New England Literature Quiz

Model of Christian Charity
What does a city on a hill mean?

• From Matthew 5:14 (Sermon on the Mount).

• The Puritans’ colony would be highly visible to the world.

• If faithful: they serve as a shining example of Christian charity.

• If unfaithful: their failures bring shame before everyone.

• Symbol of both hope (model society) and warning (public accountability).

Model of Christian Charity
What does Jeremiah mean?

Warning of God’s wrath for falling off path

In Mary Rowlandson’s A True History of the Captivity and Restoration, how are food, children, and faith central to her experience?

• Food: Hunger forces her to eat things she once found disgusting (like raw horse liver). Food becomes a sign of God’s mercy when she receives it.

• Children: She suffers deeply from the death of her youngest daughter Sarah and separation from her other children, showing maternal grief.

• Faith: She constantly turns to Scripture, seeing her ordeal as both punishment and a test. Faith sustains her and explains her survival.

How does Mary Rowlandson portray the Native Americans in her captivity narrative?

• Describes them as violent and cruel during the Lancaster attack.

• Calls them “barbarous creatures” and likens them to animals.

• Sees them as instruments of God’s will, used to punish or test her.

• Occasionally admits they showed small kindnesses (like giving food), but credits God rather than them.

On Being Brought from Africa to America
What does Phillis Wheatley think of her enslavement

Wheatley acknowledges her enslavement, but emphasizes faith and equality in salvation, challenging racist views by insisting that Africans are just as redeemable in God’s eyes as anyone else.

In Phillis Wheatley’s “On Being Brought from Africa to America”, what is the significance of the words “refin’d” and “Cain”?

• Refin’d: Symbolizes spiritual purification — through Christianity, anyone can be cleansed and made worthy of heaven. Counters racist ideas by stressing universal salvation.

• Cain: Refers to the biblical figure marked after killing Abel. Often misused to justify slavery. Wheatley flips it, insisting that even those “black as Cain” can be saved and join the “angelic train.”

Slavery’s Pleasant Homes
How does slavery destroy Black families?

Rosa and George’s love is constantly threatened by Frederic’s control, punishments, and jealousy, showing how enslaved people cannot freely form or maintain families. George becomes angry and jealous because Rosa was raped and takes it out on her.

Slavery’s Pleasant Homes
How does slavery destroy White families?

Frederic’s obsession with Rosa corrupts his marriage to Marion. His jealousy, abuse, and moral corruption create tension and violence, showing how slavery warps relationships even within White households. Frederic’s favoritism toward Rosa blurs affection and ownership. Marion’s pampering of Rosa mixes care with complicity in the power imbalance, illustrating how slavery warps natural bonds.

How does Our Nig challenge the traditional view of the North?

The North is often seen as free and morally superior to the South, but Our Nig shows that African Americans there faced exploitation, abuse, and quasi-slavery-like conditions. Frado’s childhood with the Bellmonts reveals harsh labor, emotional abuse, and racial discrimination, proving that northern “freedom” was limited and precarious, challenging the myth of a wholly free North.

Transcendentalism: Core Values/Ideas

Self-reliance/Individualism
Nature/Romanticism

Insight/Revelation

Break from tradition

Nonconformity

Experience (not books)

Emerson: The guy that doesn’t want to help strangers
Thoreau: Nature/Anti-Government