Essay on Values In Early American Literature

Emerson was an American philosopher, poet and the leader of the Transcendentalist movement. This movement started as a protest against the current state of the society and culture; and was based on a fundamental belief in the unity of the world and God. "Emerson declared literary independence in the United States and urged Americans to create a writing style all their own and free from Europe" (Ralph). This type of methodology is easily portrayed in his two stories, The American Scholar, and Self…

land (Reuben 6). He wrote, “Being thus left to our fortunes, it fortuned that within ten days scarce ten amongst us could either go, or well stand, such extreme weakness and sickness oppressed us.” (Perkins and Perkins 36). In the same piece of literature, Smith also noted another very ominous threat to the well-being of the…

education found its expression in their writings. Their writings reflected their engrained beliefs, especially religion which was integral to their existence and hence early American literature is infused with religiosity. The role of religion in the literature of this period can also be attributed to the journals kept by the early settlers who recorded their daily life with precision. Religion became central to their journals because Puritanism called for reflection on the spiritual and this was…

during situations that could seem like nothing to be thankful about like, “yet the Lord by his almighty power, preserved a number of us from death” (Rowlandson 10). Through both the narratives of the lives of Equiano and Rowlandson, the Puritan literature is influence by religious ideologies and philosophies. By the end of the 17th century, new ideas formed in Europe challenging the faith of the Puritans, during the period of time known as the Age of Reason. Also known as the Enlightenment, it…

natural phenomenon. Failures to understand these intentions are human limitations. (“American Puritanism: A Brief Introduction”) In 1620, William Bradford formed the Plymouth Plantation with a group of Europeans that came with him to America. In only a year, their number of survivors decreased by half. Bradford kept a journal that chronicled the first 30 years of Plymouth Colony. Plain speech was the high literary value of this society, as expressed by William Bradford, who enjoined “a plain style…

all because she quietly questioned some of the Church's decisions and didn't take kindly the spoon-fed Puritan principles. Early American History should be remembered as a time of unity as well as exclusion because in each separate colony, they had to unite to stay alive. They united in grief over trials and tribulations, such as mass numbers of death, especially in the early colonies, and hunger. They also united in their joys, such as maybe a good harvest, and in their faith. Faith was a huge unison…

All education was basedon religion and through that there was no questioning of God. Along with this, their faith was based of that of the super natural world. They could not see God, but saw him through thingslike a prosperous harvest or a winter blizzard, both of these in reaction to actions taken by the Puritans. With this lack of deductive reasoning the Puritans would find themselves thinking about things done wrong if there was a life threatening winter blizzard…

Thoreau instead offers an alternative, "The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think is right" (Thoreau 250). This relates back to Emerson's idea of self-reliance; a person, according to Thoreau, must be reliant on himself/herself and not on the government. The power of change is in the people, the government "does not keep people free. It does not settle the West. It does not educate" (Thoreau 250). Thoreau's view on the importance of the…

Benjamin Franklin did not hold his family beliefs of Christianity, but from his early environment, he drew his relationship to God as a Deist. Franklin believed there is a Supreme Being and it is our job to discover our own reality by reasoning. In his autobiography, he notes several epiphanies that changed his lifestyle. For example, he regretted his leaving Miss Read for England without pursuing their relationship further. He calls these regrets or wrongdoings "Erratum" (Lauter 788). The spirituality…

major risks from getting involved in other peoples live. First it is waste of psychological energy because the more someone wastes his /her brain energy with involving in other peoples live is the more he/she becomes sick or mental tiredness. The American response to involvement of other affair is some times: “mind your business.”? Secondly, its time consuming to get involved in another person’s life without being in charge because the time isn’t something for free in united stated but the time is…