Everell Flecher's In Hope Leslie

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It was a widely held belief that the frontier was open for the taking. A belief not only incorrect, but simply one of ignorance. Everell Flecher’s youthful imagination and inaccurate education in Hope Leslie is fractured and set straight by a single story. He learns from Magawisca, a captive Native American, that the frontier is made up of false images and stories and thus it has become this “imaginal place” (Schneekloth 210). Young Flecher was so caught up in what he thought was right that, when he learned the truth, it vexed him so much that he cried. Ultimately, he understands that his people, the Puritans, had wronged the Native Americans. From this newfound information, Everell loses his remaining innocence and begins on a path to seek …show more content…
In the story, Magawisca tells the reader that the Pequots, who live on a hill, are able to see all around them. The day is quiet and peaceful; the men are out fishing. A little before dawn the next day, Magawisca’s mother goes out looking for her son because it is late and she has a bad feeling that something bad is going to happen. She meets a member of the tribe and has a conversation with him about her son. The next thing they know dogs start to bark. The English has come. In the bloodshed that happens next young and old are cut down by sabers and bullets. Luckily, Magawisca’s mother hid them under a rock in their family’s hut. When the fighting is over, her people were no longer a people. Afterwards, the men who have gone hunting come back, see the massacre, and begin pursuit of the English. While Everel is hearing this story, he is in awe and disbelief. (Sedgwick, 48-54). At this point, Everell began to see who the true monsters were.
Through the story that Magawisca tells him about the Pequot War because it is different from what had learned. The war’s history is misleading because the Puritan historians created a story that benefitted themselves and not the Pequots, the victim of the unfortunate event. The war was said to have been caused by the murders of John Stone, John
…show more content…
The Puritans wanted land, they wanted to farm, and create communities. Though, the Native Americans were still there pestering in the eyes of the Puritans. His people had been in the wrong during the war and after finding this out he began to see his life differently. He began to see the inherent savagery that was done to the Pequot people; that it was no longer the Native American who were the savages but the God fearing Puritans. It was not honor that came to mind when Magawisa told her story no it was horror. Frederick Turner in his “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” writes about who really was the savages. He says, “the frontier had to meet its Indian question, its question of the disposition of the public domain” (Turner). The question of what do the Puritan do with the Native American’s. Through Magawisca’s story, it is clearly described that what they did is killing most if not all of them and then claim their land. In doing this the Puritans found the, “meeting point between savagery and civilization” (Turner). It can be understood that Everell realized this. He saw the harm that had been done to gain all that he and his family had. He saw that the problem between the Native Americans was not started by the Native Americans but, by his people. Turner argument can be interpreted in many ways. However, the idea

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