English Analysis Essay 1

This was my most challenging essay because it was the first of the semester and I wasn't sure what was expected. I had trouble fully expressing my ideas and providing personal insight about what I read. I also had trouble with the MLA style since it is not a style that I have used extensively in the past.

Analysis Of Roger Williams’ A Key Into the Language of America

In Roger Williams’ A Key Into the Language of America we see a different perspective of life in the New World than that written about by Bradford, Morton, and others. Williams goes against the societal and religious expectations of the Puritans and attempts to educate his readers about interracial relations between the Narragansett people and themselves. Williams expressed ideals of personal freedom that still apply in today’s society.

As we read Williams writings today, we are able to appreciate his thoughts on religious tolerance and individual freedom. However, in the 1600s his revolutionary beliefs caused him to be labeled as a heretic. Anyone who challenged the established Puritan mission was viewed as a threat to that mission, and was immediately cast out. For Williams, this provided him with the opportunity to live among the Narragansett people, and conduct an in-depth study of their culture and religion. He hoped that the Key would provide a new perspective on his adopted land: “This Key, respects the Native Language of it, and happily may unlocked some Rarities concerning the Natives themselves, not yet discovered” (349).

A Key Into the Language of America reveals Williams’ interest in the Native American culture and language, which he examined with open-mindedness that made him a powerful voice for the Narragansett people. Although Williams believed that only Christianity could save your soul, he was impressed by the values of the natives, and sometimes found their conduct more admirable than his fellow Christians: “I could never discerne that excesse of scandalous sins amongst them, which Europe aboundeth with. Drukennesse and gluttony, generally they know not what sinnes they be; and although they have not so much to restraine them (both in respect of knowledge of God and Lawes of men) as the English have, yet a man shall never hear of such crimes amongst them of robberies, murthers, adulteries, &c. as amongst the English” (364). Williams shows that the native people seem to have a moral code that does not relate to the Christian religion, however, they have created a society that is without much of the crime and sin that the English have. They are simple and uncorrupted people. Williams is able to show even modern day readers how it is possible to appreciate a culture, even if you do not completely support all of its beliefs. This tolerance is a concept that needs to be put into practice more often in today’s precarious political environment.

A Key into the Language of America also serves as a written record of a culture that may have been completely forgotten without Williams. The time and care that went into recording the language and translations of the Narragansett people has left us with an invaluable resource for study. The Native American history is traditionally passed from one generation to the next by oral means, and very few written texts exist from the early colonial period that have the detail that Williams’ has. It is impressive to imagine the time and effort that it took for Williams to detail such an unusual language. He manages to portray the natives not as the barbarians many believed, but as a civilized, organized society. Williams makes an effort to cast the natives in a favorable light, so that new colonists will not fear them: “I have heard of many English lost, and have oft been lost my selfe, and my selfe and others have often been found, and succoured by the Indians”(352)

A Key Into the Language of America is a work that was ahead of its time. It only came to be truly appreciated many years later, for its philosophy of tolerance and personal freedom. In today’s strained political and social climate it is important to remember that we should all have the ability to search for our own truth, and the right to pursue our religious beliefs in a peaceful manner without fear of persecution.

Works Cited

Williams, Roger. A Key Into the Language of America. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. Vol. A. Ed. Paul Lauter. 5^th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. 347-367.