Puritans
...d … to smile this young man with a grevious disease, of which he died in a desperate manner”(29). The sailor died of a grevious disease, which the Puritans believed was because God makes everything happen and punishes the bad. Many Puritans got sick when they were traveling to the new land and they needed to help each other out, so they pulled together and Bradford says: “ and yet the lord so upheld these persons as in this general calamity they were not at all infected with sickness or lameness”(32). Some of the Puritans who helped the sick Puritans did not get sick because they were rewarded by God for helping others. That shows the Puritans believed God makes everything happen. When the Puritans got to the free land there was a Native American named Squanto who knew how to speak English, and helped the Puritans. Squanto would show the Puritans this new land and teach them how to survive. Squanto showed them how to grow corn and other useful ways to survive, Bradford said: “Squanto … was a special instrument sent of God”(30). According to the Puritans, God sent Squanto to help them. It shows God makes everything happen. Bradstreet’s poem shows that she also believes in the Puritan doctrine that God makes everything happen, faith would sustain her, and after life is better than life on Earth. In this poem Bradstreet relates the initial shock and her acceptance of her house fire. Bradstreet woke up and her house was on fire, and she was very upset, “And to my God my heart did cry / To strengthen me in my distress”(8-9). Bradstreet is very upset that her home burned down. Her belief that faith will sustain her makes her feel good again and she will rise back up to the top with God’s help. During the fire when she could ...