John Smith and William Bradford Essay Example

The author John Smith, a pilgrim who arrived to the Americas, wrote a description of the new land in his book " A Description of New England ". In this book Smith shows a wonderful world of vast food and pleasure. Also, William Bradford another pilgrim who arrived to Plymouth on the coast of Massachusetts, wrote a book called " Of Plymouth Plantation " in which he describes what really happened their, how the pilgrims actually lived. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast both authors and their books. John Smith wrote about the wonderful place the New World was, on the other hand, William Bradford wrote about the realities and difficulties of the New World.

In " A Description of New England ", Smith starts by describing the pleasure and content that risking your life for getting your own piece of land brings to men. On the other hand, Bradford reminds us how harsh and difficult the trip to the New World was for the pilgrims. Smith also implies that building your own house, planting your own crops, and having a " God's blessing industry " would be easy to have without having any prejudice. Bradford, instead, writes about the condition of the men who arrived to the shore. He also mentions that, in the New World there was no one to welcome them, more over there was no place to stay in, no houses, no inns. Smith argues about the pleasure of erecting towns and populating them.

John Smith mentions little of the Native Americans. And if he briefly does he says that they are good people and that they helped them when they arrived. Whereas Bradford mentions that the Native Americans greeted them with arrows. The biggest difference between Bradford and Smith is when they write about food. Just as Smith talks about fishing with only a stick and a hook and you will catch excellent fish; also that if you planted crops you could get as much as 50 shillings yearly, use this money for meat and beer, and still afford to become rich. In contrast, Bradford writes