Introduction
It’s a well-known fact that all literary schools were influenced by various historical, political or religious processes. Puritanism in America was not an exception. This school started as religious movement in Britain and tightly rooted itself into American society and literature of the XVIIth century becoming one of the major schools and making a great impact on the further development of American literature.
The main Puritan beliefs
Puritanism as a religious movement established its own system of beliefs and rules that was implemented into literary school that attracted many authors of that period. The most renowned representatives of this school are W. Bradford, M. Rowlandson, A. Bradstreet, E. Taylor, J. Edwards. In this paper I’d like to concentrate my attention on two writers from the Puritan period: William Bradford and Mary Rowlandson and try to examine how their works incorporate the tenets Puritanism.
Before analyzing the works in terms of their belonging to Puritanism I believe it’s important to identify the main characteristics of Puritan style and intentions and aims the authors put forward to transfer their message to the reader. Closely tight with the religion and affected by it, American Puritan writers aspired to transform and praise religion and God in their works, but they also expressed the needs and desires of people of that period.
Since the Puritan works catered basically for common people it was typical of them to be written in plain style with clear expression of thought and virtually absence of figures of speech (Perkins 133). Nevertheless, this fact doesn’t mean that the authors themselves were illiterate and incapable of using elaborate high sounding language; otherwise, it was rather the opposition to rules and skilled writers. Therefore, Bradford doesn’t make use of metaphors and his works don’t abound in various figures of speech, which stands for his idea of simple life and hard work that purifies from sins.
Reflection of Puritan tenets in literature
Moreover, Puritan writers regarded God as supreme authority over human beings, which resulted in their continuous pursue to moral purity and severe fight against sin. Puritan school representatives tended to live an obedient and modest life, which reflected in their works, mostly, diaries and histories. The writings were based on Biblical model – individual life was perceived as a “”journey to salvation” and deliverance from sins (Perkins 231). Thus, Bradford’s most famous book Of Plymouth Plantation is influenced greatly by his Puritan background. Telling the story of the Pilgrims and the early years of the Colony of Puritans, their hardships of escape to New York and the unshakable belief in God despite all the obstacles on their way, the book reflect the idea of total submission to God and, thus, every mishap is regarded as God’s punishment and every success as God’s blessing.
Mary Rowlandson’s The Narrative of Captivity where she tells a story of the community that was destroyed by Indians it is also “an extreme example of strict Puritan faith” (Breitwieser 127). Being separated from her husband, she with a small child has to travel with the Indians in terrifying conditions only with water to drink she stick to her Puritan beliefs and thanked god: “I have thought of the wonderful goodness of God to me in preserving me in the use of my reasons and senses in that distressed time, that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life” (Breitwieser 155). Rowlandson always addresses God “in times of danger and pain; she believes that all the unfavourable conditions that she has endured have a purpose” (Breitwieser 156). Besides, she saw her life in the light of Biblical stories and used allusions to them in their works.
Conclusion
Concluding, I’d like to say that Puritanism literature reflected Puritan devotion to God and Bible as the embodiment of the Word, their beliefs of simple uncorrupted life and hard work.
Bibliography
Breitwieser, Mitchell Robert. American Puritanism and the Defense of Mourning: Religion, Grief, and Ethnology in Mary White Rowlandson’s Captivity Narrative. Univ of Wisconsin Press, 1990.
Perkins, George, and Perkins, Barbara. The American Tradition in Literature, Vol 1. McGraw-Hill, 1999.