美国文学question amp; answer.docVIP

殖民启蒙时期feedback Question 1: What are the basic beliefs and values of American Puritans? For this question, my intention is for you to understand the importance of Puritanism in American literature, especially in the colonial period. If there is only one key word for colonial literature, then it would be Puritanism. To answer this question, you can think from two different aspects. One is their religious belief and the other is life attitude or life values. Thus you can combine some of your classmates’ answers: 1. They believed Calvinism: original sin, total depravity, unconditional selection, limited atonement and so on. Puritans believed they were Gods chosen people and were guided to the promised land-- America. 2. On the one hand, Puritanism is a highly strict religious doctrine. On the other hand, Puritans were very practical, hardworking, frugal, and strict in life. How did American Puritanism influence colonial literature? The influence of Puritanism on colonial literature can be summarized into the following three categories: 1. American literature, in a sense, is a literary expression of the pious idealism of the Puritan request. The Puritans dreamed of living under a perfect order and worked with hope and courage toward building a new Eden. Therefore, they tended to look everything optimistically. 2. The Puritans’ metaphorical mode of perception brought American literary symbolism into being. To the pious Puritans, the world was one of multiple meanings. 3. The Puritan style of writing was fresh, simple and direct, the rhetoric was plain and honest, and the words were simple and not fancy. The use of metaphors was only to explain their opinions rather than to decorate. They wrote non-fictional prose instead of novels. They were good at writing history, too, and biography was once a popular form of literature. Question 2 How was the theme American Dream reflected in both colonial and revolutionary literature? Give some examples. American Dream is an