LITR 4231 Early American Literature 2012 Student Midterm Samples #1. Long essay describing and focusing learning, challenges, issues concerning Early American Literature. (6-8 paragraphs)

Nora Haenggi         

European Mythology

          The origins of mankind have been written and decoded for thousands of years by mankind. History, divinity, and fantasy all blend together in many creation stories creating a symbolic syncretism in which the reader or listener may find his or her own meanings. Because of the deep symbolism of our origins and man’s varied verbal and written interpretations, our documented history has become blended and woven with the dreamy threads of mythology. Early documents and stories of the first settlers in the Americas seem to blend origin stories, syncretism, and fantasy all into fantastic, romanticized, blended versions of the truth.

          To begin, the discovery of the new world was painted largely as a sort of Garden of Eden by Cristobal Colon more popularly known as Christopher Columbus. He speaks of untouched beauty and of the island inhabitants as almost untainted children of nature. Colon describes the trees, fruits, animals, and people as if seeing the world for the very first time. He hopes to bring Europe to this place he describes as a utopia and he wishes to bring Christianity to “save” the innocent islanders. Additionally, fantasy was woven throughout his tales of the pristine islands to the King and Queen of Spain. Heaven, Colon says, is the place from which the islanders believe the Spaniards came. Continuing, his discussion on the islanders and their childlike qualities, he also recalls their generosity as though the inhabitants of the Indies wished to bring offerings. Perhaps Colon truly felt god-like as from his depictions; it sounds as if he were a god looking upon his people, bestowing gifts to them. He spoke of other distant islands, one of which inhabited men with tails, another island contained men who practiced cannibalism. However, he said he could only base these fantastic tales upon the lore of the islanders around him. In the end, Colon never felt he received proper title from the King and Queen of Spain. Mixing fantasy and imagery of origination got the better of him.

          Later, as Spain, Portugal, and the Holy Roman Catholic Church colonialize and impose themselves further into the southern portions of North America and into South America, the church allowed the blending of Aztec symbolism to be blended with Roman Catholic symbolism. The result of the blending of cultures in what is known as Mexico today is syncretic stories like the Virgin of Guadalupe. While the story sounds like a blend of fantasy and religion, there is no mistake the people of Mexico revere the deep symbolism of the story of the Virgin Mary, Mother of Guadalupe. To this day she maintains an iconographic symbolic presence and psychological effect on the people of Mexico; she represents Mexico’s nationhood. Her story is a syncretic one of Aztec and pre-Hispanic origins blended with European Christian beliefs. Localized patron saints were adopted in Mexico in order to allow for an easier transition of the native populations from their Aztec deism over to Christianity – sort of Roman Catholic humanism. The Virgin Mary gained a new identity for her people of Mexico. Her story is one of fantasy also. She appears as a young Mestizo woman, mixed native and European heritage, to a young native gentleman. She appeared repeatedly to him for three days (3 is deeply symbolic in the Bible, in both the Old Testament and in the New Testament) asking for a church to be built on the site of their meeting. The young native man rushes to the Bishop with the fantastic story of his encounter with the Virgin Mary. One day, the Bishop demanded proof that this meeting took place and that she asked the church be built. The blessed Virgin told the young native to gather roses in his cloak and take them to the Bishop. As the young man delivered the roses, they tumbled out of the cloak and inside the cloak was a distinct impression of the Virgin. As a woman figure her symbolism also represented a blending of Jesus’ mother the Virgin Mary and linked to their origins as Earth Mother and Mother of the cosmos: the female sun, moon, and stars. To this day her faithful followers look for signs of the Virgin Mary as they believed her appearances to legitimize their sovereignty as a Mexican nation; she is the liberation of the oppressed native people, a symbol of freedom, a symbol of devotion, and a representative of feminine empowerment for all women.

          Then, as Europeans moved further north along the eastern seaboard of the United States, we read additional fantastic tales of origin and syncretic pattern. A traveler by the name of John Smith wrote of his adventures all over the world, the truth of most of which is under contention to this day. Smith wrote his fantastic tales as sort of men’s fantasy. When he decided to write about his experience in the New World of North America he seemed to blend origin and fantasy into his tales. Upon arriving in the new world, the pilgrim’s existence was grim he describes their having nothing but castles in the air. Their meeting with the native was tenuous. In a flash on syncretism, Smith refers to the natives as savages bringing the bounty of the land as through the grace of the Christian god. He describes the land as bountiful and the land and the natives both as untamed but generous. This is the beginning of settlement for what we would eventually call the United States of America. Smith’s tale grows more tall and fantastic as during his captivity and procurement of his own liberty from the “barbarians” that they admired him more than their own gods. In the meantime, however, he meets the Chief’s daughter and they become friends through questionable, fantastic circumstances. Smith was tied to a tree by these “barbarians” and somehow, fantastically, he is saved at the last minute. He is then taken to the Native Emperor. He is placed with his head between two large rocks, the natives prepare to beat out his brains, he claims, and the Emperor’s daughter rushes in and saves him at the last minute. Fantasy repeats itself over and over in Smith’s stories, particularly those stories involving origins of America.

          In fact, many of these stories refer or allude to the story of Adam and Eve in the creation according to the Book of Genesis in the Bible. The previously reviewed authors, particularly Smith and Colon, spoke of the earth’s fruitful abundance as is mentioned in the Genesis. Colon describes his arrival in the Americas much like he were God or Adam in the garden by giving names to all that he saw and believing that all was good. Both stories of Smith and Colon gave the impression that they could assume their dominance over all things and people as was written in the creation story of Genesis, although Smith’s company learned quite differently, they attempted to practice otherwise. Although not specifically mentioned in the story of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the story represents to the people of Mexico their own story of the creation of their nation. As she spoke to the young native, she told him she is his mother and if he follows her will he shall feel no want or sickness. To this day the people of Mexico pray that they may properly follow their Virgin Mary Mother of God, their own mother, that they may never feel want or sickness.

          Much later, as the Native Americas Indian Nations learned to read and write, they were able to then place their creation stories into an understandable English version text. To a European, the stories may sound largely fantastic in their nature. Symbolism was not lost on the Europeans, but it may have been difficult for them to relate it to the context of the creation story in the Genesis of the Bible. However, the Iroquois creation myth written for posterity in 1816 has symbols of which the Europeans may have found relatable. The earth and the land of the Americas, the Iroquois say, is made from the Great Spirit who commanded the lesser spirits to aid the earth diver, the great turtle spirit to bring earth from under the oceans to form the land. The earth mother has similar parallels to Eve of the creation story and the children she bore one jovial and good and one angry and mean may have reminded the Europeans of the story of Cain and Abel. The fight between the two brothers lasted over the entirety of the earth. The different stages in their voices and in their fighting are what created the different peoples of the earth and is the reason why many look and speak differently. This may also be relatable by the Europeans as in the Book of Genesis was the tower of Babel in which the habitants of the earth were given different languages and appearances and were dispersed about the earth by the hand of God. These relatable stories as well as being wrapped in a sort of fantasy and mythology may then also be coincidence or syncretism or both.

          Human history is one long blended story. Through the use of mythological fantasy, divinity of origin, and syncretic blending we have a relatable sharable exciting tale of our existence. Written and spoken stories all borrow from one another creating a woven tapestry of truth and symbolism in the stories of mankind. Man has created stories of his existence from the beginning of time. Some men attribute the heavens for their existence, some men attribute the earth and some men feel our existence is due to both heavenly and earthly forces at work.  As we read our religious, historical, mythological, and secular origins we can then gain a better understanding of how we came to exist, who we were, and who we are as humankind.