Marco Polo Characteristics

In 8th century BCE, a Greek poet known as Hesiod visioned the blessed isles. His vision directed him to the west. In 4th century BCE, a philosopher known as Plato from Greece shared a similar vision to the west. He visioned the lost city underwater, also known as Atlantis. In 484 AD, an Ireland monk St. Brendan had a vision from god to travel west to the blessed isles. He lived on an island known as Canada today. He taught Indians many things including agriculture. Marco Polo had an influence on others from his long dangerous but successful journeys to China. In 1477, the Caxton press was invented. This invention is what made Marco Polo’s book, The Travels of Marco Polo so popular. Hence influencing others to travel west, such as Christopher
John Smith was a seasoned veteran of survival and was not a professional writer. The second characteristic of Exploration Literature is written to a specific audience such as the king, queen, and the backers. These journals or texts specifically describe their lifestyles, daily struggles, and document important events. The third characteristic of Exploration Literature is that these texts are what literary historians call “history in the making.” In Smith’s text he writes, “Now ever once in four or five days, Pocahontas with her attendants brought so much provision that saved many of their lives, that else for all this had starved with hunger” (92). This Event would be considered as history in the making because Pocahontas brought provisions to the colonists which ultimately caused the survival of Jamestown. The fourth characteristic of Exploration Literature is that these texts are quite ethnocentric. Ethnocentrism is the evaluation of other people’s culture according to the standards of one's own culture. In Smith’s text he says, “each hour the fury of the savages, when god the patron of all good endeavors, in that desperate extremity so changed the hearts of the savages” (84). In this passage, smith is referring to the Native Americans as savages. Ironically in this passage the natives are actually trying to help them with presenting provisions. Although the Native
During the time of King Philips War within the settling period, Mary Rowlandson was a captive and only woman in the 17th and 18th century to write her own captivity narrative. The experience of captivity was very common during the settlement period that the estimate of tens of thousands is the usual number historians ascribe to it. The second characteristic of Settlement Literature is that it's frequently didactic and/or propagandistic. Rowlandson’s text is important because it documents so many details of Native Americans life in the late 1600s, the experience of captivity, and the mindset of a puritan woman. Her text informs her readers with descriptions of events, environments, and native culture. Rowlandson’s descriptions about the experience of captivity might not have been known in literature or history without her narrative. The third characteristic of Settlement Literature is often deeply personal. Rowlandson’s narrative is a deeply personal experience. She uses faith in God and the use of scripture to keep her strength and reason, to keep moving on through this horrific experience. Rowlandson’s son in the text acknowledges a piece of scripture that states, “I shall not die but live, and declare the works of the Lord: the Lord hath chastened me sore, yet he hath no given me over to death” (267). This passage of scripture is a personal reason Rowlandson