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(2014
midterm assignment) Sample Student Midterm answers 2014 #1: Long Essay |
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Amanda Duarte
March 5, 2014
America’s Utopias: A Trans-Historical and Cultural Connection of early
American Literature
This course has been one of many that have opened up my eyes to connect
literature in ways that I have not done before. Many of the objectives that we
have learned about so far in Early American Literature have allowed me to
connect texts that I otherwise would have not though fit together. For instance,
American history cannot tell one story because there are many stories that make
up our history that should be told, or at least mentioned when teaching it.
Through the first half of this course I have been able to grasp objective six,
can American history tell a single story or a trans-historical unity, and answer
it effectively. In order for people (who are learning about American history) to
grasp it entirely, they need to know about everything that makes it whole by
unifying early American literature to tell its story as trans-historical.
Unifying texts such as Genesis, The Iroquois Creation Stories, A Model of
Christian Charity, The Declaration of Independence, and The Wonders of the
Invisible World, I have been able to connect them to tell the story of the
beginnings of North American culture as objective two states. These two
objectives tie into each other and also into objective one: “To learn about
early North American and U.S. texts and cultures and make them matter now.”
Learning about early North American texts and cultures, has enabled me to
connect them with terms like utopia, America’s utopian pasts, literary and
historical utopias, and dystopia, to see that texts share similarities that
otherwise go unnoticed.
Genesis gives a more obvious sense of the term Utopia.
Here, God created a perfect world that fits the origin of the word
utopia.
The word is made up of Greek parts formed from either
ou
(no) + topos
(place) to mean no place, or
eu (good) +topos
(place) to mean good place (Dr. White’s Website). The world (before the fall) is
untouched, not corrupt, and is innocent; all these make God’s creation a perfect
utopia. This creation story does allow for both variants of the Greek meaning
since it is, at first, a good place, then, after the fall, becomes no good or a
dystopia. The story of Genesis gives people who are learning about the origin of
American history and cultures sort of a base to the founding of the society
America has engulfed. Of course I cannot speak of the Christian creation story
without incorporating the creation story of the Indians who lived on this land
before us. Their story, more specifically the Iroquois creation story, was
actually similar to the Christian creation story. Through time, much
assimilation, and influence of Christians, the two began to sound more alike.
This merge can speak to the objectives taught in the first half of Early
American Literature; to tell America’s history, many stories must be told, it is
also a connection to America’s utopian pasts.
In his sermon, “A Model of Christian Charity”, John Winthrop tells the story for
the American individual. This sermon, also an origin story, uses Christian
influences to try to get the people to create and live in a more utopian world;
a world, or in this case a community, where people live in unison. For example,
in paragraph ten, he says:
…nothing yields more pleasure and content to the soul
[than] when it finds
that which it may love fervently; for
to love and live
beloved is the soul’s paradise both here and in
heaven…
Here, Winthrop uses words like pleasure, content, paradise, and heaven, that
allow for readers to connect themselves to the utopian world or community he
wishes his listeners to live in. By giving the listeners examples of how they
can be successful in this utopian world and connecting the examples with
Christian influences such as love and heaven, they should remember that there
was once a perfect utopia created by God and are able to relate those influences
to apply them in the creation of a new utopia of a united community filled with
love. Winthrop spoke these words of union long before the Declaration of
Independence was even thought of. They share a connection with the attempt to
create a utopia or a community/society that allows for the union of people on
the foundation that effects their overall satisfaction.
The Declaration establishes the union of the thirteen colonies. Even though its
wording is not as similar to examples found in Christian bible as Winthrop’s
sermon (such as the use of things like the city on a hill), the establishment
was greatly influenced by Christian values.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all
men are created equal,
that
they are
endowed by their
Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among
these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —That to
secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just
powers from the consent of the governed, —That whenever any Form of Government
becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to
abolish it, and to institute new Government,
laying its foundation
on such principles and organizing its powers in
such form, as to them shall seem most likely to
effect their Safety and
Happiness.
To give the people safety and happiness, allows for the people to escape from
what they considered a dystopia under the rule of King George III of England.
The declaration is an establishment of a utopian like society to escape the
normal society they lived in. Values that are similar to Christian values
include equality of men, life, liberty, and happiness. All of these are not
directly derived from Christianity but relate in a sense that through the
freedom to worship their creator the way they want, allows for their overall
happiness. Moving forward in history, to modern day America, some may say that
they are living in a dystopia and are wishing to create a society similar to
that of Winthrop’s where by loving and following the rules of God’s love to
create their own utopia; and others who wish to live in a utopia that is free
from the stresses of the world, i.e. the elimination of hate, violence,
discrimination against anyone for any reason, and so much more negativity.
Another part of American History that connects with dystopia is the history of
the Salem Witch Trials. The story that Cotton Mather tells gives an accurate
account of the horror of the trials. The Salem Witch Trials, according to Dr.
White, is all that most Americans know about the New England Puritans. What I
find amusing about the trials is that they occurred only sixty-two years after
Winthrop’s attempt to create a utopia. The following excerpt is an example of
how the Puritans in this community corrupted their home community.
The Devil thus irritated, immediately tried all sorts of methods to overturn
this poor
Plantation
[the Puritan settlements in New England]: and so much of the Church, as was
Fled into this Wilderness
[New England] immediately found,
The Serpent cast out of his Mouth a Flood for the carrying
of it away. I believe, that
never were more
Satanical Devices used for the unsettling of any People
under the Sun, than what have been employed for the extirpation of the vine
which God has here Planted, Casting out the
Heathen, and preparing a Room for it, and causing it to take deep Root and fill
the Land . . . .
Mather writes that the Puritans blame the Devil rather
than themselves for the occurrence of the trials. But it was because the
people
of the community who created the first lie about witches in their community did
not admit to their lie, that the trials went on and snowballed into a society
that was completely opposite of the utopia Winthrop wished for. Yes, the act of
a lie itself is evil and the root of evil lies within the first disobedience in
Genesis (the fall). God intended for a utopian world but
man
ruined their chance to live in it. In contrast to the
utopias named above, Mather’s account of the trials is the perfect example of
dystopia. The witch trials are a part of
telling the story of the beginnings of North American culture as well as a part
of America’s trans-historical story.
Objectives one, two, and six are all in a sense connected
to one another in learning about early America. What I have found most rewarding
about this course so far, has been that I can connect the history of my country
as a whole by looking at various pieces of literature from the origin of
humanity to modern day and find connections in each of the text even though they
appear to most people only reading or learning about a bias view of the history
of early American culture. The texts I have chosen to discuss relate to each
other not only because they are part of our history, but because they relate to
a form of the term utopia.
