Of Plymoth Plantation- Puritan Writing

The Puritans were all about God and the Bible. They would, in their writing, provide the Bible as a model or they favored plain style. In the story Of Plymouth Plantation, it was all about how the Pilgrims came about the land and met the Indians. In the beginning of the story, a young man, during a storm, falls out of his ship but luckily grabs onto a part of the ship. When Bradford says, "with a seele of the ship, thrown into sea; but it pleased God that he caught hold of the topsail halyards which hung overboard and ran out at length" (Bradford 64). When the young man fell out of the ship he was able to grab onto one of the ropes and hold onto it to bring him back to safety. Bradford said that it had "pleased" God. He says this because when the young man grabbed the rope for his life God was pleased that he was able to save his own life. The young man did not have to die while falling overboard into the sea. That is a big part as to how the Puritans had wrote, they were in close relation to God. So when Bradford said God was "pleased" it was the same kind of writing style that the Puritans used. So when the Pilgrims finally make it to the land after being out at sea for so long with all the storms and other bad things that happened they realize that there is nobody on that land. So they feel kind of tired after being out at sea for so long, but yet they are grateful to God for letting them stay on this land. When Bradford says, "Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element" (Bradford 65). This shows that even thought they were not entertained by anything or anyone, they were still thankful to God for letting them stay on the land rather be in the sea. So when they are on this land they know that winter is going to be coming and they have no supplies for that. Once winter comes a lot of people had died because of the fact that they were not ready for what was coming at them. When Bradford wrote, "After these things he returned to his place called Sowams, some 40 miles from this place, but Squanto continued with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond their expectation" (Bradford 67). This explains that God had sent Squanto for all these Pilgrims. They had thanked God for giving them somebody who new how to grow things and help them with their journey. All of these examples are a good source of what the Puritan writing was like. The story was somewhat written in the same way as the Puritans had written their stories.

Bibliography

Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Plantation. Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. Glencoe Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-

Hill, 2009. 65. Print.