Reflection blog #1

A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, and Upon the Burning of Our House, both have a sleuth of similarities to the styles of Puritan writing style. For both of these collaboration of words are filled with religious references, and how they are better for being religious. The one about Rowlandson for example is a great example, for she had been captured by some Indians, and shortly afterwards her son dies of natural causes. Instead of losing all hope and dying off, she puts her faith in god and moves on with her life.

I have thought since of the wonderful goodness of God to me, in preserving me so in the use of my reason and senses in that distressed time. that I did not use wicked and violent means to end my own miserable life. (Rowlandson 83)

Although moving on with her life might not be the best way to describe it as she is still being held hostage by several Indian people. Still, she managed to get over the horribly tragic loss of her child and not be horribly disfigured mentally by it, or at least from what I can tell. Which doesn't mean much, or maybe it does. So yea this is similar to Puritan because it relays the message that religion makes you a better person, because religion says it's true, thus making it true. Kind of like saying it's true, I read it in a book, but the catch is that you wrote the book. That's how I see it anyways. The burning house one is very Puritan for the same reasons, or reason. It too is very religious in the way that it's disturbing to the degree that I wrote about it in the book I'm writing, so that makes it true. Also I'm not writing a book, so it may not be true, but it is my opinion so I'm sticking with it. As the person is watching their house burn to the ground, all they do is shrug it off. As if it really is nothing, and just dust to them. Then the author explains how their house really was nothing to them but dust. And that none of it really matters in the long run because of heaven, and all that other good stuff.

See, religious. She thinks that she will get all that she requires in the above, or heaven. Thus she has thrown out her need for worldly items, and adopted some sort of clingy obsession to heaven. I think shes in denial, but that could just be me. I could write a book about it, but I simply lack the ability, probably. Not much else to say about the topic, but I was two words short so here's another sentence.

Bradstreet, Anne. "Upon the Burning of Our House." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 91. Print.

Rowlandson, Mary. "A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 82-85. Print.