Puritan Age/Colonial Period Also know as the Age of Faith

1600-1700

By: B & K

Historical BackgroundWhat is a Puritan?

-”a person with extremely ill moral beliefs”

What is the Puritan Age/Colonial Period?-During the 16th Century a group of English led by John

Winthrop to Massachusetts from England's corrupt churches sought to create a society based on God’s

will/word. Colonists/settlers begin arriving in America.

How is this movement significant to American Literature?

-Puritan writing was the first AMERICAN writing to influence American literature & imagination for example Puritans’ direct, powerful & plain language in writing.

Images

Key Ideas Puritan Age

Puritan beliefs influence what they wrote such as human beings were sinful and deserved to die unless saved by God.

Writings were God-centered, about spiritual personal feelings, self examinations, and quest/road for salvation

Writings reveal they sought to follow God’s will & had a strict moral code.

Style/Tone of Writing included: Puritan Plain Style-powerful, simple, and

everyone had access to it.Figurative Language ex) Metaphors, similes,

etc. to help give a deeper meaning to common sayings and make them touching, powerful and direct.

Poems, Hymns, Historical JournalsThey believed that the writings should be

useful and a resource to understand the Bible on a deeper level in their lives.

Sermons were fierce and apprised Puritan beliefs

Puritan Writers/AuthorsPoets: Anne Bradstreet & Edward

TaylorPuritan Writers: Cotton Mather,Jonathan Edwards, & John Winthrop

Excerpt:To My Dear and Loving Husband

“ If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were lov'd by wife, then thee. If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can. I prize thy love more than whole Mines of gold Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that Rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee give recompence. Thy love is such I can no way repay. The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray. Then while we live, in love let's so persever That when we live no more, we may live ever.”

by Anne Bradstreet

The sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathon Edwards

“Your wickedness makes you as it were heavy as lead, and to tend downwards with great weight and pressure towards hell; and if God should let you go, you would immediately sink and swiftly descend and plunge into the bottomless gulf, and your healthy constitution, and your own care and prudence, and best contrivance, and all your righteousness, would have no more influence to uphold you and keep you out of hell, than a spider's web would have to stop a fallen rock.”

Excerpts

ASSESMENTAnd QUIZ

1)What language style did the Puritans write in that affects American Literature today?

A) No style B) Religious & Ceremonious C) Plain StyleD) None of the above

2)What can be seen in Puritan writings?

A) God's will, Self examination, and their rigid moral code

B) How witches in Salem were executed. C) The pure and simple life that they led

in order to obtain self fulfillment.D) Path to establishing a society for their

churches in England

3) How did Puritan writers/poets make their work vivid and have a deeper meaning?

A) Paintings and muralsB) Figurative LanguageC) Scary and provocative moralsD) Quoting the Bible & Him

4) What is another name for Puritan Age/Colonial Period?

A) Age of FaithB) English InvasionC) White ArrivalD) American Pilgrimage

5) Define a Puritan

A) Boarded the Mayflower and settled into America with different values

B) A person with extremely ill moral beliefs

C) Spanish who landed in America in search of Gold

D) English who advocated the England Church and helped many Natives