27 Matching Annotations
  1. Sep 2021
    1. before upon a Sabbath day,

      Inciting religious rage by mentioning the Sabbath, generating supremacy opinions

    2. What, will you love English men still?”

      Weaponizing her white womanhood to generate sexual rage in white male readers.

    1. Then when he comes home he lifts up his child to fondle it and he is drunk

      It is already so that to drink is a sin, but for the love of the creator don't pick up your kids while drunk.

    1. the child speaks straight words and the Creator says that the child speaks right and the mother must obey.

      The creator speaks through the child.

    2. Mother, I want you to stop wrongdoing

      Oh how I wish those words worked.

    1. Talk slowly and kindly to children and never punish them unjustly. When a child will not obey let the mother say, "Come to the water and I will immerse you." If after this warning the child is still obstinate she must take it to the water's edge and say, "Do you now obey?" and she must say so again and if at the third time there is no obedience then the child must be thrust in the water. But if the child cries for mercy it must have it and the woman must not throw it into the water. If she does she does evil.'"

      This is somewhat reasonable honestly compared to how American children are treated. To not be beaten, to be spoken to with love, to never be punished unjustly. Such gifts might be enough for any young soul to learn the love and trust enough to respect.

    1. Now the woman knew all that had been done in the other settlement but she thought it best to be peaceful and remain silent. And the Creator says that she is right and has her path toward the heaven-world, but he, the man, is on his way to the house of the Wicked One.'"

      If your husband cheats and you ignore it, you are a good person and will be rewarded, and your husband is going to get real messed up after death.

    1. On his way homeward he meets some one who tells him that in his absence his wife has been living with another man. When he hears this report he feels sad and angry.

      It seems here that the crime is the abandonment of the wife. There are many ways to interpret this, but it seems the failure to even attempt reconciliation is also an evil.

    1. Says the old woman, "My daughter, your spirits are dull, you are not bright. When I was young I was not so agreeable. I was harsh with my husband." Now the Creator is sad because of the tendency of old women to breed mischief. Such work must stop. Tell your people it must stop.'"

      Many of these wrongs appear somewhat anecdotal. It appears that these evils were witnessed specifically. Rather than creating hard and fast universal rules, there are examples of wrongdoing from which one can grow an internal understanding of what wrong is.

      In other words, rather than defining wrongdoing, this message endeavors to show it.

    1. Now when she does this she forever cuts away her daughter's string of children.

      We can view this in the light of life-worship and through the context of Seneca belief that the number of children had is determined by fate, and it becomes a less cruel exposition.

      There is a subtle connotation that it is the mothers performing a crime on their daughters, without a direct criticism of those who choose it. It may be the underhanded administration of such an herb that be the crime.

    1. Now when they go they must say: "Our Creator, O listen to me! I am a miserable creature. I think that way So now I cease. Now this is appointed For all of my days, As long as I live here In this earth-world. I have spoken."

      They are not proclaiming a punishment be met on these witches, but rather open a pathway for redemption and a voluntary turning away from the dark path.

    2. "'Now this must you do: When you have told this message and the witches hear it they will confess before all the people and will say, "I am doing this evil thing but now I cease it. forever, as long as I live."

      Through the action of declaring oneself a witch while also repenting, mentally ill can gain a level of supervision over themselves. In a way, this is a giving away of the self that is performed voluntarily.

    3. Witches are people without their right minds.

      There is pity about the nature of witches. They are without sanity.

    1. drink instead of work

      Whiskey/Rum is the first word which brings evil upon the earth, for it has been misused by the white man and turned from medicine into poison. Rather than healing, it is used to occupy the bored as a distraction from work. In this way, the white men know idleness and learn to revere it.

  2. Mar 2021
  3. Sep 2019
    1. Christian friend

      Did she have non-christian friends? Why specify christian?

    2. It is not my tongue, or pen, can express the sorrows of my heart, and bitterness of my spirit that I had at this departure

      This sounds quite overblown. Instead of telling the story, she is telling her feelings, yet presents them as though they were of a severity incomprehensible.

    1. horses, cattle, sheep, swine, calves, lambs, roasting pigs, and fowl

      That sounds like a great amount of food. I wonder if she is exaggerating here out of shock.

    2. Oh the roaring, and singing and dancing, and yelling of those black creatures in the night, which made the place a lively resemblance of hell.

      This is a messed up thing to say. Partying is good for the soul, its a pure expression of humanity and human love that we get together to enjoy ourselves and share our lives in revelry. To demonize a group of people from spending time together and enjoying life is so messed up, I can't comprehend someone doing that, let alone why.

    1. nation to the larger, global implications

      I think it's sad how much we ignore American Imperialism. We live in the most violent empire that currently exists, and yet American Literature is always like "This boy learns what it means to be a man" or "The wilderness is really neat". Why don't American authors talk about American guilt? Or rather, why are the authors who do left out of canon?

    2. Is American literature defined by geographical boundaries? Experiences? Histories? Themes?

      Its interesting to me that this article broadens the scope of what American Literature can be defined as, and yet makes no attempt to answer the question of "What is American Literature". Its almost mythologizing American Literature but in a value neutral kind of way.

    3. fragility

      American fragility is not a topic we discussed much in class, but I kind of understand it. America is called land of the free but is built by slaves, a land of opportunity but is ruled by corporations, and a land of equality but built on oppression. I honestly cant think of anything "American" that is actually real, and that means that it can mean whatever anyone wants it to.

    1. for they shall not grieve thee with impertinence

      I would like to understand this line within its original context, rather than translated. It feels like english doesn't fit the meaning.

    2. For when he did but point his finger at a moose, or anything which ran, it would drop dead

      It is interesting how the ability to cause death is considered a blessing of life. It illuminates both the harshness of the world as well as the closeness that the people had with the cycles of nature.

    3. “I wish Katahdin were a man, and would marry me!”

      Mountains make very stable husbands. Also, is there some ancestral history to the mountain?