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LITR 4326 Early American Literature Model Assignments |
Final Exam Essays 2017 Sample answers
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Cynthia Cleveland
History Matters
During this course of study, we have covered several texts, which
initially were mostly comprised of personal narratives and historical documents.
From these narratives we have been able to track interesting developments in
American Literature. Most of the early accounts had a great deal to do with
encounters with the Native Americans and our attitudes towards them. Many of
these narratives were Romantic in quality, as the struggle to survive in the
untamed New World gave our ancestors a self-presumed heroic quality in
overcoming an encroachment on land that did not belong to us. However, since the
Age of Reason, the literature has taken a pointed turn to include narratives
from the Native Americans and captive slaves, instead of primarily white
Americans, where we got to experience the other side of those early American
narratives from the “other” perspective.
As we have previously seen from such narratives as John Smith’s, the
Romantic attitude towards the conquering of land from the Native Americans was
championed; however, despite those negative characterizations of the Native
Americans, we have seen through the literature that they were not the simple and
savage people that such “heroes” would lead us to believe. “The Cherokee
Memorials” give us a glimpse into the disparity that American settlers had
inflicted upon the natives. As we see in this text, the natives are a very
learned people—although that was a benefit of associating with the Americans—and
make a fervent plea to be allowed to remain on their land. Why this text is of
such great importance is that we must remember that these too were people simply
trying to live their lives. Our taking of their treasured land, and the pleas to
keep their land, are a sobering reminder that we must act with more humanity.
This subject is particularly troubling since, not terribly long before
these pleas from the Cherokee people, the Americans had written “The Declaration
of Independence”, in which they condemned the tyranny of the King of England.
These claims against the King as outlined in The Declaration, sought to separate
themselves from the rule of England with such charges as “plunder[ing] [their]
seas, ravage[ing] [their] Coasts, burn[ing] [their] towns…”; however, it is not
without a sense of irony to read such lines. The Declaration boasts of a grand
injustice afflicted upon the settlers, but the irony is that their treatment of
the native peoples is a parallel to the treatment by their despised King. The
accounts of John Smith and Cabeza de Vaca echo such offenses, in which the
narrators were often caught encroaching on lands that were not theirs; as a
result, skirmishes ensued, villages were burned and the native people were
killed. Though this is not the only instance of such hypocrisy in early American
settlers.
Not long after the establishment of the New World, the slave trade enters
the Americas. Phyllis Wheatley’s poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America”,
we get a glimpse of the attitudes of the settlers towards those “others”. Much
of Wheatley’s poem seems to suggest a kind of gratefulness in being raised up to
the good faith of Christianity; however, there is a cynical tone between these
lines. What I gleaned from this is a sarcastic outlook towards the treatment
Africans by the Americans. Just as the Americans viewed the Native Americans as
a savage people, so too, they believed the Africans to be such. That romantic
attitude still prevails as Wheatley recounts, “Remember, Christians, Negros,
black as Cain, / May be refined and join the angelic train.” (7-8). Here, we
begin to see a shift in defining the “other”.
The Native Americans were by no stretch necessarily enjoying the comforts
of equality in America, however, it seems that through such narratives it has
been simply redirected. With the influx of African slaves to work the
plantations in America, we learn that a new “other” has been brought into the
picture. The systems of inequality are still running rampant in the early
Americas. It is ironic though, that “The Declaration” should boast of such
incongruities concerning the “pursuit of happiness” and such themes of freedom,
when those whom this document is meant to represent suppresses such rights
themselves. What we can learn from these narratives is that we must use our
history to remember such missteps.
It is important to see both sides of the coin, in regard to these early
American narratives. Such accounts begin with primarily those of the
“conquerors”, but eventually give way to lend a voice to those “others” who have
been oppressed. These narratives aid us in understanding much of the conflict
that still breeds within our society today. We still experience a degree of
inequality as a result of our past concerning the treatment of Native Americans
and African slaves. The inclusion of such texts from the minorities that were
living in or brought to America help us understand these systems of inequality,
as we are forced to view these inequalities from a perspective of those who had
not benefitted from it. There is still more to learn in reading the accounts of
those who were oppressed and how we can work to ensure that such things never
happen again.
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