Wilderness Of America

Superior Essays
Alternatively, most American Puritans saw the wilderness as an ominous presence, but misunderstood God’s implementation of the wilderness, as perceived by the Puritans. Once again, through Puritan mentality, God used the wilderness to test weak Puritans—those who lacked faith—and adopted the foundation of the wilderness to benefit the Puritan communities in America. One writer, J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur, used the idea of the wilderness to further implement God’s word toward the Puritan communities. Crèvecœur included in his works the Letters from an American Farmer, arguing his ideas of what an American should be interpreted and perceived as. Therefore, expressing the different types of Americans across the contrasting wilderness of America. …show more content…
More importantly, Crèvecœur applied the understanding of conquering the wilderness as gaining riches for the American Puritans and further specified these as “cleared lands, cattle, good houses, good clothes, and an increase of people to enjoy them” arguing that by using the wilderness it would further expand the population of the American Puritans (613). Nevertheless, a review was written by Alan Taylor, enforcing Crèvecœur’s purpose in using the wilderness as a necessity in further expanding the religion of American Puritanism. Taylor wrote “The American Beginning” as an analysis of the Letters to justify Crèvecœur’s reason to conquer the wilderness “He understood that abundance could corrupt as well as liberate,” therefore, Crèvecœur was not seen as “any champion of rugged individualism. He regarded social bonds as essential to sustained prosperity in the new land” (55). The reviewer understood Crèvecœur’s ideas on how to master the use of the wilderness and implement it in the sustaining the Puritan communities of …show more content…
Through Foster’s message in musical lyrics, God was able to justify Crèvecœur’s idea because of the misunderstanding of the wilderness and how it was brought upon Puritans. As a result, Puritans exploited the wilderness and used it to their advantage and expanding westward from the Colonies to achieve survival and prosperity, excluding the Puritan mentality. To return to the subject, one of Foster’s greatest songs “Oh! Susanna,” was a sensational hit for many of Americans explicating the wilderness through the lens of Crèvecœur and Winthrop. In addition, the musical lyrics that relate toward the image of Foster’s idea come from the third verse “I had a dream de odder night, when ebery ting was still; I thought I saw Susanna, A coming down de hill. The buckwheat cake war in her mouth, the tear was in her eye, Says I’m coming from de South,” stating how Americans have misunderstood the idea of self-preservation implemented by Crèvecœur (91). Foster reasoned with the development of his idea of self-preservation—to become a professional songwriter and only working for himself—because the majority of Americans interpreted this song as an idea to expand westward. However, the essential key of following God’s word in Puritan mentality was quickly misinterpreted by American Puritans. Winthrop’s sermon represented the

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