MARÍA LUISA HERAS FERNÁNDEZ

1. First, read the Activity “Answering comparison and contrast questions” in A

Study Guide for American Literature to 1900 (pages 21-23). Then, write an
essay comparing and contrasting how Anne Bradstreet’s poems and Mary
Rowlandson’s narrative exemplify their authors’ reaction to adversity. Give
examples from the texts you have read in units 3 and 4.

Bradstreet and Rowlandson wrote their autobiographies based on their experience. Both
authors suffered material losses and psychological difficulties, which they conveyed in
their works. They write about how they faced adversity.

Firstly, Bradstreet and Rowlandson wrote about adversity. Bradstreet felt that these
experiences had strengthened her and her faith. She tries to accept the will of God
without complaining as Rowlandson. Bradstreet wrote a poem about the death of her
grandchildren, "On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet." She thinks God is good
even though there is nothing good in his death. She struggles to maintain her religious
conditions of God’s righteousness and goodness. She also wrote a poem about how his
house burned down, "Upon the Burning of Our House." There is ambiguity between
accepting God’s will or rebellion. It is interpreted in the opposite way depending on
intonation (line 4 “And piteous shrieks of dreadful voice”, line 8 “And to my God, my
heart did cry”). Bradstreet also wrote a poem at the death of her husband, to whom she
was happily married ("To My Dear and Loving Husband"). She had to cope with the
death of her husband. On the other hand, Rowlandson accepted her captivity as God’s
will. It had made her stronger and wiser because God was on his side.

Secondly, both are aware of their spiritual weaknesses. However, they gave a moral
lesson in life with their personal experiences. We can compare these lessons to those in
the Bible. They also expressed the concerns of the religious people. However, both of
them, at times, had doubts about their faith in God. Bradstreet struggles inwardly to
reconcile her grief after the death of her grandson with the religious convictions of
God’s justice and goodness ("On My Dear Grandchild Simon Bradstreet"). The
ambivalence of his emotions shows in "cropped by his hands. But he is good". On the
other hand, Rowlandson wrote in A Narrative of the Captivity and Restauration of Mrs
Mary Rowlandson about her daughter's death. Sarah was wounded in Lancaster with a
bullet and died nine months later. She was six years old. Rowlandson went through
various emotional states, such as the classic symptoms of survivor syndrome, including
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depression, anxiety, insomnia, despair, and grief. She thought that was God’s plan.
Rowlandson was solid with her religious conditions. However, she does not include any
biblical allusion or mentions of God. Despite the material loss, death of a family
member, adversity, and hardship, they continued to believe in God’s faithfulness.

In conclusion, they shared their struggle in the face of adversity in life. Both were
literate. Just as 18th-century colonial women struggled, so they did. They were also
constantly criticized by male readers because women were supposed to be taking care of
their homes. Bradstreet was a 17th-century housewife. It is not to expect that a religious
woman and housewife should sometimes show a little doubt about the certainty of
God’s providence. Their Puritans also required them to be virtuous wives and mothers.

2. Compare and contrast the diction of Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley,
developing a thesis statement and illustrating your points with examples drawn
from the texts selected in units 7 and 8. See the Activities “Answering
comparison and contrast questions,” “Writing about metaphorical language”,
and “Developing a thesis statement” in A Study Guide for American Literature
to 1900, pages 21-23, pages 47-50, and pages 53-54. Diction is defined in A
Study Guide, pages 200-201.

Equiano uses formal, ornate, and elegant language. Their structures are complex.
Wealthy also uses a sophisticated style, but it is typical of neoclassicism. Her poetic
diction is not ordinary language.

Firstly, the vocabulary and rhetorical questions reflect the cruelty of slavery that
Equiano had lived. He describes that the behaviour of Christians is more savage than
that of blacks. He addresses the reader using Christianity by asking rhetorical questions
about the cruelty of slavery. Besides, he wanted to demonstrate that slaves had the same
artistic ability and religious sensibility as whites. There is hypocrisy because Christian
values respect the slaves (“O, ye nominal Christians”). He defends slavery, but he wants
to be a Christian. On the other hand, Wealthy’s ornate language often teaches us a
lesson that must be easily understood and remembered. For example, she expresses the
idea that blacks are not their developed selves, for that she uses metaphorical language
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(the pun in “cane-Cain” and her self-representation as an “Ethiop”). Even she feels
superior to the white students because Christians are supporters of slavery

Furthermore, Equiano uses formal language to appreciate the relationship with his
family and friends. His feelings and affections reflect reality. Thanks to Equiano’s
formal language, the most challenging part of slavery worldwide became known. It was
so normalized. For example, he described his father’s experience as a slave in Africa
and emphasized the relation of his father with his owner’s family. His narrative voice
influences the emotional aspect of the rhetoric, the pathos. Wealthy deals with religious
and moral issues. She is more concerned with the living than the dead. Nevertheless, she
never lost her faith in God. She also writes poems about nature, imagination, and
memory.

Afterwards, Equiano reflects in his work with biblical quotations (“Who says unto you,
Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?”) with eloquent and well-
written language. In this way, it attracted the Christian reader. He was a Christian before
he was pagan. He shares with the reader the belief in God. However, Wealthy has mixed
pagan and Christian traditions in her works. This mixture of pagan and Christian
traditions is typical of English neoclassical literature. In Poems on Various Subjects,
Religious and Moral, she uses the blank verse. John Milton and Alexandre Pope
influenced her. Pope’s translation of Homer in verse was her favourite book. The
invocation, hyperbole, inflated ornamentation, and excessive personification are some of
the influences of 18th century English verse. Elegy is its most used poetic form. Voltaire
praised his poetry.

In conclusion, thanks to his work, we can see that Equiano, being a slave, has become
an intelligent man, a man of the Enlightenment. But, on the other hand, Wealthy had
received a neoclassical education, and her poems have the influence of Alexandre Pope
y John Milton and have metaphorical language.

There are some surprising mistakes in the first answer that undermine the
overall accuracy of your answer. e.g. To My Dear and Loving Husband is
not an elegy. On the positive side you manage to draw meaningful
comparisons and contrasts.
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You must be more aware of proofreading your work. You miscall Wheatley
Wealthy throughout the entire essay. I would recommend you to study
Wheatley’s subversive hidden meaning to fully get the grasp of her work.