Bradstreet Attitude

Anne Bradstreet’s feelings about her home represent the most material conflict. When her home burned down she wrote the poem to voice these feelings of hers. She describes the awakening to the “shrieks of dreadful voice” and going out to watch “the flame consume” her “dwelling place”. But she comforts herself with good Puritan dogma. The burning of the house is God’s doing and his doings should not be questioned. In looking over the stanzas where she

Nathan Drum is the type of person everybody should strive to be, and although he stumbles, he gets back up again soon after. Nathan reacts to Ariel’s death the calmest of the family members. Yet we hear him ask, “Why Ariel? Why not me? The sins are mine. Why Punish her? Or Ruth?” (191). Even when faced with the death of a loved one, he does not question his faith. He may ask why God did something as bad as taking his only daughter instead of himself, the one that committed the crimes of war, but will not denounce God. Nathan’s faith that everything is going to be alright in the end is incredible to me. The Sunday after Ariel’s death shows just how incredible God’s power is. Now even though Nathan did not give a sermon at every church, it took a lot of guts and immense trust for him to preach in one of these churches. After having the darkest moment in his life, he comes out and gives one of the best sermons I have ever seen.

According to Corrie & Betsie Ten Boom, life was a faith-building experience. Those two women were faced with one of the toughest experiences of their lives. Each day, Corrie and Betsie had to persuade each other that everything was going to be okay, once they were free from the “hell”, or the concentration camp they were placed in. And, yet, Corrie and Betsie somehow managed to keep in mind that God was with them.

“Yet the Lord still shewed mercy to me, and helped me; and as he wounded me with one hand, so he healed me with the other” Mary Rowlandson. She believed in God’s mercy and that everything happens for a reason not by mistake.

Soon after being held in captivity, Mary Rowlandson’s attitude started changing from hopeless to hopeful; “Oh, I may see the wonderful power of God, that my Spirit did not utterly sink under my affliction: still the Lord upheld me with His gracious and merciful spirit, and we were both alive to see the light of the next morning” (Rowlandson 131). Here Rowlandson is talking about how she is able to keep her spirit up even though her daughter is extremely sick and she has no friends to comfort her. She claims she is able to do this because of the great power of God. It seems like her mind is being uplifted by the thought of God, and she is able to focus on the good things she still has in life. I believe without her religious beliefs keeping her mentally healthy throughout all of her hardships, she would have never been able to handle her captivity as well as she did. Even after her daughter died, she is still able to keep herself together; “I have thought since of the wonderful goodness of God 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” (Rowlandson 132). She recognizes looking back that she could have easily decided to take her own life after losing her daughter at such a young and helpless age. It is God who protected her and kept her from doing anything bad to herself at such a low point

Anne’s Bradstreet’s greatest influence on her writings was religion. As a child she was brought up as puritan therefore she has puritan beliefs that was showed in her poems. However, In some of her writings it seems she was struggled with her belief in God. Just like Phillis Wheatley, Anne Bradstreet used a literal device called inversions and also used many religious references. In Anne’s Bradstreet’s poem “Here Follow Some Verses upon the Burning of out House, July 10TH, 1666” Anne Says “It was His Own, it was not mine, Far be it that I should Repine.” (122). Here she was making references to her God and realizes that her stuff that was lost in the fire was not

On February 10, 1676 a dreadful event hit the settlers of Lancaster. The Narragansett Indians attacked and killed countless people and destroyed several houses. One of the men they killed begged for his life and even offered them money. The Indians didn’t pay any attention to him and hit him on the head with a hatchet, then proceeded to strip him of his clothes. Throughout this account Mary Rowlandson show an amazing trust and reliance in God.

Overcoming adversity can be very difficult and overwhelming, but having someone to turn to during these difficult times makes it a lot easier. Mary Rowlandson, William Bradford, and Olaudah Equiano, went through many hardships. During the miserable journeys that Mary Rowlandson and William Bradford went through they relied heavily on God. When they needed comfort or guidance they prayed to God in hopes of getting answers. In Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford believed that something happened because it pleased God. When John Howland was thrown overboard during a fierce storm, he caught hold of the topsail and was able to get pulled back onto the ship. It pleased God that his life was saved.

Bradstreet's attitude changes over the poem as she realizes that she should look at losing all of her things could be more than just a negative outcome.

These two statements are very important because they are the backbone of the whole book. These are the strongest parts that support the women she is. She is so hand in hand with God that she doesn’t even once criticize the reasons she’s in captive but as I have stated before, she blames herself for not praying enough. In the sixth remove she explains her circumstance, her being surrounded by her former enemies amidst no Christians at all but herself. She exclaims, “Oh the experience that I have had of the goodness of God, to me and mine!” Without any form of disbelief she praises the kindness of God. The beauty of her relationship with God is that she mentions no matter what kind of situation she is in whether it be near death or with luxuries. And she sees every good thing that happens to her as a sign of God. To sum it up, everything that has happened to her was pre-planned and the grace of God.

Anne Bradstreet, as a poet, wrote as both a Puritan woman in her time and as a woman ahead of her time. Zach Hutchins analyzed this tension in “The Wisdom of Anne Bradstreet: Eschewing Eve and Emulating Elizabeth”, and makes a primary argument that three of Bradstreet’s poems provide evidence that Bradstreet rejects the Puritan views of a woman while keeping her own personal faith. Hutchins fither his argument by declaring that readers should not view Bradstreet as a symbol of rebellion or submission, instead as a symbol of wisdom.

Even though, she will not be able to repay him with money as materialistic things are not of value, Bradstreet will write about him in her poetry, to show him her gratitude and express her love for him. I feel that Bradstreet wrote her poems about her father to impress him and make sure he knew that she was doing everything she could to repay him and show him her gratefulness for life. Bradstreet never discredits her father or places any blame on him for anything happening in her life, which was true of Puritan beliefs at that time.

violent things she had endured. She always talks to God asking him to give her

Sarah, after hearing the news, told Cate that it was our family’s lack of faith—and specifically, Cate’s lack of faith—that caused the baby to die. We did not “claim” God’s healing for Hannah, and if we had done so she would have been born alive. The suffering from Hannah’s death was magnified by Sarah’s assertions, and our family is still grappling with both. It has broken my mother’s heart, caused my father to believe his lack of faith killed his grandchild, and made Cate suffer more than she

Rewind to around 2 days before her kidnapping, Smart was in her class at church. Her Sunday school teacher had preached a few things that she took to heart. "If you will pray to do what God wants you to do, He will change your life, ' he said. I pressed my dress again, my head down. I was listening carefully to him now. I don 't know what it was, but there was something in the way he said it, the intensity of his voice, that made me realize that what he was saying was important." That day after church, Elizabeth went into her closet to escape the loudness of her siblings and prayed. "God, I 'm here," I said. "I 'm only fourteen. I know I 'm just a little girl. But I 'll do whatever it is that you want me to do. I really do want to serve you. But I 'm not sure that I know how." Elizabeth does not think what transpired was something that God expected. He without a doubt would not have wished the anguish and torment that she was going to experience upon anybody, particularly upon a young girl. "But since that time, I have learned an important lesson. Yes, God can make some good come from evil. But even He, in all His majesty, won 't make the evil go away. Men are free. He won 't control them. There is wickedness in this world. Which left me with this: When faced with pain and evil, we have to make a choice. We can choose to be taken by the evil. Or we can try to embrace the good." (Smart, 2013).