3. Philbrick shows us that many of the classic images that shape our current view of the Pilgrims—from Plymouth Rock to the usual iconography of the first Thanksgiving—have been highly fictionalized. Why has America forsaken the truth about these times in exchange for a misleading and often somewhat hokey mythology?
According to the probably-also-mythologized doctrine of the Founding Fathers, America is a country founded on brotherly love and equality of peoples. The Founding Fathers idealized the Pilgrims; as the first English "founders" of America it was only fitting that they be models of the spirit of fraternity overtook later early American leaders. At the time, people probably subscribed to this story because it was happy and high-spirited; people often accept things as true just because they want to believe them. Over the years, however, the fictional but inspiring story became so indoctrinated that people slowly began to actually believe it. Eventually, even, it was almost the only story that was told. Americans haven't really "forsaken" anything, most people just don't know any better.
I have to say that your first sentence here -- suggesting you are alert to the fact that much of what we think we know about our founders may also be mythologized, is exactly the frame of mind I had hoped this book would produce -- It's the perfect way to start out a historical investigation and will allow you to get the most out of it! Perhaps, to your blog's promise of a "thrilling ride through homework" you might add, with a student on a quest for TRUTH!"
ReplyDelete