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What role does religion play in peoples lives

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What role does religion play in peoples lives

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Religion plays the role of a guide to help people not sin. In the poem, The Flesh and the Spirit, the sister that represents religion (Spirit) talks about how what lies ahead is more important than what earth has to offer, even though her sister (Flesh) is only focused on what she currently has. Spirit knows that sins commited in the name of gaining more mortal wealth will not allow one into heaven, and so she argues with her sister on what is more important. The sisters represent the two sides of Bradstreet, and although religion tells her not to sin because she will have a place in heaven, she still has a side of flesh, which doesn't believe Spirit because she has only faith to rely on.

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How does faith and religion blind people from the truth

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How does faith and religion blind people from the truth

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It does this by making them choose their beleifs over logic. In the poem The Flesh and the Spirit, the spirit represents religion, and the flesh represents the mortal side of Bradstreet, Religion and flesh are always fighting and if bradstreet chose religion she would become blinded to the truth.

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how can religion help people see the truth

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how can religion help people see the truth

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It helps people see the truth because it provides a new perspective. In the poem The Flesh and the Spirit, the spirit represents religion, and it provides a contrasting viewpoint to the flesh, which represents the mortal part of Bradstreet.

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It shapes literature because it makes people have to choose what they want to believe. In the poem The Flesh and the Spirit, this can be seen during the debate between flesh and spirit, as Bradstreet is forced to choose if she believes in religion or if living is what matters.

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The capitalization is there to push the idea that this poem is trying to show how she is supporting Puritan beliefs, as she is proving she is elect by putting emphasis on words like soul and good, words with religious connotation

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bottle is capitalized because its a connection to a bible verse and the Puritans put the bible above anything else. Soul and Good are capitalized because it shows more emphasis on how she was a good Puritan.

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It helps the poem because it shows all the ways god helped her and this stanza is the reasoning for why she is elect, this helps the supporting side of the poem by implying she is elect because of the special treatment

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It is trying to show how she is elect because of how god is favoring her and how he helped her get through her grief, by favoring her, even though he is a judgemental god, he is proving to her that she is elect.

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4: it means she lost all doubt and fear in god, it is opposing because she says she lost all fear, but people were supposed to fear god therefore going against puritain beleifs

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3: It means god washed her wounds away in his blood, it is supporting because its an allusion to christ and his blood, also it means god is favoring her

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2: It means that god took her tears away in a bottle, its supporting because it also means god is helping her even though he is judgemental, but also its a bible quote.

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1: it means he filled her soul with good, it serves a supporting role to say how god favored her over others.

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How can faith and religion help people see the truth

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How can faith and religion help people see the truth

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Religion can help people see the truth because it helps them face topics they couldn't find the strength to face before. In the poem By Night When Others Soundly Slept, it takes help from god to help Bradstreet get through the feelings keeping her up at night, she talks to him and he puts her tears in a bottle, helping her get through her feelings.

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it is not talking about god because of the secrecy in the poem and how god is what puritains should think about but how she is guilty for not loving god that much

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it says how god is all people think about and how controlling that is

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Religion can be turned into the most important thing in someones life, this can make them reject logical things and look to god for answers, they can also push aside emotions and god is the one who makes things happen, like in the poem god bottles up her tears because they are forbidden

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God should be placed above everything, however she has a forbidden love, because if it was about god she would have loved him eternally not earnestly,

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Religion helps guide people because it helps with grief. In Upon the Burning of Our House, Bradstreet is helped through the grief of losing her house because she remembers that she has a place in heaven, she lets her mind wander and stops thinking about the loss

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It shows how much influence god had on every single Puritan every day. She states that God has saved her and therefore will be number one in her life. She is grateful for all he has done and prioritizes him above all else.

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allusion- “He in his Bottle put my tears,” (10) - Psalm 56:8. conventional symbols- “What to my Saviour shall I give” (13). The Puritans know that God is also the savior. Image- He in his Bottle put my tears,” (10).  She uses this to portray the image of putting tears in a bottle. Didactic poetry- “With tears I sought him earnestly. He bow’d his ear down from Above” (6-7). -Her lesson is that when you are in need, you should pray to God. End rhyme- “slept… kept” (1, 3) “Rest…best” (2, 4). Puritan jargon- “What to my Saviour shall I give” (13). The Puritans understand the reference, others may not.

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it shows the devotion puritains had for god, She refers to God as her savior, because he died for on the cross through his own free will to save her. Bradstreet supports this when she says “I’ll serve him here whilst I shall live / And Loue him to Eternity” (16). She is expressing how she will now forever serve him out of love.

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it shapes the poem because of the bible quotes. At times of struggle, she prays to God for guidance. Bradstreet says, “ With tears I sought him earnestly. He bow’d his ear down from Above” (6-7).

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she struggles withe her worries and then confines in god, he gives her grace and takes away her pain like when he died on the cross,  she thanks him and promises to serve him for life. Bradstreet includes allusions of church practices when saying “My smarting wounds washt in his blood,” (11).

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she has deep thoughst and doubts while she sleeps and asks god to take away her thoughts

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It shapes literature because the beliefs of the author mold the message of the literature. Also, the beliefs of those where the literature would be seen will shape the wording of the literature, if an author wanted to send a message it would have to be more subtle. Like in the poem The Author to Her Book, the beliefs of the author contradict the literal message of the poem, on lines 22-23: "If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none; And for thy mother, she alas is poor,", here she says that she will tell the son that he has no biological father, but if the poem is referencing her work, she is saying that her poems had no influence from god, aka the father. She also says that the mother is poor, this refers to her, but if she agreed with the Puritans, she wouldn't be poor because she would think that god gave her everything, and therefore she had plenty.

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Bradstreet’s poem “The Author to Her Book” ties in with the Puritan beliefs of motherhood and men controlling society through ideas expressed through metaphors and symbols.

Refers to her book as her child- demonstrates the Puritan value of motherhood and how all women are trained to be mothers

Women did not have much say in what happens- child/book being stolen by friends/men

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“If for thy father asked, say thou hadst none” (line 22)
she is saying that men did not help her, but also she is saying god is not helping her, and therefore had no influence in her poems

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It says that she lacks trust in god because of the mistake that he had made, and and therefore she was opposing puritain beleifs, and because she wrote against god she is using the ability he gave her to fight him

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how do faith and religion tie into daily lives

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how do faith and religion tie into daily lives

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it tied in because she could not control what she said directly into her book or when her book was published

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She is complaining about how unfair it is that she cannot publish her own book and how men are her superiers

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it shares the veiws of the disabled and she does common things puritain parents would do

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it says humans are flawed and nothing is perfect and everything is below god

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it shaped her book because it made god above everything and she realized nothing is perfect

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symbol Lines 1 and 2-

“Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,/ Who after birth didst by my side remain, end rhyme lines 9 and 10-

“I cast thee by as one unfit for light/ The visage was so irksome in my sight”, personification Lines 22 and 23-

“If for father asked, say thou hadst none/ And for thy mother, she alas is poor”, tone Lines 5, 16, and 19

“Made thee in rags, Halting to th’ press to trudge”

‘Yet still thou run’st more hobbling than is meet”

“In this array ‘mongst vulgars may’st thou roam”

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her work is unfinished and she thinks if it isnt always perfect it will disapoint those around her

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SHe births an ugly kid and she tries to fix it but she cant and everyone looks down on her for it, and she is disowned by her parents

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Bradstreet says that everything is meaningless, and because everything was given to her by god, she is subtly opposing Puritan beliefs by implying she has faith in god but god has not given her everything in her position. In lines 25-26 and 35-36: "'Here stood that trunk and there that chest, There stood that store that I counted best.' 'In silence ever shalt thou lie; Adieu, Adieu, all's vanity.'"

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How does faith and religion blind people from the truth

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How does faith and religion blind people from the truth

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Faith can blind people from the truth because people already believe in their religion and anything that contradicts that is hard to believe. like in Upon the Burning of Our House, where bradstreet is blinded by the feeling of loss by her faith that it is god's plan. this reaction is not healthy for her mental well being and could harm her later on.

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What role does faith and religion play in peoples lives

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What role does faith and religion play in peoples lives

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It works as a guide for people and it helps them move on with their lives from grief. Just like in Upon the Burning of Our House, bradstreet uses her faith to move on from the loss of her house.

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how does the peom tie with puritain beleifs

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how does the peom tie with puritain beleifs

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Puritans believed that God praised the good and punished those who sinned, and they had total faith in his actions. In the poem, her house burns down because the money she used to build it was not earned justly. Even though she lost everything she still respects god.

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rhyme, anaphora, foreshadowing, personification
14 and 36 -- “I blest His name that gave and took” “Adieu, Adieu, all’s vanity.” 30-34 -- “Nor at thy table eat a bit./No pleasant tale shall e’er be told,/Nor things recounted done of old./No candle e’er shall shine in thee,/Nor bridegroom’s voice e’er heard shall be”

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it shows the devotion puritains had for their religion and what they beleived about god

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She is blinded to the fact that her house burned down because she beleives god had a reason for it

Lines 53-54: "The world no longer let me love,/My hope and reassure lies above."

Lines 14-17: “I blest His name that gave and took/That laid my goods now in the dust:/Yea so it was, and so ’twas just./It was His own, it was not mine”

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god gives and takes, the items she had were god's, and he simply took them back, the fire was a sign that she had done something wrong. god determines everything on earth and she is looking to god for strength

"And to my God, my heart did cry/To strengthen me in my distress”

Line 53-54, “The world no longer let me love,/My hope and treasure lie above.”

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The house literally burns down and bradstreet is sad

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Upon the burning of our house supporting

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Upon the burning of our house supporting