Literature As A Revolutionary Tool For American Social Criticism
In tandem with literacy, literature has become one of the leading vehicles for social criticism in American history. It amplifies the author’s voice, reverberating it throughout the nation, molding the history of America by changing the opinions of the people on certain issues. It can induce cries of hope and merriment, like John Winthrop’s sermon A Model of Christian Charity, which speaks about the optimistic prospect of America as the “City upon a Hill” (Winthrop, 84). But it can also elicit the noticeable cries viciously pointing out the ignored flaws embedded in this “more perfect union” (U.S. Const., Preamble)—the existence of slavery, racism, ethnocentrism and the absence of gender equality. While reading this textbook, it is important to keep in mind the question of intention—why a certain piece of literature was written and why during that particular time period and not another. In any case, major movements in American literature leading up to the 19th Century are not arbitrary or random; they are all interrelated by a cause and effect, wherein one movement inspires the critical response of another.
The arrival of the Puritans in the sixteenth century brought religious literature into the New World, more specifically sermons such as John Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity, which grounded the principles required for this infant colony to become the “City Upon A Hill” (Winthrop, 84). Winthrop’s sermon was an implicated work of criticism towards the European structure of society, where social class and bloodline would inherently determine a person’s fate in life. Winthrop modeled prospective America according to everything the Old World was not—it would be a country where the “riche and mighty should not eate up the poore, nor the poore,” (81) where the people “must love one another with a pure hearte fervently... beare one another burthens… [and] not looke only on [their] owne things, but also on the things of [their] brethren” (83). This model appealed
The arrival of the Puritans in the sixteenth century brought religious literature into the New World, more specifically sermons such as John Winthrop’s A Model of Christian Charity, which grounded the principles required for this infant colony to become the “City Upon A Hill” (Winthrop, 84). Winthrop’s sermon was an implicated work of criticism towards the European structure of society, where social class and bloodline would inherently determine a person’s fate in life. Winthrop modeled prospective America according to everything the Old World was not—it would be a country where the “riche and mighty should not eate up the poore, nor the poore,” (81) where the people “must love one another with a pure hearte fervently... beare one another burthens… [and] not looke only on [their] owne things, but also on the things of [their] brethren” (83). This model appealed