The Puritans believed that the Bible was the ultimate guide on how to live and that interaction with God was only possible in church. They got rid of all the formalities of Christianity to purify it and themselves. The Puritans were different from what most people think they were. For example, they weren’t just a small group of people and they actually had so much power in England that they fought against the Crowned forces and won, however short-lived that victory was.
"There are several sorts of religious, not only in different parts of the island but even in every town; some worshipping the sun, others the moon or one of the planets" (Sir Thomas More). A "City upon a Hill" is meant to be an example that everyone follows. John Winthrop, a religious Puritan, led the Puritans to their own utopia. The Puritans were a religious group who wanted to purify the church from within. They came from England.
Besides English settlers there were numerous other representatives of the European countries settling in the new land. And as the Puritans came to practice their own believes so did other nationalities, as explained in the study material. In my own interpretation America represents change and the believe system as well as the way religion was previously practiced was now changing. This change was greatly influenced by the intellectual movement called Enlightenment, which started in Europe and this influence had bearing on the Great Awakening. Besides Puritans now there were Catholics in Maryland, Quakers in Pennsylvania and the Episcopal Church in the southern states.
The Puritans are a Christian religious group that originated in England but ended up in America. The Puritan religious is not commonly practiced now and might even be extinct. Thought they are either sparse or gone the Puritans have effects how we today worship. The Puritans had great effect on the way America was set up, but actually originated in England.
The Puritanism shape today’s American culture to a large extent, for example, it has a great influence on the American political culture, the idea Individualism and capitalism are raised from the Puritanism. And the value of individualism has permeated every corner of American society today. And it also shapes the educational culture of America. The Puritans had a zeal for education, “The idea that everyone should be educated is a remnant of the Puritan emphasis” on education,. They desired education and enlightenment for everyone and to spread their faith.
Because Puritans faced countless persecutions in England, many fled to Holland. In 1620, fearing that they would lose their identity as English Protestants, a small group set out for the New World in hopes of building a new society based on the Word of God. Convictions of the Puritans helped shaped the American character. Such convictions included moral, ethical, and religious. There were approximately twenty thousand English Puritans in New England by 1640.
Early American colonies were the base of what it is now known the United States of America. Although almost all of the colonies were from the same time period each colony differed from each other. Some of the colonies differed by their economic system and also by their way of running their colony, their government. Also, the colonies differed from their culture and their way they lived. In addition, the New England and the Chesapeake colonies were not the exception they also differed from each other.
The American Puritan’s ideal example to follow was left by Crèvecœur in his letters depicting an American by their environment. Formerly, before Crèvecœur’s idea of a puritan mentality, came John Winthrop and his sermon, “A Model of Christian Charity.” Winthrop later spoke in greater detail about his idea in the excerpt “City Upon a Hill,” where he speaks highly about the mentality that each puritan should have, “There is no body but consistes of partes and that which knits these partes together gives the body its perfeccion… the most perfect of all bodies, Christ and his church make one body…”. Specifying that in order for a community to come together as one body, they must be greatly involved with Christ and the church. Considering, that
According to founding father Thomas Paine, “Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us” (“Reputation”). Whether individuals readily admit it or not, everyone cares about what others think or say about them to some extent. Though people are constantly told to not take to heart what others believe about them, they still do. In Arthur Miller’s drama, The Crucible, Salem’s society is collapsing and innocent characters are taking action because their reputation is at stake due to the false accusations of involving themselves in witchcraft. These characters live in such fear that if their pride is tarnished they will never recover from it.
“The Crucible” contains many themes, but the most prominent theme in the play shows that fear and suspicion destroys a community. The character, events, and literary devices used in “The Crucible” help to prove this theme. This theme shows its ugly face many times throughout the story and the fear, along with the suspicion, make the characters in the story act strangely. When the characters act strange, the events in the play intense and interesting to the reader. The literary devices used assist the story’s way the reader feels throughout the story.