Christopher Columbus: Understanding The Roots Of American Literature

It can be said that the United States has had vast influence over Canadian culture for many years, mainly due to proximity, to the point where it can be difficult to distinguish the experiences of the authors in question. As discussed in the lesson, this can cause issues when defining national forms of literature. However, it is because of this reason that literature is important, as it says a lot about the interactions between different cultures. It can show how two cultures are similar or not and therefore give readers an understanding of their own place in the world as well as the author's. Literature defines the perspective of the author, but also that of the reader, giving context to the relationships between certain countries. It can help us broaden our knowledge of other places, while questioning or affirming our beliefs in our own home. While reading novels such as Battle Royale and Things Fall Apart, you develop a sense of how things are in other places, and it's not difficult to then compare your experiences with those in the material you're reading. It certainly has given me reasons to become more educated about other cultures and to consider my own perspective in regards to my culture and country. This is why literature is also defined by perspective and the relationship between the author and the

Before reading this article I have never heard of Cahokia before it surprised me that it was 15 acres. I think that more people should go see it because it is a big part of America before Columbus discovered it. The Europeans had a lot of misconceptions about North America because first they though it was the Indies and had no idea it was there. They also had no idea that their immune system wasn’t used to diseases like the common cold and the plague. They were a civilized culture because they do a lot of what we do. They traded, held ceremonies, had religious beliefs, and in their own way had a government. The wildlife has changed a lot. There are more trees because we replanted them when the Native Americans did not.

Many history books have groped on the idea that it was Columbus who discovered the

All across the United States, students learn that Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 and “discovered” North America. This common misconception creates a false narrative for Americans learning about Christopher Columbus’ legacy - and indeed about the country’s early post-European history. When Christopher Columbus came ashore, North America was already inhabited by hundreds of thousands of native peoples so the concept of Christopher Columbus somehow “discovering” what is now the United States of America is inaccurate. He did, however, set off a process of conquering the land and its people for the Western World. He did so through brutal tactics including forced labor, enslavement, violence, and widespread killing.

In the age just before Columbus sailed the ocean blue, there was abundant life, lifestyles, and necessities that sustained that. In the 1500s, Europe was as tense as ever. Kings and popes raise armies to fight against one another. The population capacity of Europe at this time was around one hundred million people. At this point, Isabella, the Queen of Spain, is the most powerful woman in Europe as well.

It is thought by many that Christopher Columbus was a skilled sailor on a mission of greed. Many think that he in fact did it all for the money, honor and the status that comes with an explorer, but this is not the case entirely. Columbus was an adventurer and was enthused by the thrill of the quest of the unknown. “Columbus had a firm religious faith and a scientific curiosity, a zest for life, the felling for beauty and the striving for novelty that we associate with the advancement of learning”. He had heard of the legendary Atlantic voyages and sailors reports of land to the west of Madeira and the Azores. He believed that Japan was about 4,800 km to the west of Portugal. In 1484, Columbus wanted support for an exploratory

American History, it has done so much in time that has affected how we live life today and how we interpret things. American Literature reflects that and all it has left us with. Throughout the stories and passages we’ve read this course all of them have left a impact on how and why the writers wrote about what they did. It was all because of American History which later went on and fathered American Literature. American Literature has made society how it is today and painted a vivid picture of how American’s and people live and many of these writers had that in mind when they took these notes.

• had a formal language to write, a type of counting system, an correct calendar, and a agri system that was ahead of the time

American literature has been evolving since the dawn of the Puritan exploration and colonization in the early 1600s. From John Smith's books and descriptions of Native American life to the revolutionary ideas of Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson, literature has had many forms and has taken many ideas across time to interpreted by scholars of today. The early Americans were very successful in creating a style of literature that has a complete web of genres to be examined, as well as some genres being sourced more than others. These distinctions only help to prove the diversity of American literature from 1607 to the present day.

Throughout the world, Christopher Columbus has been known as a hero that discovered America. His disclosure helped execute a trade network between Europe (old world) and the America (new world). Which introduced new food and technology to both worlds. Although some may consider him as a legend, in many peoples’ eyes Christopher Columbus is a criminal that killed millions of natives, he took all the valuable goods from the natives without paying any price, and he is an enslaver. Therefore, columbus should not be considered as a hero.

Historians use historiography, the study of historical writing, to research topics from different perspectives. The historiography of the Columbus myth showed how several authors caused Columbus to be thought of as a hero. Washington Irving wrote a book which characterized Columbus are brave and heroic, and Samuel Eliot Morrison depicted Columbus as a great sailor in his book. Many things about Columbus were proven false, such as how Columbus was the only one who believed the world was round, yet many people still believe in the myth today. These two books helped me understand how historical writings caused people to believe in the Columbus myth despite its many

Prior to 1492, Native Americans had already migrated across North America, established complex societies, and adapted to their environments in various ways. “They live according to their whims, and in complete freedom” (Taylor 87), said a Spanish invader of the simplistic Native American lifestyle. Agricultural practices and the cultivation of maize became prominent in the American Southwest, with centrality in present-day Mexico. The advancement of agriculture grew societies economically and dramatically in population. In the Great Basin and Great Plains of North America, Native Americans who inhabited these areas adopted a nomadic lifestyle. Due to a significant lack of substantial natural resources, their daily lives were labor

No I have never heard of Cahokia before. However, the great, past city seems amazing and their civilization was astounding. It surprised me that they had a sort of constitutional system and laws. Some misconceptions the Europeans had about the Native Americans was that they were savages. They believed the inhabitants of the “New World” were cannibalistic, having no sense of culture or religion. This proved not to be true as the Native Americans were incredibly religious. They worshiped Mother Nature and animals. They also had a belief that the sun was a God. In the Cahokia tribe, the kind would wake up the earliest every morning, go to the tallest hill, and howl to the Sun God, telling him to come up.

Oftentimes, reading secondary documents can help one understand their primary counterparts. Both the video and the article on the Biography website allow readers to better understand Christopher Columbus’s “Journal of the First Voyage in America”. These secondary sources provide background information for the reader which assists them in understanding Columbus’s true motives in his journal.

There are not too many things that I know about American Literature as a whole; however, I might even surprise myself with what I do know. What American Literature encompasses, in my opinion, is any piece of literature that has sentimental, spiritual, or historical value to modern readers. I have been unable to study many examples of American Literature so far as I have never had a class that was completely dedicated to the subject. Edgar Allan Poe, Ernest Hemingway, and Theodore Roethke are the main American authors I was able to study in my high school English classes.