1. In The General History of Virginia, the narrator is perceived as “Smith”. The real identity of “Smith” is the actual author, or John Smith. Why is the author doing this? Because if Smith was using the phrase, “I did… I made… etc..” people would not believe him. They would think that Smith is making this up and simply bragging about himself and how he is the finest ruler in the New World. The purpose of writing in third person is to convince the reader into thinking that this is real and not a fake account of what happened. This makes John Smith a tremendous storyteller. Not because it’s valid information and not a boastful story. But because he explains other people’s stories in third person. He explains them deeply, almost like Smith was that person he was talking about. Does this impede his storytelling? In a way, yes. Although he does use third person, he does brag about himself just a little bit. But the readers back then will overlook that due to the fact that he explains other people’s stories very well. 2. …show more content…
There are quite a few important people in this story. For example, Robinson and Emry. Without them, Smith may have never been captured. Now John Smith writes about many others, like President Wingfield, Captain Kendall, and George Cassen. Does he like and respect all of these people? Well, lets just say that John Smith was NOT a people person. To start, President Wingfield. In the story, John Smith defines Wingfield as a corrupt president who starved his people and brought war to the colony. True or not, Smith did NOT like President Wingfield. Now Captain Kendall is another story. John Smith tells of the council having a little argument. Well, from Smith’s point of view, Captain Kendall was executed from this argument on charges of mutiny. Did John Smith execute him? Was his hate of Kendall the factor of Kendalls execution? Although it doesn’t specify in the story, it sounded like Smith did not like Kendall at