Edward Taylor

     This is probably the first reading that I really did not get into that much.  I found the meditations somewhat confusing.  I understood better through our discussions in class what the meditations were more about.  Taylor was very talented at creating wonderful poetry to go along with the sacred communion.  Communion is a very confusing theological subject and I think that Taylor's idea of using these meditations as a way of explaining what communion is and the reason's why we celebrate communion.  I thought the idea of using the meditations as an elaborate metaphor of what Taylor believes about communion is very unique and interesting.  Often times people need images to understand a topic and using a metaphor can allow the reader or listener to learn through imagery.  Although I did not find the meditations extremely interesting I was able to understand why he wrote them and the importance of the meditations at the time.

Mary Rowlandson

    When I read the narrative of Mary Rowlandson I first thought about all of the details that she must have had to leave out.  Rowlandson went through an event that no one in our day and age can even imagine, this fact can explain why some of her situations seemed hard for us to understand.  We talked in class about whether or not Rowlandson exaggerated any of the events that happened to her.  I thought about this a lot and I think that she did not exaggerated but rather recalled the events as she remembered them.  When anyone is put in a life changing situation like she had they are bound to have some sort of traumatic stresses.   I also thing that if we had read ever excerpt out of the narrative we would have better understood her situation and whether or not she was exaggerating.

     One other thing that I found interesting was the fact that the narrative itself is unique to the New World and the culture that it was creating.  I think this has a lot to do with the Native Americans that were here when the settlers first came.  This is a country that already had a culture and the settlers came in a short of invaded that culture.  The result of this was the capture of settlers and then the captive narratives. 

Anne Bradstreet

  I loved reading Anne Bradstreet's poetry.  The way in which she is able to express her struggles and emotions throughout her poetry is extraordinary.  It is common knowledge that women had to struggle at the time however, Bradstreet is able to express the struggles in a way that fits her strengths and abilities.  I found this amazing because at the time she lived in a world that make it very difficult for a women to have opinions.  Though she has many points of contradiction  in "The Prologue" she is not afraid to say what she thinks.  At that time men would have looked down at her for doing thing, she recognizes this in lines 31-32, "But sure the antique Greeks were far more mild- Else of our sex, why feigned they those nine."  This is Bradstreet's way of telling men that Greek men were given their idea by women muses so it seems only natural that artists like Bradstreet would write beautiful and worthy poetry.  

   Bradstreet was not a literally strong women, she had many health problems.  However, the knowledge that she carried and expressed through her poetry was very strong.  She may not feel like she has the power to write epic poetry, but she does have the power to express the frustrations of her time and what she thinks should be done about that.  Maybe her poems are not pages and pages of battles and heroes, but she does tell little stories with very big meanings.  People listened to her poetry and even if she did not realize it at the time it did make an impact. 

Winthrop v. Smith

   When I read these two pieces I debated with myself as to which side I agreed with more.  In one aspect Winthrop is looking at the new world and all of the potential it has to be great.  This is nice and it shows how much faith the puritans had in their new country.  I also liked how he had such high hopes of building a strong Christian community.  The times were hard and being able to come together and help the people survive as a whole is truly a good idea.  I did strongly disagree with how Winthrop believed that people were assigned certain roles in life and they could never move up in wealth or jobs.  America is known now as being a place that allows people to have opportunities that they would never have in their home countries. 

  However, I also found myself agreeing with Smith's realistic ideas of marketing the new world.  In order to build America as an economic stronghold it is crucial to get the rich into the country.  If every person that came to America were poor and lacked the means to build up the country America at the present time would probably be a third world country.  A mix of both rich and poor would allow people to seek opportunity and the country would then continue to grow.  Also, I came to the conclusion that it would took a mixture of both Smith and Winthrop's ideas to help the new world prosper during that time period.