World On The Turtle's Back, The Crucible, And Self-Reliance

The Evolution of American Literature

American literature has changed over many years. Some of these works have helped to shape how we live, work, and think. Others are a reminder of a past that may have been grim or pleasant, depending on how the writer may have seen it. Some works of literature that show the evolution of Americans and our religion could be The World on the Turtle’s Back, The Crucible, and Self-Reliance. The World on the Turtle’s Back is a work by the Iroquois native Americans that was from around 2000 bc. It was passed on orally from generation to generation and expressed how the Iroquois tribe thought the world was created. They believed that the world was created by a group of gods. This story also shows that during this time most Native American literature was probably passed down orally, which is very different from how we usually pass on our stories today.

John Edward’s Sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is a piece of literature from colonial times. He is angrily addressing a group of puritan people and telling them that they should change their ways so that they will not go to hell. This sermon shows how religion

The first story The World on the Turtle’s Back is about the Iroquois beliefs on the creation of the earth and showed that during this time most literature was passed on orally. The next story Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God shows how religion shifted from the native American beliefs to the largely puritan beliefs of the early colonial times and that even though the Sermon may have been spoken it was also written down so that everyone could read it. Lastly we have the Essay Self-Reliance by Ralph waldo Emerson. His essay focuses on the individual and changes from most literature being religious in some way to the importance of people having transcendental thought and thinking for themselves rather than a