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In today's society it is common practice to blame books, movies, television and other art forms for people's increasing desensitization towards violence and death. However, the exploitation of other people's suffering, as well as the detailed glorification of divine wrath, has piqued the public's interest throughout our world's entire history.
Evidence that the glorification of violence in literature existed long before Stephen King and the like, is abundant in William Bradford's “Of Plymouth Plantation”. This first-hand account of the Pilgrims' voyage on the Mayflower is saturated with violent descriptions and repeated references to the vengefulness of God.
Perhaps the greatest contributor to Bradford's questionable belief system stemmed from his life experiences, beginning in childhood. Born in Yorkshire, England in 1590, the son of a poor yeoman, William was not formally educated. His determination was impressive even then, as he taught himself to read at age 12. He began reading the bible "religiously" and later joined a separatist congregation. The separatists did not have an easy trail to blaze by any means . A great many of them were persecuted, starved, tortured and murdered, which most certainly contributed to Bradford's desensitization toward violence. For example, he writes Chapter 9, “But it pleased God before they came half seas over, to smite this young man with a grievous disease, of which he died in a desperate manner, and so was himself the first that was thrown overboard”. Bradford seems utterly thrilled by the death of this fellow traveler. The fact that he considered this man to be "a terrible person" does not serve to justify his callous and celebratory attitude toward the suffering and ultimate demise of another human being.
Another example appears in Chapter 1, through the following passage: "The violence truly was no less than that of old practice towards the Christians when they were compelled and drawn to sacrifice to idols; for many endured sundry kinds of torment, often rackings and dismembering of their joints, confiscating of their goods; some bereaved of their native soil, others departed this life under the hands of the tormentor."
Once again, Bradford trivializes violence by implying that it is commonplace in a society in which religious dissension is abundant. Also, again, his descriptions of torture and torment are graphically detailed. Further examples also exist in chapter two, when Bradford recounts, “But when man's hope and help wholly failed, the Lord's power and mercy appeared in their recovery; for the ship rose again, and gave the mariners courage again to manage her. And if modesty would suffer me, I might declare with what fervent prayers they cried unto the Lord in this great distress (especially some of them,) even without any great distraction, when the water ran into their mouths and ears; and the mariners cried out, "We sink, we sink"; they cried (if not with miraculous, yet with a great height or degree of divine faith), "Yet Lord thou canst save, yet Lord thou canst save"; with such other expressions as I will forbear”.
“Of Plymouth Plantation” satisfyingly recounts both the internal and external threats that continuously besieged the Pilgrims. The mission of Bradford's desire to secure a place for Plymouth in God's divine historical plan conflicted with his vengeful nature and his painful reading of providential design. This shows us how the supposedly objective genre of "history," like all forms of narrative, is often biased by prevailing ideologies. It also shows us that literature, whether modern horror or historical fact, has always been a perpetrator of the glorification of violence.
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