Posted: March 18th, 2022

American Literature assignment

In 1000 words, please describe how “community” figures into our readings from each subsection: Indigenous America, Colonial America and the Atlantic World, and American Liberty. What do our readings tell us about the “communities” which produced the text, i.e. early Native Americans, Puritans, and colonial settlers. What bound these communities together, respectively? What were individual responsibilities within the “community”? What was each communities relationship to their “higher powers,” their histories, their youth, their elderly, their units of trade (stories, food, land, money, etc)? How did each community deal with “good” vs. “evil”? Who was excluded from these communities? How were these ideas on community expressed, and how might this mode of expression loop back to the community from which it came? One could spend their whole word allotment focusing on just one of these questions, and that would be appropriate. However, do not try to answer all of them in one post. 

Let me give you some idea of what I mean by “community” for each subsection.

Indigenous: Community is built, in part, by the passing down of stories from one generation to the next — the oral tradition. 

Puritan: Community in this instance is very much religious based. Bound by their sense of desire to please God by establishing a New Jerusalem (see my power point presentation which you are free to use in this assignment). 

Colonial settlers: Community is built off a social contract wherein people sign up for the protections of the community in exchange for agreeing to live under the rule of law. 

This is a glimpse into what I mean when I say community. You are welcome to challenge these concepts, or build off them. I welcome your perspectives on what you believe community to mean in these contexts, given the readings over the past week and a half. All ideas should be textually grounded.

required readings are listed in attachments below 

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