William Bradford: Of Plymouth Plantation

In this passage of this story there are many pieces of the writing that lead me to believe that William Bradford was a puritan writer. The most obvious thing I notice of his writing is that he talks about the "province of God" many times, "...; but it pleased God that he caught hold of the topsail halyards which hung overboard and ran out at length"(Bradford 64-65). He is displaying his faith in God in this sentence. This portion of the story tells me that William thinks that God has a hand in everything. He does not believe in fate, he thinks that God is fate. He also says that the young man that God saved "became a profitable member both in church and commonwealth."(Bradford 64-65). I think that a profitable member of the church may mean that he took part in church often perhaps doing the readings or it is possible that it means that he attends church every week. There are many examples of the men of this ship praising God. "Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their kneees an blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean"(Bradford 64-65). William Bradford is a strong believer in God and his writing in the style of a Puritan is obvious because of the great amount of religious references that he makes. He believes that God is the reason things happen and when something goes good he knows that it is because that is what God has willed and the same goes for when something has gone wrong. I think that it would be very risky to write like this today because of all of the different opinions that people have the write to. William Bradford's story of Plymouth is not completely religious. He also tells us of the great journey that the English made and the meetings with the Indians. William tells the reader of Squanto and the other Indian leaders and of those who could speak English. The Indians and English get along and they make a peace treaty with each other and they become friends. William also writes of the first Thanksgiving and the meal that was shared between the two opposite peoples. William says that the Indian that could speak English was "a special instrument sent of God"(Bradford 66-67). I think that he says this because of how useful the Indian was to them. He showed them how to make their corn better and he showed the English many things of this new land that would have taken them a long time to figure otherwise. The references made to God seems to be very common in these stories that we have been reading in class as of late. They think that God is everything and that if you wrong God he will wrong you. William Bradford was a strong writer and his stories will most likely be read for a long time.

Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. Print.