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How has faith and religion come to shape American literature?

It has come to shape American Literature by helping it understand the conflict between two things that are precious to you.

What role does faith and religion play in the lives of people in general?

The role that it plays in the lives of people in general would be mystery because according to science, nobody knows whether there is a higher religion or not.

How can faith and religion blind people from the truth?

It can blind people from the truth by making them turn to God for help instead of trying to save themselves and make them think that it is all God's plan.

How can faith and religion reveal truth to people?

Faith and Religion reveals the truth to people by making them realize that the good and bad things in your life are caused by you and God and that you have to be the best person that you can be so that you don't have bad karma.

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How has faith and religion come to shape American literature?

The faith and relgion have come to shpae American literature by providing a greater understanding once you uncover what the poem is actually about.

What role does faith and religion play in the lives of people in general?

It plays a big role in peoples lives in general because it has allowed people to become closer and as a result more devoted to their superior figure.

How can faith and religion blind people from the truth?

It can blind people from the truth by making you believe one thing while the other one is the path that your superior figure wanted you to follow

How can faith and religion reveal truth to people?

It can reveal truth to people by guiding people to other people and people is essentially make up a religion because without people the religion would never be worshiped and spread out.

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How has faith and religion come to shape American literature?

Faith and religion have come to shape American literature through subtle hints within poems and texts to give a better overall understanding.

What role does faith and religion play in the lives of people in general?

The role that faith and religion play within the lives of people, in general, is that people choose what they want to believe in. If you believe that there is one God and believe in the bible then I can safely assume that you are a Christain.

How can faith and religion blind people from the truth?

Religion and faith can blind people from the truth by them misinterpreting the word of their God or Gods.

How can faith and religion reveal truth to people?

It can reveal the truth to people that believe in religion through the words of a superior being with more knowledge than the humans on Earth.

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How has faith and religion come to shape American literature?

It helped shape the foundation of what Americans have written about and has become the basis for the spread of ideas about different religions and cultures.

What role does faith and religion play in the lives of people in general?

For some it plays a very big deal because their life may revolve around it and it depends how religious you are but it impacts everyone in the sense of seeing how some people believe in a higher figure and not knowing whether or not it is true due to science.

How can faith and religion blind people from the truth?

It can blind people from the truth by them being stubborn about believing that God is the cause for everything and not being able to make themselves accountable when something goes wrong.

How can faith and religion reveal truth to people?

It can reveal the truth to people because depending on what you believe, there will be different truths revealed about yourself and your religion. Through thinking about the good things in your life, you might realize that God has helped or that you have been blessed by God to have the life that you have now.

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This poem has a plentiful amount of connections to the puritans and one of the main ways is through their beliefs and values. The puritans believed that spirit and god were very important and that they were far more important than materials on Earth and reality which was apparent through their humble lifestyle of farming and their devotion to God. This is shown through the poem on the Spirit side, Spirit says that she heaven should be the goal and that people do not know due to their eyes being impure and that faith and devotion will grant you access. “But reach at things that are so high,/Beyond thy dull Capacity./Eternal substance I do see/With which inriched I would be./Mine eye doth pierce the heav’ns and see/What is Invisible to thee.” (Bradstreet, 73-78) This shows that this connects to the puritan beliefs because both the evidence and the puritan beliefs both express how devotion and faith will grant you into heaven.

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Figurative Meaning Supporting puritan beliefs

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Figurative Meaning Supporting puritan beliefs

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Figurative meaning for this poem would be that Faith and Religion conquers all. The Spirit is saying that the “sinful pleasures” and riches of the Earth are worth nothing compared to the wealth that God has above. Essentially, she should not fall into temptation that the Earth/Flesh gives her, and that she should put her faith in God. This is shown through the poem by having the Flesh tempt her with saying that reality is better than religion and Spirit not budging on her side. “Thy sinful pleasures I do hate,/Thy riches are to me no bait./Thine honours do, nor will I love,/For my ambition lies above.” (Bradstreet, 57-60). This shows that Bradstreet is supporting the puritan beliefs by Spirit not budging even while being tempted.

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Figurative meaning opposing puritan beliefs

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Figurative meaning opposing puritan beliefs

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The figurative meaning for the opposing side would be that material wealth is more justifiable and more desirable than faith and religion. The side that would best oppose puritan beliefs would be the Flesh side of the argument. The Flesh argues that what the Spirit chose is not real and that she chose the better option by trying to make her realize that faith and religion are not as important as what is real and what is set in stone.  “One Flesh was call’d, who had her eye On worldly wealth and vanity; The other Spirit, who did rear Her thought unto a higher sphere.Sister,’ quoth Flesh, ‘What liv’st’ thou on Nothin but Meditation? Doth Contemplation feed thee so Regardlessly to let earth go? Can Speculation satisfy Notion without Reality?”(Bradstreet, 5-14) This shows that she is opposing the puritan beliefs by downplaying the importance of Puritan beliefs and religion.

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The author within the second stanza is saying that she is looking for God and how He is not distant and that her efforts were not useless. It fits in with the rest of the poem because it shows that she loves God and that she is crying for Him to come.

Diction- The capitalization of the words Soul, Love, and Above show that these are the main points within the stanza and that they all relate to eternal life.
These words impact the reader and the overall purpose of the stanza by attracting the reader's attention and signaling that those words provide a special meaning to the stanza.

5- She wanted him to come to tell whose soul is focused on.
6- Her desperation for God to appear and to seek for her.
7- He looked from Heaven and listened to her problems
8- It shows how her efforts were not wasted because God has appeared.
Opposing god because she is too needy for God and that she shows too much affection.

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Figurative meaning opposing puritan beliefs

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Figurative meaning opposing puritan beliefs

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The literal meaning is that the author lies wake during the night and can't sleep.
Its her wish to seek him and imagines a situation where he leans down and listens to everything she has to say
She will love him forever. She is opposing the puritan beliefs and she is overly affection which is unholy and that even though liking god is not wrong, she was being too affectionate. People demonstrate how faith and religion changes how people think act and go through their day. The author is portraying devotion and has a deep emotional connection to God and how much trust and respect she has for her. Puritans believed that Christianity and the bible were the governing bodies of life in the colony. She was very affectionate and valued that love never dies.

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Figurative meaning and supporting puritan beliefs

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Figurative meaning and supporting puritan beliefs

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Puritans in distress sought god and the author tearfully looks for God as well. The author shows God as a friend to her and Puritans wanted a relationship with Him. The puritans wanted to have a relationship with God and claims that she is an elect by saying that she will forever love god and serve him on Earth.

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Connection Puritan Beliefs and/or Time Period

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Connection Puritan Beliefs and/or Time Period

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Bradstreet explores new ideas in her poem that aren't accepted in Puritan society during this time period.
Feminism
Likely compared her literature to works by men
The puritan belief that men are superior to women
Personal feeling
Negative feelings should be suppressed
God does not appreciate those that complain

Humans lower than God and was always self conscious of presence and that God is perfect

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Early exposure to Sin
Human nature and dealt with since birth
Not spiritually strong enough
Puritan Concept
Not deserving of God's presence

"Who after birth didst by my side remain" (Bradstreet,2)

Claim: Faith and religion could play the role of antagonist in Bradstreet's life because she might not be negatively affected by her beliefs.

Religion/Faith
Religion is expressed through the idea that humans below god are imperfect creatures.

Beliefs
Relates back to the puritan idea of humans being lower than God.

Evidence
"Though ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain." (Bradstreet 1)
"I washed thy face, but more defects I saw." (Bradstreet 13)

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Literal meaning; Describing her unpleasant, ugly, and imperfect child. The mere thought of her child makes her mad.
Figurative meaning; Reflecting on her thoughts and experiences.
Referring to her old work with criticism
Going against the puritan standards of women

What role does faith and religion play in the lives of people in general: Addresses the role of faith and religion in general lives by describing the reality of self-doubt from religious and societal pressure.
Faith and religion creates expectations for people to live up to

What does the poem say about religion and faith/ Puritan lifestyle: Religion and faith is restricting
Restrictions is exerted by the Puritans who opposes her
Puritans can be opposing because of differences in beliefs

What literary techniques are using in the poem: Allusion: Abstract ideas represented with the use of symbols
Diction: Choice o words
Dramatic irony: When an audience is aware of something that the character does not know.

Evidence:
Wasn't that much

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Connection to Puritan Beliefs and or time period

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Connection to Puritan Beliefs and or time period

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Shaped american literature through faith and religion through increased ideas of good, evil, and justice.
Justice was very big during this. Rationalism modernism and post modernism were movements that supported this. Rationalism had a positive view and more well rounded view of the world while modesrnism and postmoderisnm was not. There were two different messages form God and that the puritans religiouly believed that god is the cause of everything and that everything is a message from him and this shows that faith of the puritans because after the house burned down Bradstreet prayed to god only.

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The puritan valued their religion so much that when something happened, she had her house burned down and she immediately thinks it was God and even though she thought that God was the reason, she prayed to Him for guidance to show the faith and religion.

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Figurative Meaning : Opposing/Doubting Puritan Beliefs

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Figurative Meaning : Opposing/Doubting Puritan Beliefs

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Bradstreet wakes up to the people shouting fire and watcher her house burn down and tells herself that God must give and take to be fair. She thinks that material wealth is temporary. All her good were already in god's hands. The elect cannot prove their faith through counted blessing because God gives and takes away according to hes sovereign pan. God has provided for her in sruct of destruction of her boone.