholeness when he is "transparent" and
an "eye" (I)"ball" (the perfect sphere, perfect unity).
In the central metaphor of the essay “I become a transparent eye-ball”, he describes himself as a
transparent eye/I ball, the perfect sphere which gives him a sense of wholeness. He depicts a mystical
experience, in which he attained a feeling of oneness with the divine.
9. How close is Emerson to pantheism when he claims that the universe is God?
Pantheism is a religious belief that includes the entire universe in its idea of God. A person who
follows the religious doctrine of pantheism believes that God is all around us, throughout the whole
universe. So, Emerson is very close to pantheism, because he says that the heavenly bodies are sublime
and explains that when he is in the woods, he return to reason and faith and he feels that he is part or
particle of God. He saw God as an abstract power or all-pervading spirit which is within everyone and
everything rather than as a person-like deity.
10. Recent critics have examined Emerson's recurrent use of meteorological discourse. Analyse
the weather imagery used throughout the passages from Nature.

Emerson insists on watching the natural spectacles displayed perpetually around us, because he
believes that Nature is a kind of mirror which reflects back to us the truths which lie in our own minds.
He depicts some weather imagery, such as crossing a bare common with snow, at twilight, under a
clouded sky as a kind of mystical ecstasy in which he had enjoyed a perfect exhilaration; or the waving
of the boughs in the storm that produce to him a higher thought or a better emotion. He thinks that “the
power to produce that delight, does no reside in nature, but in man, or in a harmony oh both”. As he
says, “the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul”.

“Hamatreya”
1. Explain in your own words the paradox on with “Hamatreya” is based.
In this poem Emerson shows the paradox reality that exists in human life. The landowners think that
they own their land, that is, the earth, but they aren’t able to realise that humannature implies death.
When they die they will be buried beneath the land they affirmed as theirs, belonging to the earth.
The real continuity of life resides within the Earth, not in humans.
2. Analyse the voices of the landlords (lines 5-10, 19-24), the Earth (28-59) and Hamatreya (1-4,
11-18,25-27,60-63).
The landlords represent humans who do not live under the Law of Nature but who are blinded by
money and property, setting a price to priceless Earth instead of looking after it. They do not see the
impermanence of human existence and their small position in the immense universe. Yet, they possess
the delusion of ownership over something as fundamental as a portion of the timeless Earth. Ownership
of land is just a relationship between humans and the presumption that this has any kind of a
consequential effect on an eternal force.
In her song, the Earth points out that she herself endures, whereas humans do not. She mocks the legal
deeds by which the property of the first settlers was supposedly conveyed to their heirs, and she sings
that the inheritors of the land are, like their progenitors, also gone, as are the lawyers and the laws
through which ownership was affected. Human greed for property is temporary, whereas nature is
eternal.
Hamatreya who is based is based on Maitreya, a character in Hinduism and Buddhism beliefs, who was
thought to be the saviour of human existence after the destruction that had been made to Earth. In the
poem it works as an intermediary between humans and the Earth and his mission is to warn us of the
catastrophe that implies not to live in harmony within Nature and that it is our duty to respect and look
after our holder as we both need each other.
3. Analyse the use of irony in the first part of the poem paying attention to the effect of the poet’s
initial pretence of ignorance.
There is a dramatic irony in this poem and it lies on the question of ownership. At the beginning of the
poem, the narrator addresses the humans who believe to own the land, but the Earth exposes in her song
what the humans do not know, they belong to earth and not the other way around.
Awarenesses happen in the last stanza when the speaker has learnt about the reality of human nature
and we can sense the feeling of guilt, regret and even fear. a sudden change occurs in the speaker’s
point of view.
4. Find examples of alliteration in ‘Hamatreya’ and discuss how it contributes to the rhythm of
the poem.
..Sweet west wind sounds..
..Lime, gravel, granite-ledge..
..Fled like the flood’s foam…
..Earth laughs in flowers to see the boastful boys..

Alliteration is the repetition of the initial sounds of stressed syllables in neighbouring words or at short
intervals within a line or passage. It makes the reader read faster, thereby adding a sense of speed and
intensity to the sentence “How sweet the west wind sounds in my own trees!”; It also creates a
consistent pattern that catches the mind's eye and focuses attention “Earth laughs in flowers to see her
boastful boys.” The use of alliteration that imitates natural sounds helps to recreate the atmosphere of
nature.
5. Analyse the quotations or allusions that are found in ‘Nature’ and “Hamatreya” and consider
to what extent the author used or abused books.

In spite of Emerson's apparent rejection of tradition, his writings are highly allusive. He was a
voracious reader and eclectically combined a great variety of sources of inspiration both from the
present and from the past.

In Nature we can find an allusion to Locke, of whom Emerson criticises the idea that knowledge is the
result of the experience. By quoting Locke, he is implying the ideas defended by Kant, who claims that
there is some knowledge that does not come from experience, but the mind has already had them.
“Hamatreya,” was inspired by his reading of one of the late Hindu scriptures, Vishnu Purana (Book N),
but it does not correspond to the Hindu way of thinking. According to Hindu beliefs, since Nature is
only a physical manifestation of Brahman (the only eternal force in the universe), it cannot possess the
landlords.

6.-What elements of the Transcendentalism are evident in “Hamatreya”?

One of the main elements of transcendentalism in this poem is spiritual reality, in the sense that
everything surrounding us cannot be possessed, that death will take us away from our belongings.
Another key element developed in “Hamatreya” is self-reliance, we cannot rely on tradition, on
possessions, on inheritances because all that will faint with the passing of time. The powerful idea of
“finding God through nature”, the mighty nature that everything owns, even the life of all human
beings, and democratic ideas were important for transcendentalists, and what is more democratic than
death, shown in the poem as the destiny of every man regardless of what they own.
7.- Compare the ideas which appear both in "Hamatreya" and in the first chapter of Nature.
The common idea in the two texts is that of landlords are not the owners of the land, but the other way
around: the land owns us. That idea is developed in "Nature" towards the concept of the only owner of
land, which is the one that has a vision that integrates all parts, hence the poet.
8. What is the effect of the repetition of series in lines 1, 3, 5, 17 and 20?

The repetition of series has an accumulative effect, in the sense that it cites several parts of the concept
it is explanation. Lines 1 and 3 are a serie of surnames, those of the landlords and of natural goods their
lands where producing. The effect of mentioning six surnames is stronger than just saying “many
landlords”, same case as for the products from the land in line 3 and also line 20. The repetition in line
5 has to do with ownership: mine, my sons, my name, which is also incremental as it expands and
strengthens the meaning of what the poet wants to say.
9. Emerson observed in his essay "The Poet" that "the poet has a new thought: he has a whole
new experience to unfold." Discuss the experience unfolded in "Hamatreya."
In "Hamatreya," the whole new unfolded experience is that of a new vision towards land, and
ownership. Emerson revises the concept of the man and the illusion of immortality. No man is going to
last forever on earth despite his natural tendency towards ownership. The Indian cultures were surprised
by this tendency of the white men towads propiety of the land, because for them it was a spiritual entity
to respect. At the end of each stanza the poet reminds the reader of the unavoidable nature of death,
which is an idea present in the whole poem, in the “earth song” for example with rhetorical questions
like “where are the old men?” refering to the dead men. In the last stanza, Hamatreya is again the
speaker of the poem and admits that after listening to the “earth song” he does not feel brave any more,
and the avarice cooled suddenly.
10. Emerson advocated "creative reading". How can you read "Hamatreya" creatively?
A creative reading of the poem would need to take the actual words and find new meanings, or to
expand the meaning to another concepts. We can feel the deep spiritual implications of the text and take
them to a whole vision of life and human beings in the sense that the essential is not visible to us; that
ownership is a mere illusion of eternity, a wrong one, consequently it can be labelled a dellusion. We
have to look for deep meanings under the surface.
Another creative vision of the poem, a more free one, can be that of the emancipation movement: earth
could be the slaves that tell the white men that they think they possess them but in fact death is stronger
than that possession. In that sense it can refer to all individuals that feel they have any power on others,
that they own them.
 UNIT 12 HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817 - 1862)
WALDEN, OR LIFE IN THE WOODS (1854)
1. ECONOMY
1. Analyse how Thoreau declared the purpose of his Walden experiment, considering the reasons
he gave in the first chapter of his book.
Walden opens with the announcement of a simple life supported by no one earning his life by the labor
of his hands only. (What he says is that while living in Walden he actually earns his living by the
“labor” of his hands. By saying so he is looking to assert the independence of this new type of living).
Endorsing the values of austerity, simplicity and solitude, Thoreau consistently emphasizes the
minimalism of his lifestyle and the contentment of it. He contrasts his own freedom with the
imprisonment of others who devote their lives to material prosperity.
In lines (24-25) he suggests that Walden is aimed at poor students, although in lines 13-15, he explains
that he writes to answer some of the questions that people have asked him about his way of live alone
in the woods. So, he writes to satisfy the curiosity of those around him. He also wanted to put into
practice Emerson's ideas, not only theoretically but practically also. (Lines 121-122).
The ultimate goal of the author's experiment at Walden is not to prove the economic advantage of
living simply, but rather to nurture understanding of self and of the universe.
It is necessary to bear in mind that Thoreau was not just a writer but also a philosopher. In the last
paragraph of this first chapter (lines 113-122) he states clearly his purpose with this experiment: he is
looking to the elevation of his soul and in order to achieve that he has resolved to live a simple and
independent life. The mean he takes to achieve this goal is putting into practice his theories. This is his
main goal, and all the text leads to this last statement, it shows the pathway to this idea by reinforcing
the emptiness of richness, of great inheritances, and the tendency of people to live lives “of quiet
desperation”.
2. Discuss the meaning of a passage from the opening chapter of Walden which you consider
particularly important, paying attention to its diction. Remember that diction refers to an
author's choice and arrangement of words, and that when you write about it you should deal with
the effect of selecting a particular range of vocabulary (from everyday life, politics, science, or
any other field).
Verse 57-69: In this passage the author denounces the burden of labor in which the man is employed
by. With so much careless work, men can´t enjoy the best parts of life, as they are exhausted. Thoreau
uses a metaphor to represent this idea: “…its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from
excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that”. The vocabulary used makes reference to
the nature: “fruit”, “bloom of fruits”, typical from the Transcendentalist´s ideas based on the connection
between man-nature.
As the author is talking about the injustices of the capitalist society, he also employs some words which
relate to the economic jargon: “…his labor would be depreciated in the market”, the words “labor”
(that appears 7 times in the excerpt), “depreciated” and “market” are terms employed in economic
talking. On the same subject we find the following sentence: “He has no time but to be anything but a
machine”, in this sentence the word “machine” may refer to the Industrial Revolution that changed the
rural societies into a capitalist mode of living based on the economy. His diction directly reinforces
what separated men from his best qualities and conveys a staunch critic to capitalism.
3. Explain Thoreau's rhetorical strategies to express his attitude towards the ownership of
material possessions. ln other words, do not simply reformulate the author's thoughts on this
tapie, but examine closely his language skills, that is, the means he uses to admonish, indict,
provoke or persuade his audience. Bear in mind that from the beginning of Walden he was
determined to revise and subversively undermine the popular reform rhetoric of his time.
GETTING A LIVING
For a steady income, he relied on two sources: the family pencil business and his own practice as a
surveyor. The Thoreau family became involved in manufacturing pencils in the 1820s, and Thoreau
used his talent as an engineer to improve the product. He invented a machine that ground the plumbago
for the leads into a very fine powder and developed a combination of the finely ground plumbago and
clay that resulted in a pencil that produced a smooth, regular line. He also improved the method of
assembling the casing and the lead. Thoreau pencils were the first produced in America that equaled
those made by the German company, Faber, whose pencils set the standard for quality. In the 1850s,
when the electrotyping process of printing began to be used widely, the Thoreaus shifted from pencil-
making to supplying large quantities of their finely ground plumbago to printing companies. Thoreau
continued to run the company after his father's death in 1859. Characteristically, Thoreau put the
business letters and invoices associated with the company to a second use as scrap paper for lists and
notes, and drafts of his late unfinished natural history essays.
Thoreau taught himself to survey; he had, as Emerson noted in his eulogy, "a natural skill for
mensuration," and he was very good at the work. In addition to working for the town of Concord, he
surveyed house and wood lots around Concord for landowners who were having property assessed and
those wanting to settle boundary disputes with their neighbors. In 1859, he was hired by a group of
farmers who filed suit against the owners of the Billerica Dam, claiming that the dam raised the water
level in the river and destroyed the farmers' meadow lands. To help support the claim, Thoreau
collected evidence from many sources. He interviewed people with long experience of the river, took
extensive measurements of the water level at various points along its course, and inspected all of the
river's bridges. He recorded his findings in a large chart and transferred appropriate information to an
existing survey of the river that he had traced. The dispute was a bitter one, arousing ill-feeling in the
town: Thoreau reported in his February 17, 1860, journal entry that one of those he interviewed
testified in court that the river was "dammed at both ends and cursed in the middle."
He also collected specimens for Louis Agassiz, who had brought the study of natural history to Harvard
after Thoreau graduated, but he was not compensated for this work. He lectured several times a year at
lyceums and private homes from Maine to New Jersey. These lectures were important in his process of
composition--most of the ideas and themes in his essays and books were first presented to the public in
lectures--but they were not lucrative.
In 1847, responding to a request from the secretary of his Harvard class, he described his various
employments: "I am a Schoolmaster--a Private Tutor, a Surveyor--a Gardener, a Farmer--a Painter, I
mean a House Painter, a Carpenter, a Mason, a Day-Laborer, a Pencil-Maker, a Glass-paper Maker, a
Writer, and sometimes a Poetaster" (The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, ed. Walter Harding
and Carl Bode [New York: New York University Press, 1958], 186). He generalized about the
advantage of making just enough money to supply his limited needs in the essay "Life without
Principle": "Those slight labors which afford me a livelihood, and by which it is allowed that I am to
some extent serviceable to my contemporaries, are as yet commonly a pleasure to me, and I am not
often reminded that they are a necessity" (Reform Papers, 160).

TRANSCENDENTALISM
Thoreau and the Transcendentalist movement in New England grew up together. Thoreau was nineteen
years old when Emerson published Nature, an essay that articulates the philosophical underpinnings of
the movement. Transcendentalism began as a radical religious movement, opposed to the rationalist,
conservative institution that Unitarianism had become. Many of the movement's early proponents were
or had been Unitarian ministers, Emerson among them.
They had found Unitarianism wanting both spiritually and emotionally, and, beginning in the late
1820s, had expressed the need for and conviction of a more personal and intuitive experience of the
divine, one available to every person. "The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face;"
wrote Emerson in Nature, "we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to
the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a
religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?"
The Transcendentalists assumed a universe divided into two essential parts, the soul and nature.
Emerson defined the soul by defining nature: "all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy
distinguishes as the NOT ME, that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be
ranked under this name, NATURE." A belief in the reliability of the human conscience was a
fundamental Transcendentalist principle, and this belief was based upon a conviction of the
immanence, or indwelling, of God in the soul of the individual. "We see God around us, because he
dwells within us," wrote William Ellery Channing in 1828; "the beauty and glory of God's works are
revealed to the mind by a light beaming from itself."
This conviction of immanence enabled Thoreau to write, in "Civil Disobedience," "The only obligation
which I have a right to assume, is to do at any time what I think right" (Reform Papers, 65), and it
supported his intense and particular interest in nature, in which the divine force is also revealed. As a
reflection of God, nature expressed symbolically the spiritual world that worked beyond the physical
one. Transcendentalism can be seen as the religious and intellectual expression of American
democracy: all men had an equal chance of experiencing and expressing divinity directly, regardless of
wealth, social status, or politics.
Initially because of Emerson's presence, Concord was a significant intellectual and cultural center in
Thoreau's time. Nathaniel Hawthorne and Bronson Alcott lived there, as did William Ellery Channing
the Younger. Margaret Fuller visited Emerson often, and Franklin Sanborn boarded with the Thoreau
family in the 1850s. Theodore Parker, George Ripley, Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and Horace
Greeley were also members of the circle of friends.
Thoreau was respected within this circle, but he was always a prickly individualist. He cared little for
group activities, whether political or religious, and even avoided organized reform movements until the
moral imperative of abolition commanded his attention. In eulogizing Thoreau, Emerson said, "There
was somewhat military in his nature, not to be subdued, always manly and able, but rarely tender, as if
he did not feel himself except in opposition."

INDIVIDUALISM
In "Civil Disobedience," Thoreau expressed his belief in the power and, indeed, the obligation of the
individual to determine right from wrong, independent of the dictates of society: "any man more right
than his neighbors, constitutes a majority of one" (Reform Papers, 74). While many of his
contemporaries espoused this view, few practiced it in their own lives as consistently as Thoreau.
Thoreau exercised his right to dissent from the prevailing views in many ways, large and small. He
worked for pay intermittently; he cultivated relationships with several of the town's outcasts; he lived
alone in the woods for two years; he never married; he signed off from the First Parish Church rather
than be taxed automatically to support it every year.
Thoreau encouraged others to assert their individuality, each in his or her own way. When neighbors
talked of emulating his lifestyle at the pond, he was dismayed rather than flattered.
I would not have anyone adopt my mode of living on any account; for, beside that before he has fairly
learned it I may have found out another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different persons
in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way,
and not his father's or his mother's or his neighbor's instead. The youth may build or plant or sail, only
let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do. It is by a mathematical
point only that we are wise, as the sailor or the fugitive slave keeps the polestar in his eye; but that is
sufficient guidance for all our life. We may not arrive at our port within a calculable period, but we
would preserve the true course. (Walden, 71)
If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.
Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away. (Walden, 326)
Thoreau also believed that independent, well-considered action arose naturally from a questing attitude
of mind. He was first and foremost an explorer, of both the world around him and the world within him.
be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but
of thought. (Walden, 321)
Thoreau's celebration of solitude was a natural outgrowth of his commitment to the idea of individual
action. His neighbors frequently saw him heading out for his regular afternoon walk which took him to
every stream and meadow in Concord and the surrounding towns. Contemporaries attest that Thoreau
was gregarious, and he left an extensive correspondence which demonstrates the depth and
perseverance of his friendships. And although he had many visitors at Walden, much of the time he was
alone, a condition he savored.
I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. (Walden, 135)
the man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is
ready (Walden, 72)

MATERIALISM
Allying himself with an ancient tradition of asceticism, Thoreau considered the ownership of material
possessions beyond the basic necessities of life to be an obstacle, rather than an advantage. He saw that
most people measured their worth in terms of what they owned and stood this common assumption on
its head.
I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle,
and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the
open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were
called to labor in. (Walden, 5)
a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone. (Walden, 82)
Thoreau proposed to determine what was basic to human survival, and then to live as simply as
possible.
By the words, necessary of life, I mean whatever, of all that man obtains by his own exertions, has been
from the first, or from long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any, whether from
savageness, or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to do without it. (Walden, 12)
Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but
positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind (Walden, 14)
my greatest skill has been to want but little. (Walden, 69)
He grew some of his own food, including beans, potatoes, peas, and turnips. He ate wild berries and
apples, and occasionally a fish that he had caught, and once killed and cooked a woodchuck that had
ravaged his bean-field. He so arranged his affairs that he had to work only a little at a time for his
upkeep, and he kept a broad margin to his life for reading, thinking, walking, observing, and writing.
For more than five years I maintained myself thus solely by the labor of my hands, and I found, that by
working about six weeks in a year, I could meet all the expenses of living. The whole of my winters, as
well as most of my summers, I had free and clear for study. (Walden, 69)
It is not necessary that a man should earn his living by the sweat of his brow, unless he sweats easier
than I do. (Walden, 71)

TECHNOLOGY AND PROGRESS

Thoreau, himself an inventor and an engineer of sorts, was fascinated by technology, and the mid-
nineteenth century saw a series of inventions that would radically change the world, such as power
looms, railroads, and the telegraph. But these inventions were products of a larger movement, the
industrial revolution, in which Thoreau saw the potential for the destruction of nature for the ends of
commerce. In Thoreau's view, technology also provoked an excitement that was counterproductive
because it served as a distraction from the important questions of life.
perhaps we are led oftener by the love of novelty, and a regard for the opinions of men, in procuring it,
than by a true utility. (Walden, 21)
Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but
improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as
railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from
Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. (Walden, 52)
The railroad was made the symbol of technology, and the language Thoreau uses to describe it
expressed his ambivalence.
I watch the passage of the morning cars with the same feeling that I do the rising of the sun, which is
hardly more regular. Their train of clouds stretching far behind and rising higher and higher, going to
heaven while the cars are going to Boston, conceals the sun for a minute and casts my distant field into
the shade, a celestial train beside which the petty train of cars which hugs the earth is but the barb of the
spear. The stabler of the iron horse was up early this winter morning by the light of the stars amid the
mountains, to fodder and harness his steed. Fire, too, was awakened thus early to put the vital heat in
him and get him off. If the enterprise were as innocent as it is early! If the snow lies deep, they strap on
his snow-shoes, and with the giant plow, plow a furrow from the mountains to the seaboard, in which
the cars, like a following drill-barrow, sprinkle all the restless men and floating merchandise in the
country for seed. All day the fire-steed flies over the country, stopping only that his master may rest,
and I am awakened by his tramp and defiant snort at midnight, when in some remote glen in the woods
he fronts the elements incased in ice and snow; and he will reach his stall only with the morning star, to
start once more on his travels without rest or slumber. Or perchance, at evening, I hear him in his stable
blowing off the superfluous energy of the day, that he may calm his nerves and cool his liver and brain
for a few hours of iron slumber. If the enterprise were as heroic and commanding as it is protracted and
unwearied! (Walden, 116-117)

NATURE
Thoreau was a dedicated, self-taught naturalist, who disciplined himself to observe the natural
phenomena around Concord systematically and to record his observations almost daily in his Journal.
The Journal contains initial formulations of ideas and descriptions that appear in Thoreau's lectures,
essays, and books; early versions of passages that reached final form in Walden can be found in the
Journal as early as 1846. Thoreau's observations of nature enrich all of his work, even his essays on
political topics. Images and comparisons based on his studies of animal behavior, of the life cycles of
plants, and of the features of the changing seasons illustrate and enliven the ideas he puts forth in
Walden.
All day long the red squirrels came and went, and afforded me much entertainment by their
manoeuvres. One would approach at first warily through the shrub-oaks, running over the snow crust
by fits and starts like a leaf blown by the wind, now a few paces this way, with wonderful speed and
waste of energy, making inconceivable haste with his "trotters," as if it were for a wager, and now as
many paces that way, but never getting on more than half a rod at a time; and then suddenly pausing
with a ludicrous expression and a gratuitous somerset, as if all the eyes in the universe were fixed on
him,--for all the motions of a squirrel, even in the most solitary recesses of the forest, imply spectators
as much as those of a dancing girl,--wasting more time in delay and circumspection than would have
sufficed to walk the whole distance,--I never saw one walk,--and then suddenly, before you could say
Jack Robinson, he would be in the top of a young pitch-pine, winding up his clock and chiding all
imaginary spectators, soliloquizing and talking to all the universe at the same time,--for no reason that I
could ever detect, or he himself was aware of, I suspect. (Walden, 273-274)
The grass flames up on the hillsides like a spring fire,--"et primitus oritur herba imbribus primoribus
evocata,"--as if the earth sent forth an inward heat to greet the returning sun; not yellow but green is the
color of its flame;--the symbol of perpetual youth, the grass-blade, like a long green ribbon, streams
from the sod into the summer, checked indeed by the frost, but anon pushing on again, lifting its spear
of last year's hay with the fresh life below. . . . So, our human life but dies down to its root, and still
puts forth its green blade to eternity. (Walden, 310-311)
Once it chanced that I stood in the very abutment of a rainbow's arch, which filled the lower stratum of
the atmosphere, tinging the grass and leaves around, and dazzling me as if I looked through colored
crystal. It was a lake of rainbow light, in which, for a short while, I lived like a dolphin. If it had lasted
longer it might have tinged my employments and life. (Walden, 202)
The love of nature that is evident in Thoreau's descriptions in Walden is one of the most powerful
aspects of the book. The environmental movement of the past thirty years has embraced Thoreau as a
guiding spirit, and he is valued for his early understanding of the idea that nature is made up of
interrelated parts. He is considered by many to be the father of the environmental movement.

BEFORE AND AFTER WALDEN

Walden is Thoreau's best-known book, but other works of his written both before and after Walden
have met with favorable responses. All of his writing except his poetry is expository--he wrote no
fiction--and much of it is built on the framework of the journey, short or long, external or interior. A
Week, The Maine Woods, Cape Cod, and the essays "A Winter Walk," "A Walk to Wachusett," and "A
Yankee in Canada," for example, are all structured as traditional travel narratives. The speaker--and it is
useful to remember that almost all of Thoreau's published essays and books were first presented as
lectures--sets out from home in each case, and the reader experiences the wonders of each new place
with him, sharing the meditations it inspires, and finally returning with him to Concord with a deeper
understanding of both native and foreign places and of the journeying self. Other essays take the reader
on different kinds of journeys--through the foliage of autumn ("Autumnal Tints"), through the
cultivated and wild orchards of history ("Wild Apples"), through the life-cycle of a plot of land as one
species of tree gives way to another ("The Succession of Forest Trees").
Nature is Thoreau's first great subject; the question of how we should live is his second. One series of
his essays deals with issues of personal exploration and renewal. In the 1830s and 1840s a wave of
reform movements of all kinds swept New England. The issues involved ranged from women's rights to
temperance, from education to religion, from diet to sex. In general, Thoreau did not support reform
movements; after he was invited to join the model community at Brook Farm, he wrote in his Journal,
"As for these communities--I think I had rather keep bachelor’s hall in hell than go to board in heaven.-
-" The one movement with which he finally could not resist an alliance was abolitionism. Although he
wrote in Walden,
I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but
somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters
that enslave both north and south. It is hard to have a southern overseer; it is worse to have a northern
one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. (7)
and was at first reluctant to speak at abolitionist rallies because he felt he was expected to follow
certain formulas, he later gave several impassioned lectures in response to the enforcement of the
Fugitive Slave Law and in support of the activities of John Brown. Considering his neighbors'
dismissive responses to Brown at the news of his death, Thoreau wrote,
I hear another ask, Yankee-like, "What will he gain by it?" as if he expected to fill his pockets by this
enterprise. Such a one has no idea of gain but in this worldly sense. If it does not lead to a "surprise"
party, if he does not get a new pair of boots, or a vote of thanks, it must be a failure. "But he won't gain
anything by it." Well, no, I don't suppose he could get four-and-sixpence a day for being hung, take the
year round; but then he stands a chance to save a considerable part of his soul--and such a soul!--when
you do not. No doubt you can get more in your market for a quart of milk than for a quart of blood, but
that is not the market that heroes carry their blood to. ("A Plea for Captain John Brown," Reform
Papers, 119)
Thoreau's most famous essay is "Civil Disobedience," published in 1849 as "Resistance to Civil
Government." The incident that provoked him to write it took place in July 1846, while he was living at
Walden. Coming into town to have a pair of shoes repaired, he was arrested for non-payment of the poll
tax assessed against every voter and spent a night in jail. He was released the next day, after one of his
relatives, probably an aunt, paid what was owed, but the event gave him the impetus to attack the
government in a classic antiwar, antislavery piece that gave support to the passive resistance of
Mohandas Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and other twentieth-century conscientious objectors.
Some critics now consider Thoreau's Journal his most innovative and exciting work. In it he was able to
show his thoughts in their natural relation to one another, not forced into a thematic arrangement, or
stretched or lopped to fit the constraints of formal exposition. The natural alternation of observation and
reflection provided a rhythm that suited his temperament and style. He usually walked in the mornings
and, using field notes that were almost a shorthand to remind him of what he had observed, wrote in the
afternoons, although he sometimes postponed the composition and wrote several days' entries at once.
Thoreau's careful observations of the cycles of growing plants, of water levels in the local rivers and
ponds, of fluctuating temperatures, and of many other natural phenomena are recorded in his Journal.
They became the basis for a series of lists and charts that provided precise information for several
essays in Transcendental natural history that remained unfinished at his death, and that show him
developing another kind of writing--more scientific than his excursions but no less poetic.
4.- Compare the passages from Emerson and Thoreau you have read, and explain the ways in
which the theories expounded in Nature seem to be put into practice in Walden. Apart from
commenting on similarities mainly due to the former’s influence upon the latter, note also how
their style differ, partly because Emerson’s expression tends towards abstraction whereas
Thoreau presents experience through concrete images. Emerson’s outbursts are in sharp contrast
with the matter-of-fact voice with which Thoreau turns the commonplace into the mythical.
Emerson and Thoreau were important figures of the Transcendentalism. Thoreau was the figure that
most closely and radically applied the Transcendentalist theories. Thoreau read Nature in 1837, he was
deeply impressed by Emerson’s original idea that each individual should look for the divine in Nature.
The figure of Emerson always influenced Thoreau, as a friend and a kind of surrogate father, later when
Thoreau died Emerson’s eulogy conditioned the way Thoreau was read for a long time. Emerson’s
approach in his book Nature is more abstract than Thoreau’s. In the introduction Emerson with the
sentence “Our age is retrospective” implies that the past weighs heavy on the author and his
contemporaries while Thoreau’s image for the same concept is the one of the inherited land that the
men have to work. Emerson speaks about the “theory of nature” and Thoreau puts it into practice in his
“experiment of life”. Emerson experience stays in the realm of the thought of the idealism and Kant
ideas while Thoreau is closer to the world, he is truly compromised in his project, “he expressed a far
more direct contact with the natural world” (From Puritanism to Postmodernism). For Thoreau “the
problems of life” should be solve by a philosopher “not only theoretically, but practically”.
5. While at Harvard College, Thoreau studied Latin and Greek. Analyze any references (both
quotations\ and allusions) to the classics to be found in the passages you have read.
Walden is full of allusions and quotations from different works read by Thoreau in the past. These are
very clearly seen in this extract. Some examples are:
ALLUSIONS:
Greek:

• “… its Augean stables never cleansed” (38-39), referring to the Greek legend of Augeas, king
of Ellis. This allusion makes a clear reference to the story of Hercules.
• “…It is said that Deucalion and Pyrrha created men by…” (47-48), another reference to Greek
mythology, in this case Deucalion, king of Phthia and Pyrrha, his wife.
• … “my Mentors said nothing about” (102), with reference to Homer's Odyssey, the elderly
friend and counsellor of the hero Odysseus and tutor of his son Telemachus. In modern English
the tutor's name has become an eponym for a wise, trustworthy counsellor or teacher.
Renaissance:

• “Or, as Raleigh rhymes it in his sonorous way” (52). Makes reference to Sir Walter Raleigh, the
Renaissance writer.

QUOTATIONS:
Roman (Latin)

• Ovid: “Inde genus durum sumus, expriensque laborum, et documenta damus qua simus origine
nati” (50-51). This is a quotation from Ovid’s Metamorphoses that means, “Hence come the
 hardness of our race and our endurance of toil; and we give proof from what origin we are
sprung”.
• “From thence our kind hard-hearted is, enduring pain and care, approving that our bodies of a
stony nature are” (53-54). The author makes reference to the translation of the Latin quotation
in Sir Walter Raleigh´s History of the World (1614).
These quotations add dramatism to his theory. It is also remarkable that he uses Latin in his text, as this
reflects the public it is addressed to.
6. ln his formative years at Harvard College Thoreau seems to have waved aside the "cold tea of
Unitarianism" that he formally declined in 1841. Rather than accept the rules of any institution,
he preferred to live according to the moral dictates of his own conscience. Considering that the
author espoused no conventional religious faith, how do you interpret his references to the Bible
and to Christianity in the first chapter of Walden?
7. Thoreau's writings are highly allusive, his allusions not being restricted to literary works, but
extended to many features of his contemporary world. ln particular, as a witness to the industrial
revolution, he felt both fascinated by technology and threatened by an excessive dependence upon
it. He also feared the negative impact that certain modern inventions might have upon the
environment. Bearing in mind this ambivalent attitude, analyse his references to the railroad.
For many years, the train and railroad were seen as a symbol of progress, not only in America but also
in the entire world. For Henry David Thoreau this is not true, the train in his mind symbolized
everything wrong with humanity: its greed, destructiveness, and its ignorance. He knew of and profited
from the railroad’s good qualities but hated and feared it for its bad. The railroad was a path to
nowhere, a fiery and destructive beast, the end of agriculture and much more. For Thoreau, the railroad
was also the destructor of nature and as time has shown, he was right. Although most people consider
Thoreau’s view of the railroad tracks and the train to be one, this is not true. For him, the train itself and
the railroad tracks were two very different things. Each symbolized different parts of humanity’s
qualities.
The railroad was not all bad, even in Thoreau’s opinion, it has many good qualities, but these are not
redeeming qualities. While these good qualities may soften the image of the railroad’s negative
qualities, they do not absolve it. He liked the fact the railroad brought people to new places and to
experience new things and in the process to have new thoughts, but he considered the railroad as way
for people to go in a straight line to nowhere that one could get on and off without a thought in their
head. Thoreau understood the material benefits brought by the railroad, the food, and the pay for the
farmer’s goods, books, culture, and also most other things people needed, but he considered most of
these items needless things that distracted men from the pursuit of thought. He said that although it
brings books in it “but down goes the wit that writes them” (Thoreau 75). He thought that even though
bringing books in, so people can read them is good, people should be writing their own books and
thinking their own thoughts rather than reading someone else’s.
One of the most important issues concerning the railroad to Thoreau was the way in interacted with
nature. He hated how the railroad had infected all of the area and disrupted the flow of nature; he
scorned the thought of a boy who ran away from his uncle because he missed the city and train whistle
“you couldn’t even hear the whistle! I doubt if there is such a place in Massachusetts now” (Thoreau
75). But this view was limited to the train itself. In his poem “What’s the railroad to me” (Thoreau 25),
he talks about how the railroad tracks cleared areas create fields for blueberries, and the banks give
homes to the swallows. Thoreau also talks about how he will “never go to see where it ends” (Thoreau
25), the railroad tracks themselves he thought were “like a cart-path in the woods” (Thoreau 25)
something that was there but did not concern him and that he did not need. He considered the railroad
tracks themselves to become part of nature after they were laid, rather than a constant thorn in nature’s
side as the train was and continued to be over the centuries that followed.
The human cost of the railroad was just as important to Thoreau; he spoke of two costs, one that
affected the body of man and one that affected the mind. Thoreau stated that the railroad was built on
the backs of sleepers. Although literally the term sleepers refers to the wood that the tracks run one,
sleepers was also a sub-textual term Thoreau used to refer to the workers that would not think for
themselves but instead just worked to build the railroad and for the many people that had died building
the railroad. Thoreau considered the two to be the same; the death of the body was just as bad, and just
as destructive, as the death of the mind. “If we do not get out sleepers, and forge rails, and devote days
and nights to the work, but go to tinkering upon our lives to improve them, who will build railroads?”
(Thoreau 60). Thoreau thought that we chose to waste our lives away, working for unnecessary things
and pleasures. Thoreau believed the effort put into the railroad and other, in his mind, unnecessary
endeavors should be instead put into an effort to change the way lives are lived, and to spend more time
in thought and contemplation.
However, Thoreau is a man of opposites, symbolism, and contradictions; the railroad was not the main
issue he was arguing. The railroad was the symbol of something big and bold that everybody knew
about. Instead, Thoreau was using the railroad as a crutch to hold up all the problems humanity has
created and caused. He broke the qualities of the train into symbols, ones that paralleled the faults he
found in humanity. All of Thoreau’s references to the train can be directly tied to aspects of human
nature that Thoreau despised.
Thoreau says, “The whistle of the locomotive penetrates my woods summer and winter” thus as
humans have penetrated all aspects of the world, leaving none of the areas of the world untouched by
human hands. Thoreau also hates the dependence men have on their technology “Nor is there any man
so independent on his farm that he can say [to the train] nay”. He continues his symbolism with:”[the
railroad is like an] iron horse make the hills echo with his snort like thunder, shaking the earth with his
feet, and breathing fire and smoke from his nostrils” his reference to a mythical beast of fire and
destruction, or one of the horsemen of the apocalypse could easily be construed as humans bringing
about destruction and terror on themselves and those around them. He further speaks of the human rape
of nature “If all were as it seems, and men made the elements their servants for noble ends” then the
elements and Nature herself would cheerfully accompany men on their errands and be their escort”
(Thoreau 76). The unspoken part is that men do not use the elements of nature for any noble end, that
instead he takes what he wants without any concern for who or what he destroys.
The railroad for Thoreau was the antithesis of his ideals, it forced men to give up thinking, the train
allowed them to go from one place to another far away without a thought. The railroad in his mind
destroyed nature as it was laid, but it was the train that kept the wound fresh. Thoreau considered the
train to be a needless distraction in life, a purveyor of the rat race way of life; men zipping around with
no concern on how they got to where they ended up. Thoreau hated the way the land, people and nature
was pushed aside in order that the railroad could be laid. On this account, he was completely correct as
the Midwestern Native Americans and the American buffalo could obviously attest to. But progress is a
large part of the human ideal; without being able to strive for something humans rather than sitting and
thinking, just sit, thus without things like the railroad and later automobiles humans would not think at
all, leaving Thoreau’s purpose to fail. Even though Thoreau was correct with most of his complaints
about the railroad and other aspects of human’s desire for things, the larger picture is without it humans
would not have become what they are today, whether this is good or bad is left up to you.
8. Thoreau has often been described as a strikingly original and sometimes eccentric humourist.
When he first delivered "Economy" as a lecture in 1848, his listeners were amused rather than
offended by its sarcasm. The Salem Observer reported that the lecture "was done in an admirable
manner, in a strain of exquisite humor, with a strong undercurrent of delicate satire against the
follies of the times." ln his successive drafts, Thoreau tended to make Walden more vividly
grotesque. Discuss any evidence of Thoreau's humour to be found in the passages you have read.
You may pay attention to some of the plays on words or puns used by the author to convey his
ideas.
Henry Thoreau’s Walden is a text that allows different readings. One of the most remarkable
intertextual features is the presence of humoristic elements. This reading may be even unnoticed by
readers if their attention is not focused in double meanings or ironic statements. Through puns,
paradoxes and a masterful use of irony he reinforces his critic to the hypocrisy of society.
Besides, Walden serves as a parody of the success manuals; by imitating their language, the book
teaches how to achieve spiritual wealth and the time to enjoy life instead of the obsession on
accumulating material wealth taught by such manuals.
Some of the examples are of the humoristic elements are:
Line 5 – “Sojourner” – An eternal pilgrim, no doubt. This is a pun because Thoreau is applying his
solitude to everyday life in order to give its relevance greater meaning. In other words, the “sojourner”
is not only someone who undertakes something new and different, but also a person who finds a way to
adapt and cope with daily existence apart from and a part of civilization.
Line 5 – “Civilized life” – This may be viewed as a pun, because Thoreau detested "being bogged
down in squalid materialism" (Anderson, The Magic Circle of Walden, pg. 143), which is essentially
what he was trying to escape in his experiment in life by a pond surrounded by woods.
Lines 6-10 – “Impertinent – pertinent” Polysemy, paronomasia and a play of words. He plays with the
meaning of the word “Impertinent” as an insult (medler) or “Impertinent” as something that is not
“pertinent” (inappropriate).
Line 28 - “Misfortune” - He suggests that there is nothing worse than inheriting a farm or a property,
which will burden your life forever. Most people would call this a fortune, so Thoreau sees things
differently and paradoxically. He also affirms that it is easiest to obtain a property by inheriting it than
getting rid of it (it contradicts all logic in regard to obtaining a property). To reinforce this
“misfortune” he adds that it is better “to have been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf”.
Line 33- “Peck of dir”- Humorous reference. “We must eat a peck of dirt before we die” – This
proverb seems to have a couple meaning behind it. The first meaning is that everyone must put up with
some unpleasant things in his or her lifetime. No one can escape some misfortune or difficulty.
The second meaning is more literal by saying that in a lifetime everyone will eat some dirt through the
food we ingest or through falls and spills. This will often be said to someone who has taken a fall and
ends up with a mouth full or dirt.
Line 42 - “Soil of compost” - Sarcasm. Men cannot see the real meaning of life; (according to the
Transcendentalists, of course) they are so occupied with their false employments that they cannot enjoy
the real fruits that nature has to offer.
Line 46-47 “It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before”. Pun or
play of words. As well as providing a scientific approach to nature, it parodies popular success novels
by offering a different concept of true wealth (not material goods, but life joys).
Lines 64-65 “How can he remember well his ignorance-which his growth requires-who has so often
to use his knowledge?” Ignorance is bliss? This ironic statement nevertheless rings of the truth of
intellectual growth.
Line 74-75 “There is no play in them, for this comes after work” – Pun. Ideally, one would have work
whick is not separated from play and fulfillment.
Line 83 – “True may turn to be false tomorrow” Pun or play of words.
102- “Mentors” – Thoreau disdains old people's wisdom and overlooks their advices, suggesting that it
might not help us to listen to people from past generations and learn from their mistakes. Satire.
Line 111-112 – “As our skeletons... not to be distinguished from those of our ancestors” – With this
sentence, he suggests that there has not been any evolution from past times.
Line 117-118 “None has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich inward.” Pun or play of words.
Thoreau certainly has a great deal of respect/fascination for ancient cultures. Note that he has
mentioned the Greeks, Chinese, and Hindus often. It seems that Thoreau is looking toward past
generations, though he earlier made the overstated point of not listening to the advice of elders. This is
not inconsistent; he will find good ideas wherever he can. The universal, basic ideas are ancient yet
current.
9. Analyse Thoreau's first-person narrative, commenting on the author's awareness of himself as
an object of scrutiny and as a source of insight into the meaning of human experience. You may
link this exaltation of the "l" to the romantic emphasis on the creative powers of the individual
mind.
“In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is
the main difference”. (15-17)
Here Thoreau, from the very beginning, states a distance with other writers, especially those who omit
the first person when they write and foresees that, despite what some of his readers may say or think, he
is going to talk about himself.
He mentions that we, as readers, sometimes forget that it is always the first person who is speaking (17-
18), referring to writers who use other speaking persons (second or third) in their works. After that, he
continues on saying that he is going to write about himself just because he is the person he knows the
best. (18-19)
Thoreau uses the word “egotism” in reference to his decision of using a first person narrator. Most
works omit the person who´s speaking but in this case he is reluctant from abandoning this position.
“Egotism” denotes the frequent use of the first person pronoun “I”, which transmits a sense of self-
importance. At the same time we could see the word as a way to refer to his “egoism”, for he refuses to
substitute the first person narrator and decides to constantly use the pronoun “I” in order to defend his
self-interested theory, based solely on his own experience and nobody else´s.
He was aware of himself as being the object of scrutiny and not only that, but he embarked in an
introspective voyage into the self, and in this way we exalted the “I”.
His use of the first person emphasises his individuality and his ideology about the power of the
narrator’s self-representation. The ideology of Romanticism that comes from Europe pervades his
discourse. Romanticism defends the importance of the rights of the individual. The importance of one’s
ideology in the face of imposed conventions.
This ideology is seen in two different levels. On the one hand he uses a first person narrator and he
affirms he does it because he really believes that the only way of transmitting his ideas is doing it by
himself, in an independent and directly way. On the other hand, in a more subtle way, he asserts this
Romantic doctrine in the general ideology of the text. It is through his own individual experience,
taking apart material issues that he may achieve a successful life.
10. Reading Walden simply as the work of a romantic individualist may lead readers to miss the
political content of its pages. Some parts of Walden can be read as a satirical criticism of modern
life written by a radical moral reformer. Of the passages you have read, discuss the ones that
address social issues which not only concerned people in Thoreau’s time, but still concern us
today. You may concentrate on how Thoreau makes people think critically about the place
labour has in their lives, since he believes that current working conditions are a threat to their
freedom and well-being.
Every aspect in Walden can concern us today as a current topic. When at the beginning he says he has
been in nature separated from civilization it is an even stronger commitment nowadays we have internet
and we are almost all connected by globalization. Many people, like in his time, now would be
interested in asking the same questions, especially the ones regarding survival, which in the first world
it seems socially guaranteed with comfort, and the ones regarding social relationships and mental
health. The following topic of the “I and egotism” is still really spoken in our time as a condition for
sincerity.
Regarding the inheritance topic, it is true what he says: sometimes inherit a property can condition your
life. Moreover, it is even more truer now because sometimes people have to pay a great amount to
inherit something which they legitimately own because of a tax.
Nevertheless, the main aspect where we can find a current parallelism is when he talks about labour.
Work is foolish, it is called a necessity, but it makes us live with less leisure, just like machines.
Nowadays people still work too hard and lose the good things in life for this abuse. As he says, we have
to treat others delicately and we know it, but we are still now reluctant to treat ourselves thus tenderly.
Actually, “society makes us feel realized while being self-exploited” is a thesis from a Korean
philosopher nowadays. “A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called
the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But is a
characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things”. So, in order to be productive, we still relate the
day on work, not on leisure, and first we go to school and to work, since leisure is no more than a
recompense for work or a way to ensure more healthy work and not be “desperate”. If we play first we
are giving it a priority, which is happiness, if we work first we give labour a priority, which is
survivance.1
Also, a worth mentioning idea is the changing aspect of free will, prejudices and truth. We have our
free will to leave out prejudice and already ended truths, since what could be true one day the other day
may be false. It is still true that sometimes society feels rigid in an aspect and cannot change its way of
seeing, but sooner or later, if it was a good change, it happens. We can think of, for example, the anti-
slaveries and feminist revolutions. Many older people can feel too tight and bound to old ideas and
convictions, and according to Thoreau this means that there is nothing to learn about them since their
lives are so different, partial and full of failures that no tip can be valuable. This can be the most
different point of view nowadays since society is concerned with elder people as people of full right
both for their experience and their human condition, but in fact there are people who think like him as
well.
Certainly, we still need to learn to distinguish the necessary from the futile in this consumerist society
for our well-being and for the planet. We are not so different from our ancestors in the most essential
things. According to Thoreau, luxuries and many of the comforts of life are hindrances to the elevation
of mankind, for the wisest have always lived a simpler life.2 Finally, above all, to be a philosopher is to
solve some of the problems of life with simplicity, not only theoretically, but practically. This is
something quite current in our time, since nobody can defend something properly without forming part
of it with his attitude and egoistic example.
1 However, Confucious said: “Enjoy your work and you will never have to work”.
2 Although nature follows the principle of the most comfortability. E.g., many animals migrate to better
climatic places, all search more comfortable resources and ambient parameters to live better. Comfort
search is the most natural goal for every life being.