Compare / Contrast Essay #1 Title
The age of Puritanism emerged when the first Puritans arrived in America and established a society founded on a covenant with God. The Puritans were very influential to American literature because they introduced a completely new way of thinking to a new generation. They believed that the purpose of life is to gain salvation and did so by showing good behavior. Writers during this time mainly wrote for self-reflection in order to make sure they were following the principles of Puritanism. Two of these authors were Mary Rowlandson and Edward Taylor. Rowlandson was a captive who suffered and recorded her interactions with the Native Americans, while Taylor was a writer known for his influential poetry describing …show more content…
In Rowlandson’s A Narrative of Her Captivity, she compares her situation as a hostage to the Bible through stark and literal imagery, whereas Taylor’s “Upon a Spider Catching a Fly” has more lurid but abstract imagery to allude to God. When Rowlandson arrives at Wenimesset with her sick child, she describes her situation as being “much alone with a poor wounded child . . . which moaned night and day, having nothing to revive the body or cheer the spirits of her” (25), and complains that “this was the comfort [she] had . . . as [Job] said” (26). The very real and to-the-point description of this situation is Rowlandson’s way of describing God’s test on her faith as being the same as Job’s test of faith. Despite the suffering she and her child experience, Rowlandson’s belief that God is omnipotent and in control comforts her; and Rowlandson justifies her belief through her straightforward allusion to the story of Job. Conversely, Taylor proves the theme with imagery and Biblical allusions through a different manner. In “Upon a Spider Catching a Fly” when the spider’s web catches the fly “by its leg,” the spider bites it “by the throat . . . hastily . . . ‘hind the head” (lines 22-24). Taylor ascribes the fly’s graphic death to its inherent weakness against a predator. He reveals the theme by comparing how as a fly is defenseless against a spider, humans too are born defenseless against sin, which is something under God’s control. However, through God’s “grace to break the cord,” sinners can be “perched on high [in] glory’s cage” (43, 47-48). Taylor simulates God’s power to break the bond between humans and evil and ability to keep them separate through a theoretical manner of imagery rather than through Rowlandson’s blunt and realistic imagery. Rowlandson expresses God’s power and control through her real life experiences while Taylor expresses them
The age of Puritanism emerged when the first Puritans arrived in America and established a society founded on a covenant with God. The Puritans were very influential to American literature because they introduced a completely new way of thinking to a new generation. They believed that the purpose of life is to gain salvation and did so by showing good behavior. Writers during this time mainly wrote for self-reflection in order to make sure they were following the principles of Puritanism. Two of these authors were Mary Rowlandson and Edward Taylor. Rowlandson was a captive who suffered and recorded her interactions with the Native Americans, while Taylor was a writer known for his influential poetry describing …show more content…
In Rowlandson’s A Narrative of Her Captivity, she compares her situation as a hostage to the Bible through stark and literal imagery, whereas Taylor’s “Upon a Spider Catching a Fly” has more lurid but abstract imagery to allude to God. When Rowlandson arrives at Wenimesset with her sick child, she describes her situation as being “much alone with a poor wounded child . . . which moaned night and day, having nothing to revive the body or cheer the spirits of her” (25), and complains that “this was the comfort [she] had . . . as [Job] said” (26). The very real and to-the-point description of this situation is Rowlandson’s way of describing God’s test on her faith as being the same as Job’s test of faith. Despite the suffering she and her child experience, Rowlandson’s belief that God is omnipotent and in control comforts her; and Rowlandson justifies her belief through her straightforward allusion to the story of Job. Conversely, Taylor proves the theme with imagery and Biblical allusions through a different manner. In “Upon a Spider Catching a Fly” when the spider’s web catches the fly “by its leg,” the spider bites it “by the throat . . . hastily . . . ‘hind the head” (lines 22-24). Taylor ascribes the fly’s graphic death to its inherent weakness against a predator. He reveals the theme by comparing how as a fly is defenseless against a spider, humans too are born defenseless against sin, which is something under God’s control. However, through God’s “grace to break the cord,” sinners can be “perched on high [in] glory’s cage” (43, 47-48). Taylor simulates God’s power to break the bond between humans and evil and ability to keep them separate through a theoretical manner of imagery rather than through Rowlandson’s blunt and realistic imagery. Rowlandson expresses God’s power and control through her real life experiences while Taylor expresses them