In writing A Voyage Long and Strange, Tony Horwitz’s goal is clear, to educate others on early America and debunk ignorant myths. Horwitz’s reason for wanting to achieve this goal is because of his own ignorance that he sees while at Plymouth Rock. “Expensively educated at a private school and university- a history major, no less!-I’d matriculated to middle age with a third grader’s grasp of early America.” Horwitz is disappointed in his own lack of knowledge of his home country, especially with his background history and decides not only to research America’s true beginnings, but to also follow the path of those who originally yearned to discover America.
As students, one usually sees a positive view on what life was like back then. Usually, one fails to realize that perhaps these pilgrims, or puritans who sailed across the Atlantic, were more complex than the simpleton title the standard textbooks give them. Thus, one is able to realize that there are perspectives from both sides of the spectrum. As Vowell composes her book, she gives a witty outlook on the governing of John Winthrop in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and how his puritan ideals affected the society around them. One thing that The Wordy Shipmates does suggest to the reader is how one must not take things for face value.
Throughout history there has been a constant, man’s desire to experience new things. Two men that come to mind are Chris McCandless and Henry David Thoreau. Both men shared a similar reason for traveling into the wild. The differences in their journey’s that led to McCandless’s death and Thoreau’s success is the preparation and approach to the journey’s. Even though Chris failed on his journey he still was very much like Thoreau wanting to leave society in search for enlightenment.
In this paper the short story by Olaudah Equiano Life of Olaudah Equiano and The Journal of Christopher Columbus by Christopher Columbus will be compared. I will go over various points such as descriptive details, emotional appeal, and word choice to find what the author's purpose is in these two different narratives. First I will analyze emotional appeal. The two narratives have different cover pictures, while these are not words they do give impressions.
The concept of exile consisting of contrasting ideas of an “unhealable rift” and “enriching” was brought forth by literary theorist Edward Saif. In Ann Patchett’s novel, State of Wonder, she creates the protagonist Dr. Marina Singh who experiences exile as she first relocates to a small Brazilian town and later ventures into the much larger Brazilian rainforest. The exile that Marina experiences demonstrates the novel’s theme of abandonment through the exploration of exile as a phenomenon that is alienating through the unawareness of surroundings and nostalgia, enriching through the procurement of knowledge and experiences, and requires an individual to survive the mounting pressures. Dr. Marina Singh first enters her exile when she voluntarily
A Voyage Long and Strange Response In A Voyage Long and Strange, Horwitz attempts to rewrite history in a more captivating and personable way, steering away from the dryness of a textbook to better preserve and commemorate the founding of America. Horwitz, with little planning ahead of time, embarks on a journey to learn more about how America came to be what it is today. He indulges in the rich cultures of each place he visits, gaining more perspective on their ways of living and how that was impacted by the discovery of America. His overall goal was to rewrite history in a way that incorporates and finds a balance between both fact and myth.
A twelve year old boy a world away from his parents once wrote in a letter to his parents: “And I have nothing to comfort me, nor is there nothing to be gotten here but sickness and death.” This child was Richard Frethorne, and in “Letter to Father and Mother,” he communicates his desperation caused by the new world’s merciless environment to his parents to persuade them to send food and pay off his accumulated debts from the journey. He accomplishes this with deliberate word choice and allusions to the bible to appeal to ethos, pathos, and logos. Frethorne uses diction, imagery, and facts to create a letter to his parents which aims to garner sympathy for his state of life and to persuade them to send food and pay off his debts.
In Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man, he explains how powerful exile plays an important role in the narrator’s journey to finding out who he really is. According to Edward Said “Exile is… a rift forced between a human being and a native place,…its essential sadness can never be surmounted…a potent, even enriching” .The narrator’s journey to finding who he is, was alienating and enriching. The narrator’s journey to alienation and enrichment began in chapter six of Ralph Ellison’s novel Invisible Man.
David Foster Wallace’s essay “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again” draws on an disillusionment to the American Dream. The essay is truly captivated by Wallace’s sarcastic humor,the themes of death and despair, and the reflection of individual comparison. All in which ties into the idea of the disappointment of the American Dream. The essay illustrates Wallace’s seven night luxury Caribbean cruise.
The reader gets to join McCandless in his adventure across the country as he invents a new life for himself. He embraces the ideas and morals of Thoreau and Emerson in his journey. In the book, a man by the man by the name of Westerberg discusses about how McCandless is not destroying his possessions and journey around the wild because the wild he is suicidal or unintelligent. “You could tell right away that Alex was intelligent… He always had to know the absolute right answer before he could go on to the next thing.”
During the colonial period many settlers came to the New World to escape persecution for their Puritan beliefs. Writers such as William Bradford, John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet, and Mary Rowlandson all shared their experiences and religious devotion throughout their literature that ultimately inspired and influenced settlers to follow. This essay will discuss the similarities in Anne Bradstreet and Mary Rowlandson’s work as they both describe their experiences as signs from God. Anne Bradstreet came to the New World as a devoted Puritan as she repeatedly talked about it in her poetry. In her poems she discusses many tragedies that happened in her life such as; the burning of her house and the death of her two grandchildren all of which she thinks were signs from God.
He had not seen his father since his death. And, at that moment, he had the strange realization that he had become used to the idea of never seeing him again. In “Swimming at Night” by Juan Forn, the readers are first introduced to a scene of a troubled man on vacation, who is unable
Those unlucky colonist’s new lives were cut short by suffering. Virginia Is Not a New Paradise which was written by Richard Ffrethorne, an English serf that
The arrival of the first Europeans in the Americas is dramatically captured through the many writers who attempted to communicate what they saw, experienced and felt. What is more, the very purposes of their treacherous travel and colonization are clearly seen in their writings; whether it is poetry, history or sermons. Of the many literary pieces available today, William Bradford and John Winthrop’s writings, even though vary because the first is a historical account and the second is a sermon, stand out as presenting a clear trust in God, the rules that would govern them and the reason they have arrived in the Americas. First of all, William Bradford provides an in-depth look into the first moment when the Puritans arrived in the Americas. In fact, he chronicles the hardships they face on their way to Plymouth, yet he includes God’s provision every step of the way.
There is a sense of abandonment because of the unfortunate faith that period of life has produced. Another major theme is
