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Narratives of Colonial America

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The Europeans voyages and settlements of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries created a grand enterprise of discourse that concerned the lives of millions in the Americas. However, what do the puritans, conquistadors, and indians all have in common? In the end, they all assimilated into the land and cultivated a new identity, but analysis can show methods that determine the crafting of this society and the individuals apart of it. All parties are accountable for their exchanges in discourse which generally revolve around power, merchandise, and culture; however, by examining the rhetorical aspects of these groups, the audience can follow this into a series of persuasive narratives via the collision, reaction, and synthesis from the entering forces. Primarily, the following narratives “Chronicle of the Narvaez Expedition,” by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and “The Sovereignty and Goodness of God,” by Mary Rowlandson are products of the colonialism era of the Americas, and they are written for the European audience. Rowlandson is credited as the author of her account, but the editors (Increase Mather, and fellow puritan ministers) might of influence the narrative with their own agenda unknowingly against her will. Rowlandson is not the authoritative voice of her own account, as bits of the account are written exclusively for the puritans to be persuaded emotionally into fearing the indians as heathens rather than a much more linear account of the initial attack (Rowlandson 12-14). This can be exemplified by how Cabeza de Vaca’s flattering towards the King portrays the honor of his comrades while retaining a reputation worthy of reparations and continuation of his career (Vaca). Both accounts take note of exclaimed indian savagery through the use of nudity, dancing, singing, yelling, and eating habits that is then contrasted with western society as wrong. They both account for a fear of change to their own culture against the co

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