American Literature

1
The Puritan Legacy

• American Literatures Colonial Roots

2
Remember the Pilgrims?
3
Pilgrims and Puritans

• The Pilgrims were part of a group of English
  Puritans called the Separatists who fled
  persecution (including torture and execution) in
  England.
• The Pilgrims traveled to America aboard the
  Mayflower and landed at Plymouth in 1620.
• Puritans is a general term for English
  Protestants who wanted to purify the Church of
  England.
• The Puritans objected to the rituals,
  decorations, and organization of the Church of
  England. They wanted a simpler form of worship
  and organization.

4
A Puritan Time Line
5
What the Puritans Believed

• Religion is a personal, inner experience.
• Humans are wicked by nature, and most are marked
  for damnation.
• A chosen few can be saved through the grace of
  God.
• Hard work and worldly success are signs of Gods
  grace.
• Education is essential in order to read the Word
  of God.
• To be a member of Puritan society, one had to
  join in debate and discussion about scripture
• Parents concerned about souls of children would
  teach youngsters to read and write

6
Grace The Puritan Ideal

• GraceGods special favorwas the only way to
  escape an eternity in Hell.
• People did not know for certain if they had
  grace, but they could feel the arrival of grace
  as an intense emotion.
• People who had grace were among the elect
  (saved).
• People who did not have grace were among the
  unregenerate (damned).

7
Grace The Puritan Ideal

• The presence of grace was demonstrated by a
  persons outward behavior. People with grace
  displayed

• self-reliance
• personal responsibility
• industriousness
• temperance
• simplicity

8
Values Self-Reliance and Industriousness

• Useful because the Puritans in New England had to
• Build farms and establish towns in the wilderness
• Find their own food and shelter
• Make clothes and tools
• Figure out how to survive in a new world
• Deal with a new climate

9
Puritan Government

• In Theory
• Every individual had an equal covenant with God.
• Laws came from God, as revealed in scripture.
• In Practice
• Most people yielded authority to those seen as
  the saintly elect.
• Conformity and obedience took precedence over
  individual rights.

10
Why kings granted charters

• By allowing Puritans to move to America, the
  British Crown could establish English presence in
  the New World
• Would also remove political troublemakers from
  England

11
Puritan Literature

• What the Puritans Read
• The Bible and other religious texts
• Why They Read
• Puritans stressed individual responsibility for
  spiritual development.
• Every person was responsible for reading and
  understanding the Bible.

12
Puritan Literature
What the Puritans Wrote

• Sermons, essays, and poems on spiritual and
  religious subjects
• Diaries and histories that recorded inner and
  outer events of their lives
• Why They Wrote
• Puritans used writing to explore their lives for
  signs of grace and to describe the workings of
  God in their communities.

13
Plain Style

• Puritans favored a plain style of writing. Plain
  style is a way of writing that stresses
  simplicity and clarity of expression. Plain style
• emphasizes uncomplicated sentences and the use of
  everyday words from common speech
• avoids elaborate figures of speech and imagery

14
Why Witchcraft?

• Theology held that Satan was constantly scheming
  to seduce mankind into evil
• Humans were wicked by nature
• Grace could only be recognized by interpreting
  signs
• Constantly scrutinizing oneself and ones
  neighbor
• Without science or modern medicine, unknown
  symptoms couldnt be explain
• Would lead to hysteria and fear

15
Salem Believers Run Amok

• 1692Girls suffer from mysterious illness in
  Salem, Massachusetts.
• Doctors blame witchcraft.
• Mass hysteria erupts neighbors accuse one
  another.
• In the end, about 150 people were accused, and 20
  were executed.

16
What Happened to the Puritans?

• The Age of Faith gradually gave way to the Age of
  Reason.
• Philosophers and scientists stressed the
  importance of using reason, rather than religion,
  to explain how the world operates.
• The Puritans didnt disappeartheir culture was
  absorbed into the colonial mainstream.

17
The Puritan Legacy

• In the United States, we generally value
• individual rights and responsibilities
• equality of individuals
• literacy and education
• spiritual and worldly rewards for hard work

18
Puritanism and American Culture

• Still value
• individual rights
• industriousness
• equality
• access to public education system
• strong work ethic