Of Plymouth Plantation - reflection

The sections from the book Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford relfect the qualities of the writing of the Puritans in many ways. First of all, it makes many references to God, and how God sent them the things and people that helped them as well as sent the struggles and the hardships to them. The Puritans were very relgious, so God was their entire life. Everything that happened was controlled by God. One example would be when they had just gotten to the New World, and everyone was getting sick. If you were not dead within a few weeks, you were most likely suffereing from the disease another person had died from. This was happening with the excepetion of seven people. The author describes how these very few people were doing everything in their power to help the sick and the suffering. He explains that God put them on this earth so they could help the ones in need. "And yet the Lord so upheld these persons as in this general calamity they were not at all infected either with sickness or lameness..." I think that William Bradford was basically saying that God gave them these people, who seemed invincible to the disease going on, so that there would be hope in the future. There was not hope for everyone since more than half of them died, but they believed that the healthy people were sent from God to assure them that not everything was going to be horrible forever. There is always hope in the future, and their faith in Him kept that going. Without their hope and belief in God, I am sure that most of the people who did survived would not have. The faith they believed raised their spirits enough to keep them alive through the winter. Another person the Puritans believed was sent from God was the Indian named Squanto. The lucky pilgrims who had survived the unimaginable starving time would definitely had not lived for much longer without the help of Squanto. Squanto stayed with the pilgrims for an extremely long time; in fact, he did not leave until he passed away. Besides translating and helping the Puritans communicate with the other Indians, he also helped the white people get to know the land. Since they had never been there before, they had no idea how to grow or obtain food. Squanto showed them how to plant corn and other sources of food, where to fish, how to live properly in conditions, and how to get around in places they had never been to. Without his help, the pilgrims would have been absolutely clueless. They were very aware of how lucky they were to come across such a helpful friend. Because of his kindness, the Puritans were convinced that God sent him to teach the people how to survive. "After these things he returned to his place called Sowams, some 40 miles from this place, but Squanto continued with them and was their interpreter and was a special instrument sent of God for their good beyond expectation." Without Squanto, the pilgrims would have been hopeless.