Research Paper on "Literary Analysis on Hope Leslie"

Research Paper 8 pages (2208 words) Sources: 4

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Personal Exploration in Hope Leslie

Sedgwick's novel Hope Leslie was far ahead of its own time in terms of how it explored the Puritans' relationship with the Native Americans during the 17th century. Most novels written at the same time do not give equal or accurate attention to Native Americans. As a group, the Puritans were focused on the community and on religion, and Sedgwick also explores these two concepts rather comprehensively, from an omniscient point-of-view, which ads to the very wide breadth of coverage relative to these cultures. In drawing specific conclusions as well as comparisons regarding these cultures' interactions, Sedgwick helps to shed light on her own concern for the equal treatment and consideration of Native Americans as well as women, two groups of people, who, in 1827 when the book was first published, did not often receive equal treatment and attention. These ideals were not common in the time that Sedgwick wrote Hope Leslie, further illustrating the fact that the novel was far ahead of its own time and should be viewed as a model for cultural awareness and change.

The novel, set in 17th century New England, explores the everyday lives of both the Puritans and the Native Americans. Sedgwick successfully weaves these two groups' interactions into a tightly knit fabric of similarities between them. This is to say that the Puritan and Native American cultures, which at the time of the novel's publishing, were not viewed as equals, are set on a level playing field. Sedgwick explores how these groups are both made of human beings, and how each human being, no matter their cultural background, struggles and strives for similar goals and ambitions in life. Within these specific explorations, and by highlighting the typical historical norms and values of these groups, Sedgwick creates a forum for the reader to interpret his or her own societal norms and values from a similar standpoint.

One very compelling example of Sedgwick's desire to create a novel and a story where both groups are viewed as equals comes at the beginning of the book, when Magawisca, a Native American, explains to the Puritan Hope Leslie that even in death, both groups' ancestors are respected and revered equally by their creator. Magawisca explains, 'And here, here is my mother's grave; think ye not that the Great Spirit looks down on these sacred spots, where the good and the peaceful rest, with an equal eye? Think ye not their children are His children, whether they are gathered in yonder temple where your people worship, or bow to him beneath the green boughs of the forest?" (Sedgwick, 13). This passage takes place in a cemetery, where Magawisca is helping to comfort Hope. The interaction not only helps to illustrate Magawisca's desire for Hope to see all people as equals, no matter their religion or culture, but also shows that Sedgwick herself is trying to draw similarities among the two groups (Emerson, 27).

In exploring these similarities and creating a scene where two main characters interact to share their commonalities and thoughts on God or the Great Spirit, the author is also giving equal attention to both entities. This is important because many novels of the same time period regarded Native Americans as "savages" and would lend no credibility to their actions or spiritual beliefs, not even in a fictitious context (Schweitzer, 133). This is one method that Sedgwick employs rather effectively to help personally connect the reader to the characters in the book as well as build a sense that all human beings are created equal.

Later in the novel, the love that these same characters feel for each other and their separate yet equally as noble efforts and goals is also explored. This helps to paint author Sedgwick as an illuminator of human souls as well, no matter their race, creed, or gender. This was also very uncharacteristic for novels at the time, and helps to shape the larger theme and actions that are taking place in the novel. This theme relates to the universality of love. Sedgwick works hard to build a plot and characters to help support her desire to show that love is stronger than all other forces, and that separating people because of their race or gender or denying them this ability and freedom to love is unjust (Emerson, 28).

As was common in Puritan life and culture, the story is set up around unrequited love and forced marriages. But by the end of the novel, the redeeming aspects of the freedom of love and the characters' ability to escape the clutches of tyranny of this sort help to evoke similar feelings in the reader. As if to right the original wrong of not allowing William Fletcher to marry Alice back in England, Everell and Hope are united. This full-circle realization of the disservices done to William and Alice and the unbridled love and affection that Everell and Hope feel for each other alludes to Sedgwick's desire to instill this value among her readers. It also results in a "feel-good" ending.

The Puritan sense of community is also explored in Sedgwick's work. This sense of community is nearly self-defeating at times, when compared to the idea of community posited by the Native Americans in the book. The Puritans, ever the religious group, are concerned with first pleasing God and secondly with uniting their community under common goals while giving less merit to the individual ambitions of its members, especially women (Samuels, 60). In this exploration of the Puritan values system, Sedgwick also comes across as a feminist, arguing, quite contrary to her own culture, for women's right and freedom to choose whom they want to marry or become partners with. Within the novel, this is first explored as the product of William Fletcher's disdain for life back in England, as the love of his life, Alice, is denied marriage to him (Emerson, 27). Later in the book, the separation and unilateral actions of the Puritans against those of them whom wished to explore and validate the Native American experience is highlighted as well.

Within the novel, Sedgwick paints the Native Americans' ideals relating to community quite differently than those of the Puritans. This is also a recurring theme in the novel and one that cannot be ignored. Though this is historically accurate, Sedgwick was a non-conformist in her writings in this way, which helped make the argument for the equal treatment of Native Americans, at least in the pseudo-historical contexts of her writing a and in the psyche of the typical American reader, who, in reading the novel, likely had little to no exposure to the Native American lifestyle of belief system (Schweitzer, 43). Most of Sedgwick's colleagues and peers were, at the time, arguing for the superiority of the white race and, within the same contexts, of the Puritan experience and values system (Schweitzer, 133). Sedgwick herself draws many literary parallels within Hope Leslie between the two groups which help to highlight the extreme differences and as well as the similarities between the Puritans and the Native Americans.

Since Sedgwick herself was relaying the historical fictions of her time through her work, and had only these other works to help give her an idea of how the Native Americans of the time lived and interacted with the Puritans, certain historical licenses were taken in the novel's adaptation. Most notably, the novel is a reconstruction of the archetypical "English settler" which is used as an historical and symbolic force as these people are juxtaposed with the Native Americans (Schweitzer, 133). Similarly, from the Native American perspective, other historical licenses were taken to illustrate these people as the white settlers often saw them. This is to say that Sedgwick's description of Native American life and interactions was roughly accurate and products of her own research and that of her period cohorts.

In a similar manner, Sedgwick also uses the cultural norms and values of her time to help analyze on of the large themes within the novel as it relates to the unconditionality and freedom of love. This is the idea that as a cultural icon or archetype, many of the novels' main characters represent an absorption into the competing worlds (Emerson, 27). This is to say that when one gets married within the Native American group, they are affirming and actualizing their culture and the idea that they are not to be separated from that. Perhaps Sedgwick's intentions as a novelist were to illustrate this ideal as a challenge to the status quo. This is to say that in making sure the reader understands that Puritans, who marry or are adopted by Native Americans become Native American and thusly cannot go back to their previous lifestyle and culture, Sedgwick was highlighting the unrealistic and impractical nature of this historical assumption (Samuels, 63). This is another way in which the author tries to bring attention to the status quo and how these vales are unrealistic,… READ MORE

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