Of Plymouth Plantation- Puritan Writing

The short story "Of Plymouth Plantation" by William Bradford is about the Pilgrims journey to the United States. It describes the voyage down to the US by ship and the struggles that the Pilgrims endured when they arrived here, trying to adjust. They had to try to make a friendship with the Native Americans who were not at first very friendly to the strangers. This story, like the poem "Upon the Burning of our House", by Anne Bradstreet and the short story, "A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson", by Mary Rowlandson is a classic piece of Puritan writing. These three writings have a lot of things in common in regards to the style and influences that are used throughout all of them. In all of these writings, the style of the writing is very simple and plain. This was very common in a lot of puritan writing. Not a lot of details were used in their stories, which I think makes them kind of boring. Another very common thing in puritan writing is a religious influence. The puritans were very religious people. They were catholic and they believed that whether we go to Heaven or Hell has already been decided. They believed that some people have been chosen to go to Heaven, while others are damned to Hell. Even though they believed this, they thought that sometimes, even if you were one of the people destined to go to Hell, if you lived a really good christian life, God may change his mind or something and allow you into the pearly gates of Heaven. They also believed that if you were one of the lucky people who God chose to come to Heaven, that you could ruin your chances by sinning and God would not let you in to Heaven. Since religion was so important to the puritans, it makes sense that religion would be a big influence on their writing. For example, in, "Of Plymouth Plantation, by William Bradford, Bradford makes a lot of references to his religion and to God.

Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element. (Bradford 65)

"Squanto continued with thwm and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation." (Bradford p. 67). In both of these passages from "Of Plymouth Plantation", the author refers to his religion. In the first one, he is writing about how the Pilgrims thank God for helping them on their journey to America. They praise him for keeping them alive and healthy and for delivering them there. In the second passage, the author says that Squanto was a gift sent from God unto the Pilgrims. He believes that Squanto is a blessing to them because without Squanto to translate, the Pilgrims and Native Americans would have a hard time communicating and therefore, they might not get along very well. In conclusion, Puritans had a very unique writing style and religion influenced their writing very much. I think that William Bradford used these techniques in his writing.


Bibliography
Bradford, William. "Of Plymouth Plantation." Glencoe Literature. Columbus: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 62-67. Print.