From Puritan Plain Style to the Fiery Pits of Hell

We're learning about the Puritans in English 3. We read some of Anne Bradstreet's "Puritan Plain Style" today. Notably, Bradstreet's Plain Style uses literal poetic lines to teach a lesson or moral, known as didactic poetry. The only metaphors she employs are used to reference Heaven and Hell in a "Sin-that-must-not-be-named" way. The only way to talk about Hell and sin is through metaphors because naming sin brings you too close to the actual sin (according to this Puritan, anyways).

We will now begin "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,"  Johnathon Edwards has no qualms about sharing his opinion on our salvation! We will soon be creating drawings of the illustrative details of hellfire and damnation as embodied by the Puritanical belief of predestination/predetermination.

Check out this PowerPoint on the history and background on the Puritans!

Viewing The Scarlet Letter

Now that we have established Hawthorne's unique and detailed writing style, we will read the rest of the text via the WGBH Boston mini-series interpretation. We will be completing the ABC Charts that we folded today in class.  Using the alphabet, we can identify lots of symbols and setting elements that set the tone and theme of The Scarlet Letter. These charts will help us identify the Dark Romantic style of Hawthorne's writing. Follow this link to watch a video about American Dark Romanticism.

Additionally, we will be doing pages from the Glencoe Activities Packet. Keep up with these papers in your folders and we'll work on them as we go!

For an online version of Hawthorne's original text, click here!

REMEMBER: You should be using the time you are NOT reading in this unit to be WRITING your research paper due March 27 and reading your own Independent Reading Novel with your group.