Most likely, one has heard about the story of Pocahontas and John Smith. However, John Smith was not as loving and kind as he was portrayed. In the letter Address to Captain Smith, the speaker, Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas’ father, takes a condescending tone and addresses to the English settlers, especially John Smith, how the chief’s generous hospitality has not been appreciated. Literary devices such as rhetorical questions, antithesis, and repetition, diction, and pathos and ethos are exercised by Chief Powhatan to address his purpose and produce it as impactful as fully possible. First, Chief Powhatan uses many literary devices to address his purpose to Captain John Smith. Some counted devices are in Lines 5-6 (“Why should you take by force …show more content…
For example, in Line 8, the chief emphasized how dependent the settlers are towards the tribe, and what would happen if the tribe shows the same hostility the British show them (“We can hide our provisions and fly into the woods. And then you must consequently famish by wrongdoing your friends”). The use of ‘friends’ in the line ‘fly into the woods’ is noteworthy, due to how it emphasizes how (1) the tribe’s congenial actions and aid should be enough to be considered as friends and emphasizes their hospitality and encourage; and how (2) the tribe can take away their help just as easily as they went and helped them. In addition, the word ‘fly’ in ‘fly into the woods’ not only demonstrates movement, but the word is ironic in the sense of how the the word implies an oppressed connotation, not a freed connotation as it is usually used for. In addition to this line, Lines 18-19 (“Captain Smith, this might soon be your fate too through your rashness and unadvisedness.”). The words ‘rashness’ and ‘unadvisedness’ emphasizes the foolhardiness that the English settlers might encounter if they pursue the life of force, belittlement, and unappreciativeness that they practice. It creates an image about their consequences of actions, and just how exactly they can be described. Other words would not have made the same
Smith, John. “Pocahontas saves John Smith.” January 1608. John Smith, who was being held captive, asked to speak to the captain, which was Opechankanough. Opechankanough gave him an ivory compass, then tied him to a tree and prepared to shoot him.
Historians do not know if Captain John Smith was telling the true about “Pocahontas”. Historians should ask themselves questions before they believe in the primary sources. Historians should assess their validity by asking questions like did the writer of
Throughout Mary Rowlandson’s “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration,” Rowlandson repeatedly makes mention to the idea of Puritan dominance over Native Americans. Rowlandson exemplifies this through the use of harsh diction, imagery, and biblical allusions. Rowlandson employs these methods in order to create a chasm between her people, the Puritans, and her captors, the Native Americans. Throughout the text, Rowlandson paints the Puritan community as “God’s chosen people,” justifying their forceful taking of Native land that lead to the onset of King Philip’s war. Ironically, many of Rowlandson’s techniques unintentionally portray her as more savage and immoral than her Native captors.
Firstly, Roger uses the rhetorical appeal to pathos to appeal to the humanity of his parents. He tells his parents that there is “much sicknes, as the scurvie and the bloody flix, and divers other diseases, wch maketh the bodie very poore, and Weake” (Frethorne, p1). In addition, he also says that they “live in feare of the Enimy” (Frethorne, p1). The “Enemy” that Frethorne speaks about is the Native Americans. This particular colony did not have a good relationship with their native neighbors, and the colony “haue had a Combate with them [The Natives] on the Sunday before Shrovetyde [the beginning of Lent]” (Frethorne, P1).
In Indian Relations, Bradford’s tone shifts from skeptical to manipulative using invariable details, simplistic diction, and contrasting syntax proving that the Puritan’s and Indian’s harmony resulted from deceit, and the Puritan’s original distrustful perception of the Indians changed to finding them “afterward profitable” since the Indians proved intellectually inferior and could easily fall prey to manipulation. When detailing the Puritan’s idea that the Indians would “skulk about them”, Bradford implied skepticism of the Indian’s motives for sneaking around the Puritan’s land. Using the word “skulk” shows the already cautious mindset about interactions with the Indians, because while the Puritans understood that the Indians demonstrated
These overt violations of ordinary civil order--Indian wars, slavery, garrison government, the transportation of criminals--though they permeated the developing culture, over specify, and overdramatize, make too lurid, an issue that had much subtler and broader manifestations. The less physical aspects of the colonies' peculiarities were equally important. For ultimately the colonies’ strange ways were only distensions and combinations of elements that existed in the parent cultures, but that existed there within constraints that limited, shaped, and in a sense civilized their growth. These elements were here released, fulfilled--at times with strange results that could not have been anticipated. This seems like a useful way of thinking about not merely matters like the genocidal policy towards Indians in America, but also the equally rough treatment of native populations elsewhere on the West's perimeter: South Africa, Australia, India,
Chief Powhatan, eldest of his five siblings, writes a letter addressed to Captain John Smith asking for, instead of fighting with swords and guns, they talk and discuss with peace. Throughout his letter, various rhetorical strategies such as tone, argumentation and syntax, are used in order to captivate whom the letter is addressed to and to make an effort in convincing him of changing his ways. In perspective, the letter may act as a warning for Captain Smith and his people to stop fighting or else the Chief and his tribe are going to abandon them and take their resources with them, leaving the English settlers to fend for themselves. Chief Powhatan starts his letter sympathetically, speaking of his family and how he wants them to feel the world like he had felt it.
On their second journey, they had set sail on a old boat by the name of “The Mayflower”. Due to their stormy adventure to new freedom, they had encountered a bit of trouble
Franklin’s second line of his opening is, “Perhaps, if we could examine the Manners of different Nations with Impartiality, we should find no People so rude, as to be without any Rules of Politeness; nor any so polite, as to not have some Remains of Rudeness” (927). Franklin continues this piece by providing examples where the Native-Americans conduct themselves more civilly than the English do. In the end, Franklin uses logic inversion, his satire style, to show what it would be like if the Native-Americans judged the English customs in the same harsh manner which the English judged theirs. As Franklin illustrates here, “You see they have not yet learned those little Good Things, that we need no Meetings to be instructed in, because or Mothers taught then to us when we were Children; and therefore it is impossible their Meetings should be, as they say. For any such purpose, or have any such Effect; they are only to contrive the Cheating of Indians in the Price of Beaver”
&&“Love and Hate in Jamestown” is a book that tells the story of the U.S.’s first colony in the eyes of the American legend John Smith and through the accounts of the other settlers. The book starts with a small history lesson and eventually ties it in with John Smith, a soldier who eventually becomes a leader among the men in Jamestown. As we read, there is more detail to whom Smith is; where he came from, a small farm in London; what he went through, he became a soldier fighting in foreign lands with the Turks and getting caught; his family, the battles with his father that kept Smith home as an archer. Moreover, Smiths’ story rolls over to how he was able to go to Virginia; the colony in Virginia started out as a business investment until it was royal property in the 1620’s. Now, while going to
Adventures in Werowocomoco In 1608, King Powhatan’s tribe captured John Smith. Smith was brought to the tribe’s establishment and met the friendly King who was very kind and promised Smith’s freedom in four days (Smith, A True Relation). However, in his later writings the king was described as hostile and violent, causing Pocahontas, the King’s daughter, to run out in front of her father to stop him from beating John to death (Smith, General History). Did Pocahontas save John Smith’s live? The answer is no, Pocahontas did not save John Smith’s life because it was never in danger; the “attack” was a ritual to welcome Smith into the tribe.
What if I told you that Pocahontas and John Smith might have not even met and that everything that you have learned about their relationship is false? John Smith wrote two versions of the encounter with the tribe, one where they just happily trade, and one where the natives try to kill him and Pocahontas saves Smith from her own tribe. Because of these two completely different versions, historians have
Further examining his writing, Smith 's tone and word choice lead me to believe he was also an unyielding and conceited man. He proved unyielding to authorities when he made remarks on the President and Captain John Martin of "being little beloved, of weak judgment in dangers, and less industry in peace." (46) Disbelieving the President 's competence in leadership, Smith took charge and managed all affairs in the colony. His conceited attitude is revealed when he referred Natives as "savages" and criticized their method of drying hands. In this subtle quote, he wrote, "The Queen of Appomattoc was appointed to bring him water to wash his hands, and another brought him a bunch of feathers, instead of a towel, to dry them."
As a result of our author's commitment to realism, the representation of this fictionalized colony is enriched with accuracy while Doyle's portrayal of the Indian Mutiny was strikingly unreliable. It is worth noting that realism is one of this novella's distinguishing characteristics. As a matter of fact, it genuinely depicts humanity's primitiveness including the natives' childlike gullibility, the traders' deliberate wickedness, and the missionaries' unwavering religious devotion. Another clear evidence of realism in Stevenson’s narrative is the use of dialect. While Doyle shrewdly weaves cockney into The Sign of Four, Stevenson's tale attempts to represent an evolving and unstable dialect of English generally known as Pidgin.
This essay will compare how the story is told, what the view of the native americans is like, and what its purpose is. John Smith and William Bradford had very different writing styles. Smith preferred to write his stories from the third person about himself and made it seem as if it was a tale. He did this often to make himself seem as a sort of hero. Bradford’s stories were factual and he wrote from his point of view which showed his