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American Literature

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Title: 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
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