Defining the American Character

If the last section of readings focused on establishing a colonial presence in Ameria -- with an especial focus on survival in religious and material senses -- this section of writings finds a group of writers focused on defining (and thereby establishing) what is the American character. While John Edwards is the only of these writers to focus on the religious character of America, there is no denying that Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God has had a particularly strong shaping hold on the American spirit. Surely it seems applicable to only the Puritan communities which he was addressing, but Edwards established a strain of American character that is prevalent to this day: a strain emphasizes the strength of the individual and self-determination while paradoxically acknowledging that life is, in fact, at the whim of higher-forces one has no sway over (here, God, but in the future society, culture, genetics, upbringing, 'religion' and other massive, invisible forces).

Benjamin Franlin likewise furthers this emphasis on the individual's capabilities, going so far as to try and perfect himself through nothing more than his own will. Not coincidentally, his fellow founding father, Thomas Jefferson, embodies many of these same principles in the Declaration of Independence, the GOSPEL of self-determination and self-control. Both of these men believed in the strength of an individual's will and the individual's self, so much it might be said they maid a religion out of the practice. Certainly they made a nation out of it, challenging the dominant mode of servile obedience that had dominated the peasantries thoughts in Europe for centuries (though they don't realize that they, too, doubt the power of the individual as Edward did and demand a guiding force, here the will of the masses).

While she is not writing in the same modes as the other writers in this section, Phillis Wheatley's poetry likewise emphasizes the glory of the individual; how relevant this is when one considers that she began life in America as a slave. Yet she does not seem to see slavery as a bad thing; in fact, she sees it in many ways as THE reason she was able to develop her identity at all (primarily through the influence of religion and education). What is generally regarded as indisputably evil by the majority of Americans today (and is the biggest blight on our history) was, to some slaves, the best thing that could ever happen to them.

This paradoxical strain that persists throughout the American character to this day is truly fascinating; on one hand, there is an extreme emphasis on the power of each individual to build themselves wholesale out of nothing, and yet, we are quick to acknowledge that we are not islands, that we do in fact depend on our interaction with the world to change. Only Hecter St. John de Crevecoeur seemed to acknowledge this in his writings, which were not so primarily concerned with SHAPING the American character (as the writings of his peers were, whether or not they realized it) but merely describing what was happening in American thought. It is something that bears more study, for the modern American character is quickly becoming, through globalization and cultural imperialism, one of the most dominant global characters, and yet it has changed so very little over these last two hundred years.

Art Imitating Life: New Horizons

It seems no surprise that literature would be affected by the experiences of the author in real life. After all, where else is there to draw inspiration from but the sum total of one's experience and knowledge? Interesting to note how the experiences of the first American colonial authors' influenced their work, though: faced with a new frontier and very little knowledge of what awaited them, with very little to no ability to turn back, limited resources and very little practical survival skills those early American writers were faced with one subject that dominated above all others: the brute struggle for survival.

Or it WOULD have been the focus of their work if they did not have one other highly influential element: the subject of religion. With this consideration, what might have been very simple travelogues and paltry journal accounts about woodland explorations and skirmishes with the Indians turns into a narrative about a New Chosen people whose very souls are at stake. More than a battle for brute survival, this a battle for the very survival of the soul and -- consequently -- the world. What's most interesting, though, is how these two aspects are constantly interrelated: all mentions of the survival of the soul are precepts that are meant to help the colonists work together.

William Bradford's accounts of the founding of Plymouth Plantation are rife with references to God's divine and right judgment and how it is casts upon those who would destroy the unity of the group (such as the callous young sailor). Winthrop's model of Christian charity is meant to keep the community together (he even talks of the cohesion between bodily parts and the failure of the body should certain body parts fail to do their job correctly. Even if this is an allusion to the BODY OF CHRIST, it still emphasizes a communal aspect and communal survival. Mary Rowlandson sees the very destruction of her village, her family and her friends as the wrath of God made manifest.

Everything the colonists are undergoing is seen as a new test for a New Chosen people, with references to covenants abounding in their discourse. Though this was certainly not uncommon in literature before the colonization (considering that the vast majority of all work produced from the time that the Roman Church became dominant was concerned WITH the Church), it did lead to the creation of a new type of literature that dealt not with the philosophical and metaphysical weight of Christianity, but with the very pragmatic aspects of survival that were attached to -- in some cases consequent -- of the spiritual aspects of survival. What occurred in the physical world was a mirror of what occurred in the metaphysical realm of god which was in turn triggered by the actions of the people in the physical world! This concern seems to have a large amount of relevance and presence even up into today's fiction; it might be said, then, that early American literature established a particular flavor of writing that would prove endemic to the country's body of written work.