Common Sense By Thomas Paine And Native American Oral Literature

Final Essay From this semester’s reading I found that many of them have their own significant role or theme to help inform, entertain, and teach us about some historical context. In my essay I will show you the relevance and importance of three pieces that we have read this semester which include, “Remarks Concerning the Savages” by Benjamin Franklin, “Common Sense” by Thomas Paine and finally “Native American oral Literature” by Timothy Powell. In some cases, these texts may intertwine to help further are understanding and come up with new interpretations or ideas for their relevance. To start out I think my favorite reading form this semester was the Remarks Concerning the Savages, though I think that every piece of literature that we …show more content…
This piece is extremely important because it woke Americans up to the fact that it was time to finally rise up and succeed from British rule because it just made sense. Just like many students in school I was never taught how a single induvial had such an impact on motivating colonists to revolt against the British. Without taking American literature I may have never learned about such an influential figure and I think this piece should be more thoroughly taught in historical classes. Why I think Paine’s message was so impactful to the colonists was the fact that it was clear and very easy understood to most of everybody that could read at the time. Summed up it said Britain is this very small island all the way across the Atlantic Ocean, so how does the king and queen know what we are doing over here. Also, how do they have the right to tax us on the land that we colonized and oh yeah, didn’t we leave you because we didn’t believe in your hierarchy government. These factors woke future Americans to realize that hey he really has a point here and that it makes the most sense to rebel to make a future based off their own beliefs. Thomas Paine was such a committed activist for the revolution that he said “Give me liberty or give me death”. So, I say to not include this piece of literature when talking about the American revolution would be …show more content…
When it comes to American history the first thing you will are the Natives that first inhabited this land before settlers came over. From passed experiences with historical classes is that most teachers do not spend enough time with the Native American aspect but, skip to when the colonist arrive. So, this piece gives a good look into what the natives believed and practiced before European influence. Each community had its very unique idea to how the world was created but, in many ways, they are close to the same. They all believe in a higher being be the reason for their existence which can be found to be the truth for a lot of cultures around the world. My favorite on the three is the Iroquois creation story because it’s a battle between good and evil. It’s made out to be that everything was made for a purpose and though I do not believe that was how the world was made I find it intriguing and similar to some of my beliefs. So, for one to understand where we go from here, it helps to look to the past and see where we came. These stories help underline the foundation of the beliefs of the Natives. Though we do not have a lot of historical information on the natives before European influence this makes these pieces of Literature are extremely important when learning about the Indigenous