Literature of Early American Time Period - Essay Example

Literature of Early American Time Period In the history of the Americans, different pieces of literature were written by various authors and they focused on some issues that were the major in the lives of these people. In America, some ancient authors to the literature presented different concept concerning life and how it ought to be manned by all the people as well as presenting the ideals of the culture of different people. In this respect, these authors presented particular themes that were a good indication of the things that prevailed in their environment in the time such people lived and interacted with each other.

Some authors presented different perspective of relationships among the people while other presented the relationship that ought to exist between them and the supernatural being. In looking at the past history of the literature of America, a look at the William Bradford’s book Of Plymouth Plantation exposes different themes that dominated the life of people in those times and the analysis of those themes shows the different preoccupations of males and females in the society. In Bradford’s book, one of the themes in the book is exploration in new places where he explains an exploration in Cape, New England where they arrived at in a ship that put them in a harbor.

He describes how some men wanted to understand the environment of the New England and pursued some local men who had come near the harbor but they ran away never to be caught. When men ran after the locals, the women who had travelled with them were left at the harbor and on the other hand, when the men wanted to carry out greater exploration, thirty of them entered the ship to go to different places and made some discoveries (Bradford 81-82). In his description of the event of the journey to spread the word of God to different places, Bradford indicated the theme of ethnic tensions which made the different groups in the book to fear each other.

For example, when the people from England arrived at Cap-Codd and their ship was on repair, the fourth day the men decided to go for a trip to explore the area and find somewhere they could stay. The captain of the ship warned them to arm themselves for any eventuality in the course of their exploration, which indicated that the Englishmen did not feel secure in the area. On the other hand, the men from Cap-Codd the Englishmen met with dogs strolling without any identifiable location, which indicates a kind of means of ensuring their security.

On seeing the Englishmen, Bradford says that the men from Capp-Codd “…… fled from them,& and rane up into ye woods, and ye English followed them partly to see if they could speake with them and partly to discover if ther might not be more of them lying in ambush” (Bradford 81). Bradford also focused on the themes of religion and coexistence among people who were in the place they went, where he pointed out that in terms of relationship with locals of the area they visited, they were not warmly welcome.

In relation to the relationship between the two groups, Bradford pointed out that the local men of the Indian community shot arrows against them to prevent them from entering their territory. The theme of religion is seen in places where the men who survived the shooting worshipped God as noted on page 87, where he said that when the men finally settled at Indian, “……and gave God thanks for his mercies, in their manifould deliverances (Bradford 87). In an attempt to explain the circumstances that comprise the theme of the book Of Plymouth Plantation, Bradford has tried to indicate men as very active in different activities in the ancient American society.

For example, while men were involved in defense activities and manual work like guiding ships in the difficult weather, the women in the same context were describes as weakened by the brows they encountered on the sea. In the same case, people who were engaged in the repair of the ship when it broke down were men without the involvement of women in any of such activity while they were away or did not take any active part in it. Only men took an active role in the exploration of the place they wanted to settle and advance the gospel while women were staying back at the harbor or at home, to wait the guidance of the men.