Paper #1

 Guiding question—linking a text/author to a cultural interpretation  What does ________ (identify the passage) tell us about the tension, conflict or paradox between _________ and ______ in American culture?  Example Question: What does Bradford’s first description of the American landscape tell us about tensions between belief in the land as a source of economic opportunity and the perception of the land as an obstacle to settlement and progress.  Example TS: Contrary to earlier contact narratives which depict nature as a commodity or bounteous source of economic opportunity, Bradford’s description of the Pilgrims’ encounter with the American landscape presents the landscape as a hostile obstacle that must be conquered or overcome.

 Closely read a passage  Looking for evidence to support an interpretation (E / I)  Non-literal and figurative language (symbolism, imagery, metaphor, connotation, etc.)  Integrate shorter quotes into sentences including your interpretation of them

 Who, where, when  Key cultural concepts (typology, civic virtue, covenant theology, etc.)  Connected to larger Am. Cultural questions and tradition (especially previous authors)

 Contrary to earlier contact narratives which depict nature as a commodity or bounteous source of economic opportunity, Bradford’s description of the Pilgrims’ encounter with the American landscape introduces an anxiety about the landscape as a hostile obstacle that must be conquered or overcome.. Where Smith and Columbus see profit, Bradford sees a “hideous and desolate wilderness,” an absence of anything but horror that marks a shift from land purpose to land as obstacle for American colonizers (134). Influenced by Puritan typological thought, Bradford personifies nature as a “cruel and fierce” opponent who, like the natives he so closely associates with the land has a “wild and savage hue.” Like the biblical narratives from which the Pilgrims find inspiration, Bradford’s narrative requires a chosen people to survive a life and death struggle with an evil opponent. In these lines, Bradford makes clear that the land is that opponent and that surviving the “hideous” and “savage” brutalities of that opponent could only have been possible with God’s grace or affirmation of the Pilgrim mission. This sense of divine justification validated by our relationship with the land becomes a staple of American national identity up to and beyond the Civil War.