Native American Literature

Daily inspirational words

Answer to essential question: the Native Americans were never promised an opportunity for success. Though it was never promised it was never given, for the native Americans were pushed aside so that the Puritans may have success.




"So live your life that the fear of death
can never enter your heart.
Trouble no one about their religion;
Respect others in their view, and
Demand that they respect yours.
Love your life, perfect your life,
Beautify all things in your life.
Seek to make your life long and
Its purpose in the service of your people.

Prepare a noble death song for the day
when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute
when meeting or passing a friend,
Even a stranger, when in a lonely place.
Show respect to all people and
Bow to none. When you arise in the morning,
give thanks for the food and
For the joy of living.

If you see no reason for giving thanks,
The fault lies only in yourself.
Abuse no one and no living thing,
For abuse turns the wise ones to fools
and robs the spirit of its vision.

When it comes your time to die,
be not like those whose hearts
Are filled with fear of death,
so that when their time comes
They weep and pray for a little more time
to live their lives over again
In a different way.

Sing your death song and
die like a hero going home."

Tecumseh, Shawnee. Daily Inspirational Words. 13 Mar. 2008


Reflection: I chose this passage because I think it reflects the sad impact of the white man's oppression on the lives of Native Americans, and the sorrow they experienced as their land and culture were taken from them. This poem helped to motivate Native Americans when they might have lost hope, and began to give up. The main point of this poem to me is to live your life without being afraid of death, die like a hero.This piece reflects the belief system of the Native American because they were faced with death after their land was invaded, and had to be brave and die like heroes.This is similar to my life because I am the type of person who loses motivation a lot and this poem is something that speaks to me to stay motivated - like the Native American had to, and to live my life without fear.


Dear Diary, I won't let the ambitions of the white man, to take all that I have made for my people, get wound my spirit. I shall stay strong like the wolf in the wilderness, and brave like the fearless bull. Like my fathers say, "live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart...Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide...sing your death song and die like a hero going home", and i will do just that. Violence isn't the answer to everything, but my legacy must live on through my people, and if fighting back is what i must do then my death song will be written; and if my legacy does live on my people shall feel my spirit every time they feel the wind.


Political cartoon:

The puritans came to America without the Native Americans having any intention of them staying. This political cartoon reveals the ignorance that the Native Americans had when one the Native Americans says, “Just how long do the Illegal aliens plan on staying in our country?”

Coming to America

Answer to essential question: Within the pilgrim community, I believe that they would be OK with God's plans. From an outside perspective those who would not be able access opportunity and related success would just be an example of how God works in mysterious ways; and from an inside perspective, they would feel like they risked their lives for nothing, and feel like God was possibly punishing them. But in conclusion I believe the community would view the theory of social Darwinism before it was thought of.



Bradford - "Of Plymouth Plantation"
What could now sustain them but the Spirit of God and His grace? May not and ought not the children of these fathers rightly say: "Our fathers were Englishmen which came over this great ocean, and were ready to perish in this wilderness; but they cried unto the Lord, and He heard their voice and looked on their adversity," etc. "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."

Bradford http://spider.georgetowncollege.edu/english/coke/bradford.htm 03/19/2008

Reflection: I chose this passage because I think it exposes the spiritual side that the pilgrims possessed. I think this passage reflects how the pilgrims' life would revolve around god; if something bad was to happen they would think that that was pleasing to God. I liked this passage, but I felt like it was ironic how the pilgrims would be religious, yet do unholy things to succeed the opportunity for success.I feel like I can relate to this passage because God is everything in my life, and i feel like i couldn't achieve anything without him.

Diary:



Political cartoon:

"To My Dear and Loving Husband"
by Anne Bradstreet

If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can. I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense. Thy love is such I can no way repay, The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. Then while we live, in love let's so persevere That when we live no more, we may live ever.

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/216.html

http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/212.html

Huswifery
by Edward Taylor

Make me, O Lord, thy Spinning Wheele compleat; Thy Holy Worde my Distaff make for mee. Make mine Affections thy Swift Flyers neate, And make my Soule thy holy Spoole to bee. My Conversation make to be thy Reele, And reele the yarn thereon spun of thy Wheele.

http://www.puritansermons.com/poetry/taylor14.htm

Puritan Literature

Sinners in the hands of an Angry God!

Jonathan Edwards -
http://www.piney.com/JonEdwSinHands.html

The Slave Narrative

http://www.janaedwards.com/AmericanLit.html

Patrick Henry -"Give me liberty, or give me death!"



THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine
patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that
stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like
hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder
the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem
too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how
to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial
an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to
enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to
BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is
not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the
expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too
long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had
it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a
proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state.
However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own*; we have none to blame but
ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe has been doing for this
month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a
year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will
soon recover.

Henry, Patrick.Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death. 17 April. 2008

Henry
http://www.liberty-page.com/foundingdocs/givemeliberty/main.html
04/17/08

The Revolutionary Period

Thomas Paine - Selection from "The Crisis No. 1": http://www.puc.edu/Faculty/Rosemary_Dibben/English11/NewNation/PaineCrisis1.pdf

Interview

"How have you lived the American Dream?"

I asked 3 elders within my communty "How they lived the American Dream?", these are their response.

Inez Patterson (Grandma):
Kitty Patterson (aunt):

Transcendentalist Period

nature

To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food. In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, -- he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me. Not the sun or the summer alone, but every hour and season yields its tribute of delight; for every hour and change corresponds to and authorizes a different state of the mind, from breathless noon to grimmest midnight. Nature is a setting that fits equally well a comic or a mourning piece. In good health, the air is a cordial of incredible virtue. Crossing a bare common, in snow puddles, at twilight, under a clouded sky, without having in my thoughts any occurrence of special good fortune, I have enjoyed a perfect exhilaration. I am glad to the brink of fear. In the woods too, a man casts off his years, as the snake his slough, and at what period soever of life, is always a child. In the woods, is perpetual youth. Within these plantations of God, a decorum and sanctity reign, a perennial festival is dressed, and the guest sees not how he should tire of them in a thousand years. In the woods, we return to reason and faith. There I feel that nothing can befall me in life, -- no disgrace, no calamity, (leaving me my eyes,) which nature cannot repair. Standing on the bare ground, -- my head bathed by the blithe air, and uplifted into infinite space, -- all mean egotism vanishes. I become a transparent eye-ball; I am nothing; I see all; the currents of the Universal Being circulate through me; I am part or particle of God. The name of the nearest friend sounds then foreign and accidental: to be brothers, to be acquaintances, -- master or servant, is then a trifle and a disturbance. I am the lover of uncontained and immortal beauty. In the wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in streets or villages. In the tranquil landscape, and especially in the distant line of the horizon, man beholds somewhat as beautiful as his own nature.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/emerson/nature-emerson-a.html


Reflection: I chose this passage in Nature because it employs how man becomes one with nature, and the feeling that one gets when you take time to notice and appreciate the beauty that is around you, and what you get out of it compared to what is in society. I really love this passage because the way he uses his language to convey the true feelings of nature; one of the things that really caught my attention was how he said that he was a particle of God, I really feel that his word selection is what makes this statement so powerful, and I can really connect to what he said.

Diary: