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What Is Anne Bradstreet's Resistance To American Identity

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What Is Anne Bradstreet's Resistance To American Identity
American history is primarily told through the dominant male perspective because women held as minority voices within this society. With that said, a lot of the readings relayed new perspectives within history’s timeline because women voices were the focus. Beginning with the first colonial women writers and ending with women in the post-war era, there has been a display of untold history relayed through these female writers and artist. Anne Bradstreet’s poems displayed the level of education that middle class women in America could receive because not only was Bradstreet herself educated, her targeted audience were scholarly women. Through Bradstreet’s writings, the educated woman became one step closer to a societal norm. In Bradstreet notes …show more content…
Phillis Wheatley displays this resistance towards the American identity through her famous poems that spread across the nation. Wheatley was the first African American female poet, and her poems reached recognition from both the United States and England. Her poem “On Being Brought from Africa to America” provides clear examples of her resistance to the American identity, for it carries many tones of sarcasm. In the poem, she is praising the colonizers for bringing Africans from the “Pegan land” and noting that with Christianity, they can become refined. This message carries tones of sarcasm because Wheatley was highly educated, and although she may be providing a sense of gratitude, she is making fun of the colonizers. This expressed the reality that some women slaves were educated and able to voice their opinions as well as educating the public that some slave women were smarter and capable of education. Overall, when women are given the opportunity to express themselves through any medium, there is a underground reality that is exposed offering an alternate perspective to almost all of

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