PUR - Puritan Legacies Module Overview

Puritan Legacies Module Overview

Introduction 

The early American colonies were soon peopled with settlers from all over Europe. These settlers traveled here for many different reasons and brought with them varied cultures, practices, and religious beliefs that have been transmitted to generations of Americans throughout time.

However, the influence of one group in particular - the Puritans - has been so powerful in the development of American ideals and ways of life that a closer look at the literature they produced will help us understand the development of our American identity.

We will begin with the writings of individual Puritans themselves and then examine their portrayal by others through a modern play about the Salem Witch Trials in the Massachusetts Bay Colony - Arthur Miller's The Crucible.

Essential Questions

  1. How does the literature of early Colonial America reflect the customs and beliefs of the Puritans?
  2. How did history have an effect on the literature of the Puritans?
  3. What values and literary styles has Puritan literature contributed to American literature and identity today?
  4. What are the major themes of The Crucible?
  5. Is Miller's portrayal of the Puritans accurate?
  6. How is Miller's The Crucible an allegory of 1950s America?

 

Key Terms

  1. Puritan plain—A way of writing that stresses simplicity and clarity of expression.
  2. Archaisms—Words that are no longer used.
  3. Allusion—A reference to someone or something that is known from history, literature, religion, sports, politics, science, or some other branch of culture; these are a sort of code that add a lot of meaning to a text without taking up a lot of space.
  4. Exhortation—A statement meant to provide encouragement and urge someone to do something specific.
  5. Inversion—A reversal of the normal word order in a sentence or phrase.
  6. Anaphora—The repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a line, clause, or sentence.
  7. Conceit—An long, complicated metaphor that may even be carried throughout an entire text.
  8. Apostrophe—A figure of speech in which a speaker directly addresses a person who is not there or a personified object, quality, or idea.
  9. Metaphor—Usually defined as a comparison between a familiar object and unfamiliar object that doesn't use "like" or "as," but it also means any use of a word or phrase that isn't meant to be taken literally.
  10. Captivity Narrative—The story of one's experience during an imprisonment, usually by a group the narrator considers to be uncivilized or lacking moral virtue.
  11. Allegory—The representation of abstract ideas or principles in a story.
  12. Conflict—Struggle between at least two opposing forces (individual v. Individual, individual v. Society, individual v. Nature).
  13. Setting—The time and place in which a story takes place.
  14. Stage Direction—The part of the play's script that tells actors how to deliver their lines and what actions to take when performing.
  15. Symbol—An object used to represent a larger or more significant idea.
  16. McCarthyism—The practice of making accusations of disloyalty, especially of pro-Communist activity, many times without proof or based on slight, doubtful, or irrelevant evidence.

 

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