Journal for Bradstreet

Gregory Alcala
November 19th 2009
English 1B - Lankford
Journal for Bradstreet

Quote:
“Farewell, my pelf, farewell my store/The world no longer let me love,/My hope and treasure lies above(lines 52,53,54)” -Anne Bradstreet, Here Follows Some Verses upon the Burning of Our House, July 10t 1666
Summary:
Bradstreet is using poetry to describe her sense of great lose from the consuming flames. How all is lost and only the memories lying in ashes is left for her to lament over. In her final goodbye she says that her true treasures lie above. That the worldly goods she had on earth couldn’t be compared to the treasures in heaven. Part of the grieving stage even when losing a entire house in a fire is trying to come to conclusion with God. She was cemented in her faith and the saving grace of God. That she didn’t have to fear because the reward of being in heaven would quickly and easily replace anything earthly item she had with her on earth.

Quote:
“One must remember that she was a Puritan, although she often doubted, questioning the power of the male hierarchy, even questioning God (or the harsh Puritan concept of a judgmental God).” -Anne Woodlief, Anne Bradstreet, A Biography (http://www.vcu.edu/engweb/eng384/bradbio.htm)
Summary:
Anne Bradstreet got a higher then normal education for her time because her father wanted the best for her. I think it’s because of this higher then usual education, this building of her critical analyst, that she was able to question more about life and religion then her female peers. Anne Bradstreet was a Puritan, however she does not seem like one in her writing.

Overall Summary:
Overall, it seems that Anne Bradstreet would not have been remember by historians and scholars if her works had not been re introduced to the public. Even though she was a Puritan she would not seem like one because of her questioning the forms of religion and the male dominated society. I blame Hollywood for being the history teacher for the general public. The image of Demi Moore playing Hester Prynne for the Hollywood feature film comes to easily to the mind’s eye. Anne Bradstreet isn’t close to that image of the Puritan that was created by someone that never was a Puritan and then put into that meat grinder of modernization. I had to forget what I thought I knew and force myself to not see Bradstreet as Demi Moore walking around with that scarlet letter on the front of her dress.