Recently
I read a story called “Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community and War” by
Nathaniel Philbrick. In
“Mayflower” I read the chapters “The Heart of Winter” and “ In a Dark and
Dismal Swamp”, as part of a literary circle discussion in my history class. It was a great read and very
informative. These chapters described what the Pilgrims went through while they
were in Plymouth and their interactions between the Native Americans.
In
this story there were a few topics that were focused on. The beginning of the
story focused on when the Pilgrims came to America and were finding a place to
set up. They looked at many places but they soon picked Plymouth. It took them
a while to actually start building because they needed to find a place that
would be protected from Indian attacks. That hill was named Cole’s hill. It
took them about two to three days to start building the houses and once the
started there was some problems. Many of them died changing there original
plans from 19 houses to seven houses. Also the Pilgrims were very skittish this
whole time of the Indians so whenever one of the Pilgrims died of illness they
buried them secretly so if the Indians were watching they would not have seen
that many of them died. Soon they met the Native Americans. They were scared at
first but with the help of the translator Samoset and Squanto they soon reached
an agreement. This was a very interesting story and it was very
straightforward.
The
author I thought was great. He made a boring topic into something I actually
wanted to keep reading and learn more about. He included characters and stories
not just straightforward facts. There were some moments where I wish he livened
the story up a little because some of it dragged along but overall it was
great. I wished he wrote about what happened on the ship ride over more. That
would have added a lot more to the story and made it a lot more exciting.
I
would recommend the book. Not to my friends because it is not as exciting, as a
teenager would want it to be but I would recommend it to an adult or a history enthusiast.
I would tell them though the end is boring but besides that very interesting. I
would give this book a 3.5 rating. It is a good read that is what happened a
long time ago but it is not very boring. o you get some fun reading and learn
something!
You're blog post is very interesting. I like how you said they looked at many places but chose Plymouth out of all of them. I can also connect with you how you said you think the author is great. I as well like how he included characters not just straight forward facts. I really like how you said in you're closing paragraph that you would not recommend it to a teenager because its not very exciting. Historians would be a better person to recommend it to rather than a teenager. Overall, great job.
ReplyDeleteThis post is very well done. You managed to make different topics flow into each other with ease. I appreciate the smooth introduction and giving credit and attention to the author before you start your analysis. You also did a good job summarizing the plot of the story in a brief paragraph. They way you gave your rating shows that you put some thought into who would like the book. This was a very good post.
ReplyDeleteYou did a very well job on informing the reader in my opinion. If I did not know what this story was about at all, it would be easy for me to figure it out. Also I appreciated how well you were able to make the paragraphs flow into one another, and I also agree with you completely on how the author made facts into a story. It really brings everything to life. Good work!
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