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The relationship between religion and morality
The relationship between religion and morality
Religion as a source of morality essay
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Although John Smith, Mary Rowlandson and Jonathan Edwards are very different writers we can find a few similarities in their quotes we are learning. Quoting Seneca and other Latin authors, he presents his narrative with clear political intentions using third person and the first person in other occasions to make himself look as a hero who has managed to escape from captivity and death in three different occasions and has conquered exotic lands. On the contrary, Mary Rowlandson quotes Biblical passages, as she is a Puritan jeremiad with a strong religious background. The same happens with Jonathan whose religious thoughts are his main subject. Both Rowlandson and Edwards believe that everything is God’s will. Mary focuses her narrative on the violence of the attack, how she survives from captivity and she feels the need to write a book to teach a moral lesson to the congregation. However, …show more content…
With a self-confident tone, he refers to the American natives as “savage, devils” and compares their home to a devil’s home and their tactics to soldiers in Europe, all just to bring attention to the readers. Mary, on the other hand, represents natives as “ravenous beast” showing the typical symptoms from a survivor; anxiety and distress. She uses a prose with the absence of rhetorical ornamentation rejecting literary artifice, sending a clear message though with her own interpretation of things. With a clear binary opposition, good and evil can be found in the same human; she forgets that the Indian may have a reason for the attacks. Edward; however, writes his sermons in a crescendo tone presenting them from a negative point of view provoking a reaction using biblical allusions. Words such as “Hell” and “Torture” are used to awaken the congregation and to provoke a reaction. His sermons are full of imagery, similes, comparisons and metaphors which can be interpreted in different
On February 10, 1675, Mary Rowland was captured in Lancaster, Massachusetts. While being held captive, she narrated her experiences and tried to affirm her Puritan beliefs throughout her survival of being in captivity. She’d rather go with the “ravenous Beasts” than die because she wanted to “declare” of what was happening to her throughout her journey (70). Mary Rowlandson believed God was omniscient, forgiving, and omnipotent and it shaped her perception of the world in an affirmative way throughout all the chaos and suffering.
Young Mary headed into the Residential School full of faith and ambition to devote herself to God’s true beliefs. She taught the Native children religion and music in class, which they all seemed to greatly enjoy. Although, it did not make up for all
There are various things that make up a piece of literature. For example: choice of diction, modes of discourse, and figurative language. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano were great examples of authors that used these elements of literature. There are similarities and differences in A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and From Africa to America. Though Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano shared similarities in experiences, they had different writing personalities, purposes, attitudes, tones, and relations with their communities.
Professor and poet Deborah A. Miranda, pieces together the past and uncovers and presents us with a story--a Californian story--in her memoir, “Bad Indians.” Her use of the Christian Novena, “Novena to Bad Indians,” illustrates the irony of using the form of her oppressors as a call out for help, not to God, but to her past ancestors. We tend to think of religion as a form of salvation and redemption of our lives here on Earth, in which we bare down and ask for forgiveness. But by challenging this common discourse using theological allegories and satirical terminology, Miranda turns her attention away from a Deity to call the reader out for help. It is crucial to recognize the struggles that the Native community currently face. Californian Indians are often not given recognition for their identity and their heritage, and are also repeatedly stereotyped as abusive, alcoholic, uncivilized, and “freeloaders” of the United States government. Such generalizations root back from European colonization, nevertheless still linger in our contemporary society. Miranda has taken the first step forward in characterizing few of these stereotypes in her Novena, but she’s given her story. Now what are we going to do with ours? It’s up to us to create our
In the beginning of the narrative, Mary Rowlandson describes the manner in which the Indians invade her home, kill many of her friends, and drag her away from her husband and two children. She watches as the “murderous Wretches [burn] and [destroy]” her home before her eyes. It is the “dolefullest day that [her] eyes have ever [seen].” At this point in time, Mary has no knowledge of the Indian lifestyle, or even of their motive for ravaging the land of the colonists. She sees them merely as merciless heathens who come from Satan. Mary writes that before the incident, she said that if “the Indians should come, [she] should choose rather to be killed by them then [be] taken alive,”(124) but when that choice actually comes to her, she chooses to go with them, despite her unwillingness. At this point, she puts her life into the Indians’ hands. Once they leave the town, Mary and the Indians begin a series of “removes,” or moves to different areas of the New England wilderness. Mary describes the celebration rituals of the Indians, where they dance and chant, and “[make] the place a lively resemblance of hell!” Their unchristian lifestyle...
In the book Bad Indians, Miranda talks about the many issues Indigenous People go through. Miranda talks about the struggles Indigenous people go through; however, she talks about them in the perspective of Native Americans. Many people learn about Indigenous People through classrooms and textbooks, in the perspective of White people. In Bad Indians, Miranda uses different literary devices to show her perspective of the way Indigenous People were treated, the issues that arose from missionization, as well as the violence that followed through such issues. Bad Indians is an excellent example that shows how different history is told in different perspectives.
Slavery in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries consisted of brutal and completely unjust treatment of African-Americans. Africans were pulled from their families and forced to work for cruel masters under horrendous conditions, oceans away from their homes. While it cannot be denied that slavery everywhere was horrible, the conditions varied greatly and some slaves lived a much more tolerable life than others. Examples of these life styles are vividly depicted in the personal narratives of Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince. The diversity of slave treatment and conditions was dependent on many different factors that affected a slave’s future. Mary Prince and Olaudah Equiano both faced similar challenges, but their conditions and life styles
The stress of this caused their once coveted friendship to wither and morph into an ill hatred. The English began a campaign of the demonization of Native Americans. The image of Native Americans was described in Red, White, & Black as friendly traders who shared a mutually beneficial relationship with one another. Evidently, a very different image started to appear when land disputes arose. The new illustration the English painted was that Native American people were “comparable to beasts” and “wild and savage people, that live like heards of deare in a forrest”. It was sudden change of heart between the two societies that supports Waterhouse’s claims of the changing relationship of the English and Native
Both Erik Erikson’s (1963) theory and Mary Ainsworth and John Bowlby (1973) theory support the idea that early life experiences impact the person across their lifespan. Both theories believe that personality begins to develop from a young age and therefore occurrences in early life can have lasting impacts on the developmental of an individual. An individual’s social and psychological development is significantly influenced by early life and childhood experiences. The experiences an individual has as a child impacts on the development of social skills, social behaviours, morals and values of an individual.
Mary Rowlandson was a pretentious, bold and pious character. Her narrative did not make me feel sorry for her at all, which is strange since she really did go through a lot. During the war, the Narragansett Indians attacked Lancaster Massachusetts, and burned and pillaged the whole village. During the siege Mary and her six year old child were shot, she watched her sister and most of her village either burn or get shot. She was kept as a captive, along with her three children and taken with the Narragansett’s on their long retreat. The exposition of the story is set immediately. The reader is perfectly aware of Missus Rowlandson’s status and religious beliefs. She constantly refers to the Narragansetts in an incredibly condescending way, to the point that you know that she does not even consider them human. She paints them as purely evil pe...
By diving into the authors own experiences the theme of self vs. other is strongly expressed in both narratives. Rowlandson’s experience begins with her capture of her and her children; however, throughout the entire narrative she is fighting her faith, who she is, and the captors. She talks about having to deal with the vanity of this world stating, “I have seen the extreme vanity of this world: One hour I have been in health and wealthy, wanting nothing. But the next hour in sickness and wounds, and death, having nothing but sorrow and affliction.” (Rowlandson, 288) Rowlandson had to battle the vain in the world that had taught her a certain way to believe and have faith; however, this battle created a way for her to find herself and better understand the power faith could have on her and her family. The trial allowed Rowlandson to truly know, “…what affliction meant…” which allowed Rowlandson the ability to conquer the view of self vs. other. Rowlandson became independent on her abilities, her faith, and her own qualities. Olaudah Equiano shows the the...
The settlers chose to tell the stories of women and children as victims to show how the natives were savages to attack the innocent. The majority of writings from the new world that are by Puritans begin with a barbaric description of the natives. This sets a tone for the piece that pushes the reader to believe that there is nothing good about the natives, like it would be an abomination just to think that the natives might be tender and kind. As Mary Rowlandson states “ I had often before [the attack of the natives] said, that if the indians should come, I should choose rather to be killed by them than be taken alive...” (Rowlandson 82). She expresses how she finds the indians so unbearable that she wouldn’t be able to handle being taken
The two works that I chose to compare were Mary Rowlandson’s Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson and Cotton Mather’s The Wonders of the Invincible World. The most obvious similarity that I notice between the two works were both authors reference to religion. In Mary Rowlandson’s writing she give credit to her faith and God for allowing her to make it out alive during her experience. She even explains how much comfort it gave her to have been given a Bible and read scriptures to give her joy even though she was in a difficult situation. In Cotton Mather’s The Wonders of the Invincible World he also references religion but in a slightly different way. His writings informed the reader how religion and faith would
Also, Brown recognizes a righteous woman walking through the forest “Who taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual advisor” (Hawthorne 32). Brown’s catechism teacher is coincidently walking in the woods at the same time as Brown and the Devil because both are going to the meeting held by the Devil. The catechism teacher and Brown are both disobeying God by associating with the Devil which symbolizes how frequently humans violate God. Hawthorne incorporates the catechism woman to convey that everyone in society commit sins without influence from others. Likewise, the priest was informed by the deacon “That some of [their] community are to be [there] from Falmouth and beyond, and others from Connecticut and Rhode Island” (Hawthorne 33). The priest and the deacon discuss the other church members from different areas that will be appearing at the meeting held by the Devil also. Even the priest and deacon, who are devoted to God, are unfaithful because they associate with the Devil. Because of the sufficient amount of Puritans that are attending the meeting, this displays how Puritans commit immortality by their own judgment and no one else's. In the same way, the priest and deacon are talking quietly to each other in the woods “So strangely in the empty air, passed on through the forest, where no church had ever been gathered, nor solitary christian prayed” (Hawthorne 33). Brown is by himself contemplating his thoughts when he hears two familiar voices and recognizes they are the priest and the deacon. The priest and deacon are discussing the numerous other church members who are complying with the Devil as well. Thus, the church members in society are committing the equivalent sins as Goodman Brown is, suggesting all humans sin. Through the use of a religious woman, the deacon, and the priest, Hawthorne dramatically expresses
She observed the Indian attack, and she described her suffering as God’s will. As she said, “when God calls a Person to any thing, and through never so many difficulties, yet he is fully able to carry them through and make them see, and say they have been gainers thereby” (514). Rowlandson believed that everything comes from God, and she sees everything happens as God’s plan. During her first week of captivity, she listened to the people who captured her and behaved well. She had only cold water and no food for 9 days. She was very scared about her situation but she was survival by relying on God. In her twenty’s removal, she got a lot of encouragement and strength from God and the bible. She can always find scriptures from the bible to give her power and comfort. In the Fourth Remove, she got the precious Scripture from God: “Jer.31.16. Thus saith the Lordm refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears, for thy work shall be rewarded, and they shall come again from the land of the Enemy” when she was so tired and hungry (p.493). It was God giving her support during her 20 removal; it was God made her survival. In Puritans’ worldview, people are blessed if they believe in God. They do what God pleases them to, and their happiness comes from God. Puritans value God than anything else. They believe that they are blessed because