The Beginning Of American Literature Essay

If you choose, you can compare or contrast the U.S. Constitution with the Haudenosaunee Great Law of Peace (the Iroquois Constitution).

For thousands of years, scientists have tried to interpret the concept of creation. However, before people had access to modern scientific equipment, they told creations stories. A creation story is a myth that explains how and why the earth was made. A few cultures with differing opinions on creation are Europeans, Cherokee Indians, West Africans, and Hawaiians. Europeans tell the story of Genesis and God creating the earth in seven days and Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Cherokee Indians believe that the earth was created by a water beetle. In West African culture, they teach the Golden Chain story, and Hawaiians have the Kumulipo story to explain their beliefs on creation. Although each story follows a basic guideline, they all have distinct disparities.

The role of religion played a major role in early American literature. Many different authors form a variety of time period's incorporate religious ideas and philosophies into their writings. A few authors from different time periods that did this were Johnathan Edwards, Anne Bradstreet, and Henry David Thoreau.

Creation stories are tools used to try to explain the unexplainable. For centuries humans have been searching for answers to the what, when, why, and how questions that encompass life. Genesis and the Iroquois Creation Myth are two different stories that seek to describe the creation of Earth and the universe that surrounds it. Genesis describes a Christian perspective, particularly one of the most popular Western explanations to life on Earth. The Iroquois Creation Myth, on the other hand, takes a less traditional approach, while only mildly alluding to religion. The similarities between the two lie in the timeless battle of good versus evil.

All different cultures have their own creation stories, mostly all containing the elements of a Higher Power of some sort, how the power created the world, and the creation a human man. The Christian belief in the Genesis story has these key elements , as does the Iroquois creation myth, The World on the Turtle's Back. Although these two creation stories share similarities, they also have some stark contrasts. These contrasts include, how the two cultures of the Native American Iroquois tribe and then Christians view life and aspects of good and evil, the way each culture views nature and the impact that has on their culture, and finally the way the Christian God and the Iroquois gods are portrayed to

American Literature, especially of the early settler and colonial period is marked by a deep sense of religion and a stress upon writing about matters related to religion. The development of early American literature thus can be seen to be a reflection of the religious ideals followed by the early settlers and colonists and it became a means of promoting a moral and ethical way of life.

Creation myths have varying optimistic views on the creation of man. However, most creation myths agree that a god or gods of sorts sculpted man from the Earth’s clay. The creation myths “The Golden Chain” and “The World on the Turtle’s Back” come from two different tribes, the Seneca and the Iroquois, and share an optimistic view of mankind as well as the idea that man is made from clay. Even though both the Seneca and Iroquois tribes both believe that man is made from clay, they believe that man is created using a different method than that of the other. The Seneca tribe believes that man is created by Obatala in a state of abnormality because Obatala is drunk, while the Iroquois believe that mankind was created in a normal state of mind

Creation myths and stories come in many different forms based on the culture it appeals too. The Maya Indians were a group of tribes who lived around Central America and Mexico. Their creation myth is one that is known as an example of creation ex nihilo which is creation from nothing. This myth or collection of stories reveals that the Mayan culture values the natural world, winning, and worship.

In the beginning times of American Literature, Puritan writers were prevalent which grew into the Age of Reason by way of scientists and philosophers, which eventually emerged into Romanticism and the Renaissance writers, which developed into Realism by the middle of 19th century. Throughout American Literature, religious ideologies and philosophies influenced the way that writers portrayed the time period, characters, feelings, and God.

As the new world struggled to gain impendence from its mother country, Britain, native authors also try to develop their own style of writings. It quickly became evident that the search for a native literature became a national obsession. Then with the triumph of American independence, many at the time saw this as a divine sign that America and her people were destined for greatness. Greatness came with a strong nation and thousands of poems and stories that still shape our nation. The recent revolution greatly expressed the heart of the American people. However, it would take another fifty years of development throughout American before it produced the first great generation of American writers such as, Washington Irving, Ralph

"We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," says the Declaration of Independence. This phrase encompasses three major values shown throughout early American literature. The strong belief in religion, freedom, and a strong will for a better life. Each piece had one or more of these themes within them.

American literature 1865-1914 is an American literary time period that began in 1865 and ended in 1914. This time period was flourished by three distinct features and the first of these features is: The Aftermath of the Civil War. It is estimated that a total of 620,000 Americans were killed in the Civil War, and for what? At the time, we were an America that was divided by one huge issue that ran supreme and it was slavery and the unequal treatment of African Americans. At this time the nation needed to figure a way to unite the North who were against slavery and the South who were for slavery. As Abraham Lincoln says in our Bedford Anthology of American Literature: “No one man has authority to give up the rebellion for any other man, we simply must begin with, and mould from, disorganized and discordant elements,” (4). He is saying that we must not start a new, but rather we need to start from what we had and mould and shape our country into one. Prior to the Civil War, America was not a whole, it was ruled by states’ rights and was divided on countless issues, and when referring to America, people said the United States are… It wasn’t until under President Lincoln, and concluding the Civil War that the United States began to be referred to as the United States is.. Honest Abe, brought our nation together as one, but the racial tension that remained was something one man can never fix. The literature around this time period was dominated by ideas and feelings circled

“A Tale Intended to be After the Fact…” is how Stephan Crane introduced his harrowing story, “The Open Boat,” but this statement also shows that history influences American Literature. Throughout history, there has been a connection among literary works from different periods. The connection is that History, current events, and social events have influenced American Literature. Authors, their literary works, and the specific writing styles; are affected and influenced by the world around them. Authors have long used experiences they have lived through and/or taken out of history to help shape and express in their works. Writing styles are also affected by the current trends and opinions of the period they represent. By reading American

Early American literature may be said to begin with the Colonial period. John Smith and John Winthrop are two examples of the types of writing at this period: the former kept a romantic journal of his adventures in the New World; the latter kept a journal (or history) of life in New England, where religious matters were of utmost importance. The Puritans had come seeking a life free from religious persecution (which, they ironically brought with them however, as their descendent Nathaniel Hawthorne would show in The Scarlet Letter).

The Colonial Period in American Literature Blake Quickel The Colonial Period of American Literature was vital not only to the timeline of literature in our country, but it shaped the values and tradition that we identify America with. Literature from this period gives us a look into the beginnings of our country from different views such as Poems and stories from Native culture, Puritans, and the founding fathers. These writings give us an honest view of the way of life during this time. The Puritan writings we read in this class were very interesting in how they showed the early stages of America’s religion. Although religion in our government and our country’s values has become less and less extreme over time, it is amazing knowing how much control it had over society in our country’s beginnings; and many of the morals exorcised in the Puritan culture are still values relevant to our society today. In a reading from the “Introduction: Puritan Voices” assignment (a), the writer refers to the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a “man’s world”, describing the limited roles of women in society and how men were portrayed in the church as superior. Puritan ministers often preached that the soul had two parts, the immortal masculine half, and the mortal feminine half. Gender inequality is an enormous part of American Literature throughout all periods, and here you can see where these values originated in our country. Puritan society exists as a valid demonstration for why the first