Questions and answers 1-5

1. Bradford omits the event of the death of his wife for a few different reasons.  The first is that this was a very personal tragedy and he was devastated.  Many believe that he did not want to include this to the text because he did not find it would change the writing in any way and he did not want to bring memories of her death back to him.  Historians and others also believe that Bradford’s wife committed suicide.  It is a sin to commit suicide so Bradford did not want his wife to be portrayed as a sinner so he just simply left it out of the text.   

2.  It was more effective for Bradford to write in a “plain style” of writing because he wanted to get his simple messages across in his novel and he wanted everyone who read the novel to be able to understand it. If he had written his novel in a “high style”, the message might have became confusing and not everyone would understand what his messages were because readers might not understand his figures of speech or classical allusions. 

3.  The attitudes of Rowlandson and Bradford differed cause in the end Bradford and the Wampanoag were very friendly and had thanksgiving together.  However, Rowlandson never had any close friendly encounters with the Wampanoag.  Their attitudes were the same because both Rowlandson and Bradford were skeptical about the Wampanoag at first but then their attitudes changed once they saw how they lived and acted.

4. The tone of Bradford’s reference to Native Americans throughout the selection shifts from hostile and skeptical to friendly and peaceful. When Bradford and the rest of the Colonists arrived to America, he states that the Native Americans would pack up and run away when the Colonists try to approach the. This displayed the hostile and skeptical tone towards the Native Americans. Once the Native Americans and Colonists came together and created a peace agreement, the tone shifted to friendly and peaceful. This peaceful and friendly tone is also displayed at the Thanksgiving Feast between the Colonists and Native Americans.

5.  Bradford uses Biblical Allusions to convey his message such as Deuteronomy 26:7. Deuteronomy 26:7 is a cry to the Lord to hear their voices and realize their pain and oppression. Bradford uses this allusion to portray the struggles of the Colonists as they entered the new world. It also displays that the Colonists were reaching out to God often as they realized the struggles they faced were not going away.