American Novel

I wrote these notes out of my American Novel class, if anyone needs help. -Mi

____________________________________________________________________________

Table of Contents:

Chapter 1: What it Means to Americans to be American

                  - Lesson 1:

-->William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation

Chapter 2: 

-->Puritans

                - Lesson 1: 

-->John Winthrop's part II of A Model of Christian Charity

                   - Lesson 2: Winthrop's Speech To The General Court

Chapter 3:

-->Eighteenth Century Autobiographies

                - Lesson 1: 

-->Anne Bradstreet  

                                      i.  Before the Birth of One of Her Children

                                      ii. 

--> To My Dear and Loving Husband

                                      iii.  A Letter To Her Husband, Absent Upon Public Employment

                                      iv.

-->In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet

                                       v. 

-->Here Follows Some Verses Upon the Burning                                              Of Our House

                                       vi. 

--> To My Dear Children

                    - Lesson 2:  Edward Taylor, Upon Wedlock & Death Of Children 

Chapter 4:

-->The Changing Voice in the 18th Century

                - Lesson 1: 

-->Thomas Jefferson's account of his draft of "The

                      Declaration of Independence" from his Autobiography

                   - Lesson 2: 

-->Query XVII. Religion

                   - Lesson 3: 

-->St. Jean de Crevecoeur's "What is an American"

Chapter 5: 

-->Liberty in Era of the Revolution "All Men are Created Equal"?

               - Lesson 1: 

-->The Interesting Narrative of the Life of -->Gustavus Vassa

                  - Lesson 2: 

-->Crevecoeur's "Description of Charlestown,"

                  - Lesson 3: 

-->Phyllis Wheatley's "On Being Brought from Africa                                         to America

                  - Lesson 4: 

--> Thomas Paine's "Africans in Slavery"

                  - Lesson 5: 

--> Abigail Adams' "Remember the Ladies."

Chapter 6: 

-->The Early 19th Century Looking Backwards & Forwards

                 - Lesson 1: 

-->Nathaniel Hawthorne

                                        i .

-->My Kinsman, Major Molineux

                                       ii . 

-->Young Goodman Brown

                                       iii. 

--> The Maypole of Merry Mount

Chapter 7: 

-->Nineteenth Century Reform

                - Lesson 1: 

-->Emerson: "Self-Reliance"

________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 1:  

What it Means to Americans to be American 

Lesson 1: William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation

• basically bradford was a puritan

•  chief judge and jury, oversaw agriculture and trade and he made allotments of land
• his puritan people were known as the "Separatists"
• unlike the majority of puritans these saw no hope of reforming the Church of England from within
• Bradford was a self-educated man deeply committed to the Puritan cause
• he was chosen to govern Plymouth
• "Of Plymouth Plantation" portrays the English Pilgrims' Calvinistic spirit which actually dominates American Literature
• it is the single most complete authority for the story of the Pilgrims and the early years of the Colony they founded
• it's a journal
• describes story of the pilgrims 
• Plymouth Colony, founded in North America, MA by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620
• there was also trouble in Europe: "volatile political environment" and "violent protests" so the Pilgrims sought "religious freedom"
• "it was illegal not to attend official Church of England services, with a fine of one shilling for each missed Sunday and holy day. The penalties for conducting unofficial services included imprisonment and larger. Some were executed."
• Unlike the Puritan group who maintained their membership in and allegiance to the Church of England, Separatists held that their differences with the Church of England were irreconcilable and that their worship should be organized independently of the trappings, traditions and organization of a central church
• outspoken men of faith were called "Professors"
• bradford quotes Socrates a lot
• it was common for the punished to be removed of their property
• "It is said that Satan had subtler methods"
• Reasons for departure are suggested by Bradford, when he notes the "discouragements" of the hard life they had in the Netherlands, and the hope of attracting others by finding "a better, and easier place of living"; the "children" of the group being "drawn away by evil examples into extravagance and dangerous courses"; the "great hope, for the propagating and advancing the gospell of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world"
• The narration is about the Puritans coming to America, making friends with the Indians and celebrating the first Thanksgiving.
• 1st winter was cold and 100 colonists died

_________________________________________________________________________________

Chapter 2:  Puritans

Lesson 1:  John Winthrop's part II of A Model of Christian Charity

- Background about Winthrop:

• he had all the advantages that his father's social and economic positions would allow
• he went to Cambridge for 2 years and married at the age of 17
• was exposed to Puritan ideas at Cambridge
• Unlike Bradford and the Pilgrims he was not a seperatist, he wished to reform

 Model of Christian Charity  is a Sermon delivered by John Winthrop which laid out the religious virtues of the new colony 

• this sermon was delivered to the puritan colonists upon their landing in massachsetts
• "God in His most holy and wise providence, hath so disposed of the condition of mankind, as in all times some must be rich, some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity; others mean and in subjection".
• people are different in ways and God chose that
• they're different in 3 ways hek god arrar
• the 1st way
• diversity among people is good because it makes god get honored in various ways
•  2nd:  act of kindness from rich toward the poor and in return obedience from the poor toward the rich 
•  so this is the spirit of the ideal life yay ^_^
•  the 3rd point: common needs among individuals with diff qualities is necessary to society
• He influenced "colonial development, government and religion of neighboring colonies."
•  in the 3rd point he's referring to people with similar struggles ya3tee alf 3afyeee
•  "12 annual terms as governor": opposed unconstrained democracy, calling it "the meanest and worst of all forms of government
•  he talks about the Puritan love toward each other... he states 4 explanations of this "love"
• number one! the love among christians is a real thing AND NOT IMAGINARY
• "He encouraged the colonists to "bear one another's burdens", and to view themselves as a "Company of Christ, bound together by Love." "
•  number 2: this love is absolutely necessary to be a part of the body of christ as organs and ligaments belong to the body so do the people -  metaphor
• Thirdly: This love is a divine, spiritual nature free, active, strong, courageous, permanent.... this makes us nearer to resemble the virtues of our Heavenly Father.
• Fourthly: It rests in the love and welfare of its beloved
•  aaaaaaaand finally the structure of his sermon
•  it is directed toward the Puritans so they can understand Winthrop's overall message of serving God as a community as a text
• uses a lot of scripture evidence to what he says
•  The Puritans, the audience Winthrop is speaking to, is familiar with the question and answer technique that Winthrop uses throughout the sermon. This technique enables the Puritans to understand and interpret the meaning of the scriptures. It gives an explanation of Winthrop's utmost purpose of the sermon and it's specified to the Puritans through a question and answer layout. <Mi`>   la2annon retarded  
 

_____________________________________________________________

 

- Lesson 2: Winthrop's Speech To The General 

   Court 

 

• it's against liberty
• he says there are 2 kinds:
 

1. natural

2. civil or federal

•  the 1st is common to man with beasts and other creatures..
 it is a liberty to evil as well as to good

•  This liberty is incompatible and inconsistent with authority 
• The exercise and maintaining of this liberty makes men grow more evil
•  the 2nd kind of liberty, the civil one may also be termed moral, in reference to the covenant between God and man, in the moral law, and the politic covenants and constitutions, amongst men themselves.
• i wonder how God feels about this hmmm
•  This liberty is the proper end and object of authority
•  This liberty is maintained and exercised in a way of subjection to authority; it is of the same kind of liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free
• The woman's own choice makes such a man her husband; yet, being so chosen, he is her lord, and she is to be subject to him YA3TEEEEE ALF 3AFYE
• yet in a way of liberty, not of bondage; and a true wife accounts her subjection her honor and freedom, and would not think her condition safe and free but in her subjection to her husband's authority. Such is the liberty of the church under the authority of Christ, her king and husband ALF 3AFYE 

_____________________________________________________________

 

 Chapter 3: 

Lesson 1: Anne Bradstreet 

 

i. Before the birth of one of her children

 

Anne Bradstreet's opinion on life and feminism in the 1600s. They are also written for her husband regarding her love for him and her children regarding her hope for their future.

• even though she lived in a Puritan society and it was sort of taboo to express such feelings openly she didn't publish her poems
•  she was a governor's wife
• was the first poet and first female writer in the British North American colonies to be published
• In Puritan religion, a relationship between a man and a woman is to be kept behind closed doors
• Anne Bradstreet's love poems to her husband are her way of expressing the emotions she kept repressed from the public
• Bradstreet was not responsible for her writing becoming public. Bradstreet’s brother-in-law, John Woodbridge, sent her work off to be published.
•  it still was a great risk to have had her work published during the time in which she lived because being a published author would have not been a typical role of the everyday Puritan woman
• she goes through many harsh times and keeps hope that the true treasure is in heaven......kay
•   Before the Birth of One of Her Children: Fear; apprehension. She was worried about childbirth and she was sickly P.S: Catchy title.
• a pregnant woman, fearing death in childbirth, writes a farewell message for her husband. majdoube
• while she emphasizes the reality of the physical separation that death will bring
•  she also finds the one way to cross over the barrier of death, leaving her manuscript, her words, with him.
• she's concerned of parting blabla writing farewell poem
•  She writes in a formal rhyme and metrical pattern, as was the norm in seventeenth century British poetry.
• Yotla3 e5er shi howe ma bya3ref yo2ra masalan, aw gives no shits about her... ya3tee l3afye
• First, in the only religious reference in the poem, she tells him that she prays that God will grant her husband and children a long life. Next she asks her husband to forget her flaws but to remember her virtues.
• Finally, she asks that if he finds her farewell message after she has died he cherish it, touch it, even kiss it... kay.