Introduction: Through this web highlight, we can see how other students used the Pilgrim story in their Final Exams and how they compared it to the Exodus story. It also introduces who became the dominant culture.

Sample 1: Compares the Pilgrims to the Jews

In the case of the Ancient Jews and the Pilgrims, settlement in a new country included the displacement of native peoples, which established these invading groups as the forerunners of what would one day become the dominant culture.  There are several unique features of these two groups that contributed to their foundations as cultural inventors.  Both the biblical Jews and their English counterparts, the Pilgrims, viewed themselves as God’s “chosen people”, and were motivated primarily by a search for religious freedom, as opposed to the pursuit of economic improvements that would drive the majority of future immigrants. Additionally, each of these groups was led by a religious figurehead (Moses for the Jews and William Bradford for the Pilgrims). After many trying years of wandering in the Egyptian desert, the Ancient Jews arrived in the “Promised Land” of Canaan, where they promptly displaced the Canaanites.  Similarly, upon arrival in America, the Pilgrims ignored the existing land rights of the Native American Indians.  Unlike the numerous immigrant groups that would follow, neither the Jews nor the Pilgrims ever intended to assimilate, choosing instead to establish a new social order for themselves in the midst of foreign lands.  By retaining their strong religious beliefs and avoiding intermarriage with the natives, both groups were successful in maintaining separate identities. (Mary T. 2006 Finals)

Sample 2: Pilgrims as the Dominant Culture

The Pilgrims were able to become and remain the dominant culture for many reasons.  They are able to repel attention to themselves as the dominant culture through plainness as the unmarked, colorlessness of the white, Anglo world, but especially through their distinctive work ethic.  In an effort to survive as a community, they actually became the first capitalists in America.  They rejected socialism believing that God made them competitive for a reason, so they insisted on the concept that each person should work for himself (Bradford, 133).   (Julia O. 2006 Finals)

Sample 3: Why we are examining the dominant culture?

“[The dominant culture] is a point of reference for people to become familiar with what they were assimilating to and with what patterns exists.” [DH 2002 Final]

Conclusion: Unlike the stories we’ve read before that deal with one character or family representing the dominant culture or the immigrating culture, now we are looking at these cultures as a whole and the stories are a little intimidating. By reviewing others’ answers in web highlights and previewing exams, we can get ideas about how these things connect to the bigger picture.