Analysis of The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress is an allegorical story about the Christian religion. It allegorizes the journey of a Christian into "the Celestial City, which represents heaven. Although Pilgrim's Progress may seem simple and straightforward, there are many deeper meanings throughout the whole story. Bunyan uses the names of his characters to signify whom the character represents in the story, for example, the character Hopeful represents hopefulness, Help represents people who are willing to help others in need of assistance, Faithful represents people who are faithful to whatever they are associated with, and the main character, Christian, represents all young
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Christian cries out for Faithful to stop and wait so they can be companions along their travel, but Faithful replies, "No, I am upon my life, and the avenger of blood is behind me" (60). In the story, the life he is trying to save is his real, tangible life. But his running away from the avenger of blood to save his "life" actually symbolizes saving Faithful's spiritual life. Because he has sinned and broken the Ten Commandment, "You shall not kill," he is now being chased by death and if caught, he will kill Faithful; this death characterizes the death of eternal life and therefore not being able to enter heaven (Deuteronomy 5:17). In the bible there is a passage that talks about the avenger of blood and who is he. "This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having been at enmity with him in time past…he may flee to one of these cities and save his life; lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him" (Deuteronomy 19:4-6). Jesus Christ was born without sin, and never sinned throughout his lifetime. Faithful, however, who although did not try to kill his neighbor, killed him unintentionally and therefore, sinned. Jesus would never have caused pain to any living creatures, neither accidentally nor deliberately. This is one example of how Faithful differs from Christ.
Faith is a large part in a
As a sociologist, Kai T. Erikson looks at history as a reflection of changes in societal norms and expectations. Erikson re-visits his look at historical happenings of the Puritans in his novel “Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance”. By examining several “crime waves” throughout history, Erikson points out several aspects of how we see deviance. After researching Puritan lifestyle and the corresponding influences of deviance, Erikson explores the Antinomian Controversy, the Quaker Invasion, and the Witches of Salem Village.
Most of the book is the narrative from Billy Pilgrim a unique character who has the ability to become “unstuck in time”,
The excerpt Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, is a piece that explores the purpose of life, especially if it isn 't lived to the fullest. Thoreau starts by sharing the meaning and value of life. His idea of his personal achievement was to live life and die with a sense of peace and knowledge that he did not waste a single moment. He wanted to live life while being true to himself regardless of whether he would find life to be cruel or a wonderful place, and this was a risk he was willing to take. In a modern sense we are intrigued by technology. Although those in favor of technology may say that the new devices and applications do not affect human interaction and our way of living we are, are unable to see that, even in a room filled with people, there is an isolation barrier and an inability to live life to the fullest.
During the early colonization of the East coast of North America, many groups of people of Europe came to the New World such as the Puritans and Quakers. Both the Puritans, led by John Winthrop, and the Quakers, led by William Penn, were escaping persecution from England but each they had their own views and goals in religion, politics, and ethnic relations. Being on the native land of the local Indians, both Penn and Winthrop had to face issues and negotiations with the Indians. Penn and Winthrop had their own separate approaches to politics but they both sought a more just system than the one in England. After being persecuted, both Penn and Winthrop wanted their people to be free worship, but Penn and Winthrop each had their own
Faithful is just a guy who, like Christian, escapes his past life and pursues a life that is down the straight and narrow path of Christianity. A Righteous man, ridiculed, tortured, and finally burnt at the stake for his faith, Faithful lives up to his name and is the martyr of The Pilgrim's Progress—the one who suffers and dies for what he believes in. Before Christian meets Faithful on the road from the Palace Beautiful, Christian seems to be the only real pilgrim on the journey to the Celestial City. The others pilgrims he has met on his journey (Formalist and Hypocrisy, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, Mr. Pliable) have either abandoned the journey for its extreme struggles or for being shown the hollowness of their faith. But Faithful is different unlike his friends he did not have a hollow faith so when he faced the trials and tribulations he did not deal with them because of his strong faith in the Lord.
There are many examples of people in The Holy Bible either losing their lives or putting their lives on the line for what they believed in. In this case it was for Christianity and their way of life. When Jesus of Nazareth came across the
Robert Frosts “The Road Not Taken” is more symbolic of a choice one must make in their life in attempt to foresee the outcome before reaching the end, than it is about choosing the right path in the woods.
The creation the Mayflower compact was a very significant event in the history of the United States because of its example of a the first type of government in North America. The Mayflower Compact was draw up by a group of people known as Pilgrims in 1620. These people, mostly English, were in search of more religious freedom and better lives in the New World. 100 pilgrims began this journey in September of 1620 (History.com staff). Before, landing in New England, the Pilgrims signed the Mayflower Compact. This legal document created “just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices” (History.com staff). This was the first example of a self-government in the New World. The founding fathers would later use many of the ideas in the Mayflower Compact in other governing documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution. Through these examples, it is clear that the Mayflower Compact is significant to American history because it provided many ideas of self government that are still used in our governing documents today.
In the Robert Frost poem ‘’The Road Not Taken’’ there is a pervasive and in many ways intrinsic sense of journey throughout. In such, the poem explores an aspect associated with human decision, or indecision, relative to the oxymoron, that choices with the least the difference should bear the most indifference, but realistically, carry the most difficulty. This is conveyed through the use of several pivotal techniques. Where the first such instance is the use of an extended metaphor, where the poem as a whole becomes a literary embodiment of something more, the journey of life. The second technique used is the writing style of first person. Where in using this, the reader can depict a clear train of thought from the walker and understand
The novel Mayflower by Nathaniel Philbrick has a long list of things to teach us about the New World. The fact that it’s showed us that the very first pilgrims had no idea what they were in for was crucial. They were hit with the realization that the Natives would be wild and ferocious instead of calm and tame. They’d known they would be introduced to new ways of life, and disease, but they didn’t suspect that it’d be the most destructive part to the goodwill of the newly born colony.
Mayflower: A story of courage,community,and war is about the lives of Pilgrims and the new lifestyle they are entering. The mayflower was the ship that transported the Pilgrims to the New World in 1620. Mr.Philbrick discusses the relationships amongst the England Pilgrims and their new neighbors the Native Americans. Upon meeting, there is already distrust between the two groups because they do not fully know each other. The pilgrims and native americans are now on a long voyage to accumulate trust,build a relationship, adapt to the new lifestyle.
In the novel Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick, the author educates us on how the New World was discovered and created. It all started with a group of roughly 100 men and women who originated from England known as the Pilgrims. The Pilgrims were sick and tired of the lack of religious freedom and work/economic opportunities. There was no future for the Pilgrims in England. This was all until the group set sail on the Mayflower in order to find new land. After a rough journey, they came across a piece of land now known as New England. The Pilgrims settled here because it was relatively empty. They believed that in New England they would be able to create a godly city or a place where they wouldn’t be criticized for their religious views.
At the start of the film After the Mayflower: We Shall Remain, the English and the Native Americans celebrated the first Thanksgiving together in 1621. Both groups of people seemed trusting of each other and showed personal respect. At this time the Wampanoag Indians had the power and chose to use it to form a treaty with the weak English Pilgrims. The two groups shared everything and traded their assets with each other. As the film continued there was an obvious change in power to the English with more and more Puritan immigrants from Europe arriving. By the end of the movie the English decided to use their power to control all lands instead of keeping the treaty with the native people. The English “thanksgiving” at
“The situation of the orphan is truly the worst, you’re a child, powerless, with no protectors or guides. It’s the most vulnerable position you can be in, to see someone overcome those odds tells us something about the human spirit. They are often depicted as the kindest or most clever of characters.” Michelle Boisseau describes how important these types of characters are. In a Sunday Times article, she states that a lot of the stories and novels are considered to be apologues about orphans becoming the hero of the book. Huck’s story is quite like this subject. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a novel written by Mark Twain, it’s about a boy named Huckleberry Finn, who sets
Another comparison to the Bible is the death of Guido to save his son. At the end of the film, Guido is forced by a German soldier to proceed to the place of his death. As he goes there, Guido passes by the crate in which Joshua is hiding. Instead of running from the guard, Guido marches on to amuse Joshua. Similarly, after Jesus was condemned to death, soldiers led him to the hill where he would eventually die. Jesus did not resist. As Jesus marched to his death, he comforted those who wept in sorrow and sadness. Again, Guido acts as Jesus Christ acts in the Bible. In the Bible, Jesus saves His people by giving his life for them. Similarly,