John Smith and William Bradford (wilderness and Civilization)

1) COMPARE AND CONTRAST HOW JOHN SMITH AND WILLIAM BRADFORD PERCEIVED THE OPPOSITION BETWEEN WILDERNESS AND CIVILIZATION.

Binary oppositions are used in literature in order to describe different groups of people. Authors introduce them to highlight culture and class differences. Unfortunately, this also leads to prejudices as a result of the threat caused by the others. Along the human history, binary oppositions have justified actions such as the European colonization of America. What we are mainly concerned with here, is the binary opposition between wilderness and civilization established by John Smith and William Bradford in their works.

On the one hand, John Smith´s work is an adventure story which describes the New World and the inhabitants. The hero of his story represents civilization, while the Native Americans stand for wilderness. The Native Americans possess simple clothing items made of animal skins and feathers, which he considers costumes. He refers to their objects with the word “toy”, he compares their behavior to a childish one, as they dance in a circle and paint their faces. This sustains the idea that they are primitives closer to animals than to humans. Furthermore, considering their language, he says that they yell hellish notes. When describing their living style, he says that they live in houses that look like tents. He refers to them in a pejorative way and calls them “savages”. It is important to highlight that the main antagonist of John Smith is Pocahontas, since she represents wilderness. The gesture by which she saves John Smith´s life has been interpreted as a sign standing for the Native American´s submission to the English conquerors.

On the other hand, Bradford reflects the opposition between wilderness and civilization in his passages. The first passage is pervaded by the horror of the wild, while the second passage shows the improvements civilization brings to the New World.