Both of these readings portray this importance for striving for land. By owning land somehow puts you in god’s good graces. However this obsession for land and possessiveness is contradictory to doing ‘good’. Those who colonized destroyed and changed the cultures of those who where there before by imposing their morals and beliefs, because of this need for land and the overtaking of property.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Readings on John Smith
The two readings for class on Friday were interesting in the since that they were very different from each other. In his description of New England he sells the idea that colonizing is a duty under god. He pressures the people by manipulating information about the beliefs of their religion. This is unfair and seems to be a desperate move by John Smith to bully people into following him. The high opinions that he holds for himself can also be seen in the readings of a general history of Virginia
Both of these readings portray this importance for striving for land. By owning land somehow puts you in god’s good graces. However this obsession for land and possessiveness is contradictory to doing ‘good’. Those who colonized destroyed and changed the cultures of those who where there before by imposing their morals and beliefs, because of this need for land and the overtaking of property.
Both of these readings portray this importance for striving for land. By owning land somehow puts you in god’s good graces. However this obsession for land and possessiveness is contradictory to doing ‘good’. Those who colonized destroyed and changed the cultures of those who where there before by imposing their morals and beliefs, because of this need for land and the overtaking of property.
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Could you imagine if John Smith had come to America, only to find a vast desert or some other form of uninhabitable land? What would he have done then? He would probably considered himself a failure. But perhaps what he did find was not quite what he had pictured this new land to be and therefore he had to bend the truth in order for people to praise him. Good points you made!
The angle from which you looked at Smith is intriguing. You are right though, he is a manipulator of religious doctrine. Christianity, as far as I understand it, does not advocate cultivating land over respecting others and their property. Encouraging Englishmen to come settle their land as their duty under God and not explaining that much of the land is already occupied by Native Americans and should not be encroached upon is plainly wrong.
Also, not only did colonizers not respect the cultures of those who already inhabited the land, but they destroyed the land in many places. The “one-crop agriculture” (p.15) touched upon in the introduction that the South engaged in did not allow proper crop rotation that enables the land to regain fertility. The farmers exhausted the land.
The readings were quite different, I have to agree. I think that He was pathetic in the sense that He had to bully people into following him, to colonize land. I agree with the fact that he wrote this to make himself legendary to people. But I think its kinda sad that he was that cocky and he cared so much about how people looked at him.
I took John Smith's writing in the Third person as cocky and egocentric, but I'm sure his audience was predominantly(spelled wrong ?) white males and they may think that it was good writing. What if the audience was all women?
Since John Smith was trying to make himself "legendary", I wonder what kind of power he believed he would eventually have in America. It seems as though in his mind with his manipulative behaviors, he believed that one day he could become a very powerful figure.
I agree with you, both of the readings portray the importance of striving for land. I also feel that when John Smith was imposing his beliefs and values on the natives, he forgot where he came from, and the reason why he left their in the first place. He let his power overcome what he believed in.
I agree with this because John Smith did impose his beliefs on the Native Americans. He said that you have to cultivate the land and farm and if you don't your going against God. He also is a lot like Columbus in that he came in and killed a lot of the natives and took over their land. He builds himself up so he is considered as a hero and he is because everybody knows the name John Smith. He's one of the first and best myth makers.
I agree that John Smith used religion to gain as many peoples' attention as possible from England. By telling England that it was their duty to God to own and cultivate land and to convert the savages, Smith was telling England that the way they were living in England was wrong and not in compliance with what God required of them. John Smith is basically peer pressuring and trying to guilt the English to move to America by playing on one of the top priorities in their life-religion.
Good points, Andrea. I think you are absolutely correct in noting that the pieces by John Smith were different from each other. I do think there were some similar themes, but, as we noted in class, even the point of view is different in the pieces. I think we forget that Smith may have been experimenting with himself as a writer, not just a man who was writing his experiences. There are some creative tendencies here, too.
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