Essential Question: What is America?

America symbolizes hope, a new start, and better opportunities. Even now in modern day, there are people who travel to America in search of a fresh start. Many Americans think they have it rough just because they don’t have this or that, but they don’t consider what immigrants go through. Immigrants’ lives are terrible and some lack even the basic necessities of life: food, water, and shelter. In reality, we Americans are actually blessed to have everything have, including our freedom, in which we take for granted.

Political Cartoon/Reflection

People shouldn’t treat other people who are not like them like outcasts just because they speak a different language or have a different colored skin. In this political cartoon there are two Indians walking to some pilgrims and one Indian says, “They won’t learn the language, they’re not assimilating, they don’t look like us. I say—put ‘em back on the Mayflower!” This shows that the Indians are being compared to the Americans because the pilgrims came to the Indians’ native land and foreign immigrants come to the United States. Americans always complain and criticize about immigrants just because they don’t speak English well, they don’t assimilate, and look different while their forefathers did the same thing; travel to a different place to find a new start. Also, in the cartoon the Indians are carrying a turkey to the pilgrims. The pilgrims resemble the US and the Indians resemble immigrants because they want to work and people take advantage of them and give them labor. In the end, people are just people, regardless of anything besides what’s in the inside.

Entry A: William Bradford

1. In an excerpt from William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation, although the puritans experience hardship in their voyage to America, in their initial arrival and in their dealings with the Indians, they still maintain their reverence to God and one another.

2. "Let them therefore praise the Lord, because He is good: and His mercies endure forever." "Yea, let them which have been redeemed of the Lord, show how He hath delivered them from the hand of the oppressor. When they wandered in the desert wilderness out of the way, and found no city to dwell in, both hungry and thirsty, their soul was overwhelmed in them. Let them confess before the Lord His loving kindness and His wonderful works before the sons of men."

3. In this passage, the puritans just landed ashore. They were glad and praised God for their safe journey across the sea. The only problem was right in front of them; there was nothing there. When they looked ahead and to their sides they saw trees and land and behind them was the sea. The reason why this passage impressed me the most is because when all hope is gone, the puritan's look up to God for salvation and find the strength to survive.

4. Dear Journal (November 1620),
The winds blew furiously and the waves crashed into our ship. We were all freezing cold and our hands and feet were numb. The icy water and cold gusts of winds sent shivers up our spine and made our teeth chatter. We were all relying on God to get us through the journey alive. When thought it couldn't get any worse, a huge wave crashed onto the deck knocked me off my feet. I slid across the deck and fell off the ship. Everything happened in seconds and I didn't even know what was happening. I just flailed my hands around trying to grab something when I caught onto something thin, like a rope. I opened my eyes and there it was, the rope. I tried with all the energy I had left to pull myself back onto the ship, but I couldn't. I was going to die. My eyes slowly started to close and I had lost all hope when I felt a tug. I thought I had just imagined it, but then there was another tug. I looked up and saw some people pull me up. When I got onto the deck, I lied there and praised God for the mercy he has given me. Then everything went black as I fell asleep.

Entry B. Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672)

4. "In Reference to her Children" impressed me the most. The reason why I liked this poem was because it was really laid back and didn't talk about anything disturbing or weird, unlike "Upon the Burning of my House" and "To My Dear and Loving Husband". I liked how she made the poem relate children leaving home to birds leaving their nests. To me, relating her poem to birds instead of her actual kids makes it less emotional and easier to read.

5. Dear Diary,
I am sitting here home alone. My children have left and my husband is away. I see it as if my role as a mother and wife has disappeared. I have nothing else to do while I am at home. Not many dishes to clean, no laundry, no picking up after kids, no anything. I hear no screaming and no footsteps of little children running around. The house is a bit too dreary, but there is nothing I can do about it. I guess I'll just go write another one of my poems...
-Anne Bradstreet

Women's Plight Political Cartoon

Women’s rights nowadays have increased since some years back, but they still face opposition. In this political cartoon there is a sign with an arrow that says “Women’s Rights”. This shows how women appear to have gained more rights since the earlier times, or have they? The suggestion of the spider and its web suggests some inactivity. Likewise, the subject of women have fewer rights or voice, arises in the writings and life of Anne Bradstreet, who, although she wrote poetry, needed to camoflauge her true feelings of fear, insecurity, intelligence amidst Puritan doctrine and subject or she would not be able write. Also, in this political cartoon there is a woman being dragged by a man in the opposite direction of the “Women’s Rights” sign. This explains how men oppose women’s rights and do not allow them to have the same privileges. Again, Bradstreet's poems were edited by others in order to be published; this suggests that, like the cartoon, she did not really have freedom of expression, but limited voice. Is it appearance vs. reality, or do women truly have equal footing with men?

Entry C: Edward Taylor (1645-1729)

Thesis: In the poem, "Huswifery", Edward Taylor uses diction, literary conceit and rhyme to convey that in order to gain God's grace, one must take care of your soul as you would take care of your house.

Reflection: I liked "Huswifery" because Edward Taylor uses parts of weaving to describe his evolution. Some words in the poem are hard to understand, but after analyzing them, I understood them much better. I also like how he used literary conceit to conceal God in his poem.

Entry D : Jonathan Edwards - 1741 "Sinners at the Hands of an Angry God"

1. Imagery: Fire, water, insects. Jonathan Edwards uses phrases like, "fiery pit, dreadful pit of glowing flames, hell's wide gaping mouth open" to describe the wrath of God towards the people who have forgotten to thank God for his grace. Images of water are created when Edwards says, "floods of God's vengeance, fiery floods of fierceness", and that represents that God could "withdraw his hand from the flood-gate" and all of his rage would be unleashed on the people. The final image he creates is when he talks about insects. He says, "loathsome insect over the fire, cast into the fire, wrath toward you burns like fire" to show that the people who have forgotten about God are the insects, being burned by the fire, which is God's wrath.

3. "O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: it is a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath s provoked and incensed as much against you, as against many of the damned in hell. You hand by a slender thread, with the flames of divine wrath flashing about it, and ready every moment to singe it, and burn it asunder; and you have no interest in any Mediator, and nothing lau down of to save yourself, nothing to keep off the flames of wrath, nothing of your own, nothing that you ever have done, nothing that you can do, to induce God to spare you one moment."

4. Images that reflect the sermon:

5. Reasons:

I chose the picture of a marshmallow being burnt over a fire. The marshmallow represent the people who have forgotten about their faith to God, the fire represents the sins and unfaithfulness of the Puritans, and the stick holding up the marshmallow represents God because he can unleash his wrath, or drop the marshmallow. The flood is the fury of God that is being unleashed onto everyone. A spiderweb is fragile and can break easily, which represents the unfaithful people.

6.Reflection: In our group collage, we have a monster with it's mouth wide open, a flood and an insect being swallowed up by flames. God represents the monster, flood and fire and is swallowing the insects, which represent the Puritans. Then at the bottom we have a quote that says, "If God should only withdraw his hand from the flood gate, it would immediately fly open, and the fiery floods of the fierceness and wrath of God, would rush forth with inconceivable fury, and would upon you with omnipotent power."

E: The Slave Narrative

Essential question for Equiano's narrative: What is an American?
After reading this passage, my views on what an American is has changed. I think an American is one who endures a lot of troubles in life and maintains their will to live on. I also think that the African Americans in Equiano's story are true Americans. The reason is because they are the ones who endure the pain and have to fight for a better life. Even though they don't always succeed, they have the will to keep on fighting for freedom.

Political Cartoon on Racial Discrimination:

People are blinded by ignorance which prevents them from seeing the truth presented to them. For example, in this political cartoon a black girl says, "I survived life on welfare and food stamps...in a poor, crime-ridden neighborhood with crumbling schools filled with guns and drugs...in a world that rewards rich white men." This shows how the black girl has survived through the trials in the world where whites are elevated beyond others. Furthermore, in the political cartoon the girl also says, "So now...affirmative action will help me get into college", while a white boy says in response to the black girl, "That's so UNFAIR!" This signifies that while on the surface it may seem unfair, in reality it really is fair because of the different conditions some African Americans live in. Therefore, many whites are too ignorant to see the difference circumstances that blacks live as opposed to themselves.