American Literature

All of the authors we have conversed about in class and studied about at home are connected in at least one way, if not many more. For example, Anne Bradstreet, Jonathan Edwards, Michael Wigglesworth and John Winthrop all write about God and the way we should all act and the simple fact that we all need to be Christians and so must the Indians who occupy their lives. Where as these authors are writers of the Heavenly Father, the authors that I wish to write about, though they do speak a little about God, I am writing on their influence on the Indian culture as well as the impact the Indians have made in Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's, Mary Rowlandson's and Samson Occom's lives.

First of all I wish to write about Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and how he perceived life as he lived with the Indian people and the culture he took in as his own as he lived with them. Cabeza de Vaca thought, I assume, that the Indians were semi-humans compared with he who was fully human because of his undemanding nature and his involvement with the King of England. Cabeza de Vaca calls, in his narratives, the Indians he lives with 'people'. Thus saying they are human, not animals or monsters as other authors thought. He thinks that they need to be converted to his beliefs, because he is 'right', to be fully human beings. I get this feeling from his statement, "Clearly, to bring all these people to Christianity and subjection to Your Imperial Majesty, they must be won by kindness, the only certain way." (Pg 67) Therefore, to me, this says that he thinks the Indians, along with himself, are just the same as the English Christians.

Cabeza de Vaca writes, "After this we had a hot argument with them (the Christians), for they meant to make slaves of the Indians in our train." (Pg 69) He believes the Indians are human too and are able to live the life they are 'supposed' to live. Although he could not get the ones he lived with to believe it; he says, "To the last I could not convince the Indians that we were of the same people as the Christian slavers." (Pg69), he told his king and the world, and I trust we understand.

I reflect that Cabeza de Vaca thought the Indians would not be converted, to any of the English ways; nor did he consider they would be annihilated. I imagine he thought they would just live their lives as they know how. Obediently.

Mary Rowlandson has a very different view about the Indians, I suppose, because she has an extremely diverse attitude while writing about them. Rowlandson, at first, thought of the Indians as barbarians, and I expect she still thought that way after her return to her husband, but she became a part of them, without wanting to be willing to, but having to, mainly to stay alive. I feel she knows she is part of the Indians way of living, but she cannot bring herself to say they are not barbarians, although she realizes she is becoming just like them with the eating of their foods and learning their language.

"It was upon a Sabbath-day-morning, that they prepared for their travel. This morning I asked my master whether he would sell me to my husband. He answered me 'Nux,' which did much rejoice my spirit." (Pg 322) Rowlandson directly states that she thinks the Indians were not humans, for she calls them "...those barbarous creatures..." (Pg 311) So, she read to them Bible verses - I do not know exactly why, except for wanting to convert them.