1. What beliefs and character traits that typified the Pilgrims enabled them to survive in the hostile environment that greeted them in the New World? Did some of the same traits that helped them survive limit them in other ways? How so?
The Pilgrims survived their first few years in what would become America because of their firm resolve to stick together. They were united as one community of believers, persecuted and now free. Among them, there was a sense of brotherly love. Despite that, their brotherly love did not extend to the "Strangers" that came over with them, nor the Indians that they encountered upon landing. Their lack of ability to extend their hand to accept the help of other types of people limited them to their own skills and way of life. They could have taken up at least some Indian ways: it probably would have made life a lot easier, but they were restrained by their belief that the Indians were savages, and that the Strangers were not among the elect.
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