The Influence of Puritanism on American Literature
Introduction to Literature
December 9, 2013
Abstract
The spread and permeation of Puritan is accompanied the whole course of the early immigrants’ cultivation and settlement in North America. As a set of tenets, Puritanism has lost its original meaning, but it has become a part of the national cultural atmosphere in America because of its enduring influence on New England and even the whole America. Puritanism connects with American individuality and has played an important role in the development of American literature. This article will tell about the meaning of Puritanism and Puritanism’s influence on the literature.
Keywords: Puritanism; American character; American literature
The Influence of Puritanism on American Literature
The spread and infiltration of Puritanism is embodied in the whole process of early immigrants and settlements in North America. As a kind of doctrine, Puritanism has no longer the original meaning, but its influence on New England and the United States has a long history, and forms a special kind of culture in the United States, that is not only associated with individualism of the American character, but also connected to the development of American literature and characteristics.
Puritanism is the Puritan thought and their faith doctrine. The Puritans was reformist of the Anglican in the middle of the 16th century. They advocated the republican form of government, insists on the separation of church and state, because they represented the interests of medium and small bourgeois persecuted by the government. So they had to emigration to seek religious freedom. The first emigration got on "may flower" from continental Europe in 1620, and began the colonial frontier at the Plymouth in New England. Because of entrepreneurial hardships and successful start, the new settlers beli
eved relationship between the personal efforts and success. They realized that clear, honest and industrious style of work is a necessary quality. What's more, according to the Puritan doctrine, although God had already decided his voters who are unknown, however, everyone wanted to be successful through personal struggle to prove that God love them. In this way, the emphasis on individual struggle can prompt the individualism in the character of the United States, and lead to the formation of the so-called "American ideal", the ideal has inspired generation after generation of youth, that it plays a very important role in the development process of United States.
The Puritans is not a strict faction, but an attitude, a tendency, a kind of values. It is a kind of group of believers collectively. The Puritans is the most devout and holy protestant, they think "everyone 现代医药卫生is priest, and everyone has a call". They think every individual can communicate with god directly. They do not advocate bossy, corruption and red tape, against the group formalism. They argue that simple, realistic, everyone is equal before the God of believers.
They also agree with the real life, and that is born with world-weary concept. They think, "The world is our monastery." (Calvin). And the world of work is the way we do, is the task of God’s arrangemen渝州大学
t, and is a sacred duty. Everyone should do the practice and worship. This is doing one's duty. Pilgrims are all full of confidence, whether engaged in business trade or production cultivation. They have courage and confidence to face the difficulty for extraordinary success. T安徽中医学院图书馆hey are good at creation and innovation, and constantly explore and conquer. The value of them is worth people to learn spirit very much.
The influences of Puritanism are more mainly manifested in the infiltration of early American literature on American culture. The early American literatures during the colonial are along with certain purpose and the religious fervor. Colonists make notes of farming, or describe immigrant lives, or discuss the religious, to describe the new world of life and promote Puritanism. The settlers mostly believe the doctrine of John Calvin: according to his perfect image, God created Adam and Eve, but they fall to steal to eat th
e forbidden fruit, so men is original sin, must try to redeem themselvessony cr33. God has supreme power, and decides the fate of the people in advance. The worship of the God and absolute trust makes the early colonial American literature a strong religious color. Enthusiasms on religion inevitably lead to blind suppression of freedom of thought. The reflection of the problem is to performance in the legend of romantic literature represented by Hawthorne novel. The grandparents of Hawthorne are Puritan who is under the influence of New England tradition. He is not a Puritan, the age he lives away from the rule of Puritanism in New England for a century, but the growing materialistic made him rethink some of the basic concept of Puritan. He inherited the Puritan completely the concepts of original sin and stealth, becomes a faithful record of these ideas and positive reviewers, and explores the "evil" as the theme of his works. In his masterpiece The Scarlet Letter, he used symbolism to expose the character of the psychological and idea deep in the soul of the struggle between good and evil. Not 拓扑关系just him, each author's works are influenced by Puritanism, that is not only truly reflects the Puritan view of life, but also criticized the inhibition of Puritanism.
This period has actually started the Renaissance in the United States, the American literary activities for the first time - the Transcendentalist. Transcendentalist stressed intuition, believe that people can perceive the external world through perception and intuition, to achieve harmonious unification between God and the natural. It emphasizes individualism is the most important element in society; the ideal state is man of self-reliance. Transcendentalist abandoned the religious factors on surface, but essentially retained the Puritan marked characteristics, moral integrity, the harmony between people, nature, and God is everywhere, thrifty life attitude, etc. As a moral guide, transcendentalists essentially tend to call on people to abandon the old customs and traditions and believe personal dignity and value, to create a new kind of their own American literature.
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