MA Thesis
China Foreign Affairs University
外交学院二〇〇三级同等学力硕士学位论文
The Influence of Christianity on American Literature
——With Particular Reference to Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter
基督教对美国文学影响
——及对《白鲸》和《红字》的实证研究
MA Thesis
Submitted to the Department of English and International Studies
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of master of arts in American Studies
Major：English Language and Literature
专业：英语语言文学
Focus：American Studies
方向：美国研究
Supervisor：Prof. Xia Lili
导师：XXX 教授
Writer：XXX
研究生： XXX
May, 2008
Acknowledgement
This thesis would never have materialized without the help and support from
many parties.
First and foremost, I wish to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor in
China Foreign Affairs University, Professor Xia Lili, for his invaluable instruction,
incessant inspiration and constant encouragement. He has spent a lot of time reading
and correcting my thesis. Without his academic guidance, I could not have
accomplished this thesis. His energy and passion for knowledge and education have
had such a great influence on me that I am sure they always remain a beacon in my
future career.
I am also indebted to all my teachers in the English Department of China Foreign
Affairs University, especially to Professor Fan Shouyi, Ms. Shi Yi, Professor Heng
Xiaojun, Professor Sun Jisheng, Professor Wang Yan, Professor Song Aiqun and
Professor He Qun for everything I have learned from them during the time at this
university.
I would like to express my thanks to my friends Shen Bo and Qin Aidong who
have collected useful reference books for me.
In addition, I wish to say thanks to my family and relatives, especially my elderly
cousin Ma Ling, who have collected most of the reference materials for me.
In the end, I’m grateful to my husband. Without his help and encouragement, I
would never have finished this thesis on time.
Abstract
The influence of Christianity on American literature is so powerful that whether
the writer is for the Bible or against it, some traces of the influence of Christianity can
be discerned in his or her works.
The fundamental significance of Christianity to Western literature lies in a set of
concepts which combine different doctrines, new ideas, with human experiences,
ponderings and selections. From the literature angle, Christianity is embodied
basically as follows: Firstly, Christian values impact writers and the theme of their
works. Secondly, Christian symbol systems influence writers and their works. Thirdly,
Christian classics and theology affect the theory of western literary criticism.
This paper is intended to explore and verify the influence of Christianity on
American literature so as to have a better understanding of American cultural legacy,
through a case study of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s
The Scarlet Letter.
Through the characters in Moby Dick based on the Bible, Melville preaches
Christian predestination, fraternity and provides us an example to understand
Christianity.
“Ambiguity” can be found in The Scarlet Letter from different angles. Tracing the
source of this phenomenon, we may find that this is the result of collisions of
Hawthorne’s Christian thoughts and his humanitarian spirit. The positive aspect of the
writing lies in that the heroine dares to break through the cage of strict conventions of
Puritanism though she pays too much to gain her own happiness.
Till today, in modern American literature varieties of opuses are prospering,
which manifests that the influence of Christianity as the religion itself keeps abreast
of the time.
Key words: Christianity, Puritanism, American literature, Moby Dick, The Scarlet
Letter
摘要
本文主要探讨基督教对美国文学的影响。就美国文学而言，基督教的影响如
此之深广，以至于此类作家无论是倾向于还是背离宗教，在其文学作品中都能找
到基督教的痕迹。
基督教对西方文学的基本意义在于它融合不同教派的教义,各类新思想并经
过人类的体验、思索和筛选而成的一整套观念。从文学角度而言，基督教的影响
大致体现于如下方面：第一，基督教价值观念对作家和作品主题的影响。第二，
基督教象征符号体系对作家和作品的影响。第三，基督教经典与神学诠释学对于
西方文学批评理论的影响。
本文旨在探索和论证基督教对美国文学的影响,通过对 19 世纪霍尔曼·麦尔
维尔的巨著《白鲸》和纳撒尼尔·霍桑的《红字》的分析和实证研究以便更好地
理解和把握美国的文化传统。
麦尔维尔以《圣经》为基础，创作了《白鲸》中个性鲜明的人物形象，宣扬
了基督教宿命论、博爱的道德观念，为我们了解基督教文化提供了范本。
《红字》作为脍炙人口的力作，国内外许多学者已从不同的角度对其进行了
多种阐释。纵览各家之言，可以发现作品中存在着“含混”的现象，追溯这种现
象的根源，我们不难发现，这是霍桑所持基督教思想与人道主义精神相互冲撞的
结果。而作品的积极意义在于女主人公敢于冲破严酷的清教习俗，勇于追求自己
的幸福,即使为此付出惨重的代价。
时至今日，当代美国文学精彩纷呈，题材多样，仍然可以看出基督教的影响，
因为宗教本身同样与时俱进。
关键词：基督教，清教徒，美国文学，《白鲸》，《红字》
Table of Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................. 1
Chapter 1 The Development of Christianity in America.......................................... 7
1.1 Reformation in England .......................................................................................................... 7
1.2 People Going Westward ........................................................................................................ 10
1.3 The Dreams and Reality of Puritans ..................................................................................... 11
1.4 The Great Awakenings and Edwards..................................................................................... 15
1.5 The Spring of Deism ............................................................................................................. 16
1.6 Diversity of American Religion ............................................................................................ 17
1.7 Contemporary Christianity in the United States of America ................................................. 21
Chapter 2 Traces of Christianity in American Literature...................................... 23
2.1 The Savior and Manifest Destiny .......................................................................................... 24
2.2 Temptation and Choice ......................................................................................................... 28
2.3 Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained .................................................................................... 31
2.4 The Pure and the Sophisticated ............................................................................................. 33
Chapter 3 Interpretations of Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter with Reference to
Christianity ........................................................................................................... 36
3.1 Biblical Archetypes and Moralities in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick ................................. 36
3.1.1 Biblical Archetypes ................................................................................................ 37
3.1.2 The Christian Moralities......................................................................................... 43
3.2 Ambiguities in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter ................................................... 45
3.2.1 The Expressions of Ambiguity ............................................................................... 46
3.2.2 The Source of Hawthorne’s Ideological Contradictions ........................................ 50
Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 52
Introduction
In 1831, D’Alexis de Tocqueville, a French social and political philosopher, left
for America and in his masterpiece The Democracy in America (1835) said: “Here
and there in the midst of American society you meet with men full of a fanatical and
almost wild spiritualism, which hardly exists in Europe. From time to time strange
sects arise which endeavor to strike out extraordinary paths to eternal happiness.
Religious insanity is very common in the United States.”1 He devoted his focus to the
exploration of the influence of Christianity in the United States. And he found that the
influence of Christianity on people’s soul is so strong and profound that no other
country can reach. It is known that in the three-thousand-year western civilized
history，two thousand years belongs to Christian time. During these years, people
scanned the political life and constructed social order in terms of the Christian
doctrines and values. Christian beliefs governed almost everything and seeped into
every field. Hence, Christianity is not only a phenomenon in history but also a
life-style and a mode of thinking lasting so far. Some ever said that the influence of
Christianity in America, just like the characters of “IN GOD WE TRUST” printed on
every U.S. dollar, is omnipresent. In this case, the Christian heritage of the country
enables the wide spread of the Christian ideas in that country.
There is no denying the fact that occidental culture originates from two traditions
－Greece and Hebrews, but as a matter of fact, Christianity is the two traditions’
complementation and inosculation. It is argued that “God is not one person, but a
value system”. In the Christian world, especially prior to enlightenment times,
people’s fundamental values come from the understanding of religious doctrines of
Christianity. But the problem lies in that different people have different
understandings of Christianity and God. In other words, different people have
1 D’Alexis de Tocqueville: Democracy in America, Table of Contents: Volume II Section 2: Influence of
Democracy on the Feelings of Americans. Chapter XII:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/home.html
1
different gods in their minds.
Therefore, the monopoly on the interlocution of the church and populace’s
scramble for utterance authority made a complicated history coexisting “orthodoxy”
with “heresy”. Since the Renaissance and the Reformation, rebels of traditional
doctrines and a number of thinkers who were out of church gradually became the
mainstream of Christian developments. The Christianity reinterpreted by them
increasingly exceeded the narrow religious significance, infiltrating Occidental values,
ethics and principles deeply.
So when the shell of religion tends to loose or even disintegrate, a reasonable
core contained by Christianity remains in the form of philosophy, beliefs, or literary
arts. The fundamental significance of Christianity to Western literature, even the
whole Western culture does not lie in its belief and the traditional customs inherited,
but a set of concepts which combine different doctrines, new ideas, with human
experiences, ponderings and selections. In other words, the set of concepts has not
been hampered by the Christian church wall, but crystallized as the origins of Western
culture... “In this sense, the fundamental spirit of Christianity integrates the whole
mankind’s ultimate pursuit and ultimate concern by means of literature.”2
Many scholars point out: the reason why Christian culture has been “inclusive” is
that it is determined by its own internal dualism. The so-called dualism of Christianity
means that people can be analyzed into two parts－the soul and body, and an
individual’s life is divided into religious life and secular life, heaven and earth, the
shore and the other side of the shore, etc. In the traditional Christian world, the regime
is bimodal confrontation, political resources distribute into two parties, and an
ordinary person is just like a servant who serves two masters3. Even till modern age,
Western society continues to bear a new binary fission, the dualism of universe,
human, society and politics is always the core of Western civilization. Herbert J
Muller spoke highly of the contribution of this binary: “the radical dualisms at the
2 杨慧林/著：
《基督教的底色与文化延伸》
（哈尔滨：黑龙江人民出版社，2002）115-116。
3 丛日云/著：
《在上帝与凯撒之间：基督教二元政治观与近代自由主义》
（北京：三联书店，2003）4。
2
heart of Christianity itself－of body and soul, the temporal and the spiritual, the city
of earth and the city of god－were intensified as it was revitalized and transformed by
the energy, passion, willfulness, and imaginativeness of its barbarian converts. The
resultant tensions help to explain why western Christendom became the most dynamic,
the most continuously creative, and the freest of civilizations, and also perhaps the
most troubled, for historians the most troublesome.”4
In a sense, such “vitality and confusion” in Christianity are in accordance with
the “vitality and confusion” in literature. From Hermeneutics’ perspective, the charm
of classic literature often rests with its “ambiguity”, which, in terms of its effect,
refers to the fuzzy, wavering and ambiguous in significance; by its nature, it is the
vague performance of the writer’s own thought. Making a comprehensive survey of
the history of Western literature, the transformation of value judgment is just like the
pendulum’s swinging, each peak will be the emergence of a “reaction”, for example, a
Renaissance of individual liberation was followed by the medieval asceticism; after
the Renaissance
which is characterized as the unbridled indulgence of human
desires, Classicism conventions were called; Classicism went to its extreme, the
glorious Enlightenment started shining; after the Enlightenment reached its peak,
Romanticism returned again; after Romanticism swamped, Realism emerged; but
after the bloom of Realism, modernism literature was in fashion…the mainstream of
literature always swings between two poles and interestingly, why a great writer was
great just because he, often “leading” or “lagging” in the mainstream, indicated in
another direction, though in this direction may not be immediately understood by then
public.
Compared with Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville is just that type of writers.
He was undervalued by his contemporary authors, but gradually appreciated by the
followers till today.
Many scholars concern about the relationship between religion and literature for
4 Herbert J. Muller, Freedom in the Western World: From the Dark Ages to Rise of Democracy (New
York: Harper Colophon Books, 1964), 46.
3
scores of years. As Helen Gardner, the famous English critic, points out two aspects in
her classics Religion and Literature:
In the first instance, Christianity has affected western literature tremendously.
Taking Shakespeare as example, although many people think that he is humanism, his
tragedy is still Christian tragedy, because the mystery it reveals comes from the
concept and formulation of Christianity, and its main characteristics are related to the
affection and understanding of Christian religion.5
In a broad sense, Christian doctrines about God Creation, God governing, the
dead reviving have changed people’s view towards history, destiny and death greatly,
all these made crime &punishment and conscience & death become motifs of tragedy.
In the second instance, Gardner has noted not only an impact of religion on
literature, but also an impact of literature on religion.
With time passing by, and the development of technology, people begin to
question and argue about the influence of religion. Some people think that it becomes
less even disappears. “God is dead ... we have killed him.” Although Nietzsche6’s
declaration is so resonant in the nineteenth century, the following century in the
United States of America, God has been alive as before. Dong Xiao Chuan, a
well-known expert on American history points out also: “Religion accompanies the
United States like its shadow since the beginning of its history, it has once brought
some people sustenance in spirit, and also brought some others devastation in the
mind; it has once relieved some people’s agony and made others suffer a disaster also.
Till today, the religion’s magic power in the United States continues to increase rather
than decrease; the number of people who believe in God has not reduced but
augmented; God’s position has not been descending but ascending; the role that
religion has played in social life of America is becoming more and more important
5 转引自海伦·加德纳《宗教与文学》
，江先春等译，
（ 成都：四川人民出版社，1998）
。
6 Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher who reasoned that Christianity's emphasis on the afterlife
makes its believers less able to cope with earthly life. He argued that the ideal human being,
theUbermensch, would be able to channel passions creatively instead of suppressing them. His written
works include Beyond Good and Evil (1886) and Thus Spake Zarathustra (1883-1892).
4
rather than unimportant.”7
And it is proved that religion’s position in the US society can be detected in five
aspects as follows: Firstly, as for people’s inner world, religion is American individual
soul comfort; Secondly, as for society and politics, religion is ideological form of the
U.S. country; Thirdly, as for group psychology, religion is the whole national outlook
on values; Fourthly, as for its own social values, religion is an additive to political life;
Fifthly, as for the national spirit, religion is the spiritual support of the country’s cause.
In terms of these, we may think that without religion, the whole American inner world
would be in the state of desolation, so would the American society.8
It even influences the pursuit of American dreams. The term was first used by
James Truslow Adams in his book The Epic of America which was written in 1931.
He stated:
“The American Dream is that dream of a land in which life should be better
and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or
achievement. It is a difficult dream for the European upper classes to interpret
adequately, and too many of us ourselves have grown weary and mistrustful of it. It is
not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in
which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which
they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of
the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position.”9
Therefore, when we do some research on American literature, we have to
investigate the Christianity.
The thesis consists of three chapters. The first chapter briefly summarizes the
development of American Christian culture. Since the landing of the Mayflower in
New England in 1620, Christianity began to spread in the New World. In terms of the
factions, the Puritanism takes the dominance in the United States. Compared with the
7 董小川/著《20 世纪美国宗教与政治》
（北京：人民出版社 2002）
，2。
8 Ibid, 4.
9 James Truslow Adams The Epic of America (New York: Simon Publications, 2001), 214-215.
5
Catholic Church, Orthodox Church and Protestant Church, the characteristics of
Puritanism are interpreted in this chapter. Traces of Christianity in American literature
are examined in the second chapter. In the third chapter, Herman Melville’s Moby
Dick and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter are analyzed and commented in a
form of case study. Based on the analysis, a summary and a conclusion are provided
at the end of this thesis.
Due to limited time and reference books, the exploration of the theme in this
thesis may be inadequate. And the reason why Christianity is so influential not only in
literature but also in other fields needs to be further investigated. The author sincerely
welcomes any criticism and advice from experts, professors and friends.
6
Chapter 1 The Development of Christianity in America
When we talk about the development of Christianity in America, we have to
mention Puritans. But who are Puritans? Why they get such a title? In the strict sense
of the word, views vary in the academia. Roger Olson, a contemporary Christian
theologian, argues that Puritans came into being at the end of sixteenth century. The
Puritan Movement began during the reign of Queen Elizabeth in England (1558-1603).
They believed in strict moral codes, plenty of prayers and closely following the New
Testament Scripture. Roger Olson regards Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) as the last
Protestant theologian. That is to say, the history of Puritans is only two hundred years
and mainly confined to United Kingdom and its colonies. However, Puritans and
Puritan movement have far-reaching influence on the United States of America till
nowadays－in the wake of the post-September-11 period.
To clarify what are Puritans, we have to explain the English Reformation first.
1.1 Reformation in England
The causation of English Reformation is quite different to that of other countries’
reform. The reform began as a struggle for a divorce and ended in freedom from the
Papacy. Henry VIII wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon but the Pope refused.
Henry’s reform was to get rid of the English Church’s connection with the Pope, and
to make an independent Church of England. He made this break with Roman
Catholics gradually between 1529 and 1534. He dissolved all of England’s
monasteries and nunneries because they were more loyal to the Pope than to him. The
laws such as the Act of Succession of 1534 and the Act of Supremacy of 1535 made his
reform possible. He established the Church of England10 as the national church of the
country, and he made himself the supreme head of the Church of England.
After King Henry VIII’s death, his son Edward VI launched Puritan movement.
10 The Church of England is called the Anglican Church in other countries and the Episcopal Church in
Scotland and in the United States.
7
Edward strongly favored the principle of the Reformation and did much to establish
Protestantism in England. The body of edicts known as the Six Articles, enacted in the
reign of Henry VIII, was revoked, and a new service book, the first Book of Common
Prayer11, was put into practice in 1549. Although it was moderate in its approach, it
was strongly opposed by Roman Catholics and stirred some uprisings. However, it
subsequently came into general use in the Church of England.
But on the death of her half brother, Edward VI, on July 6th, 1553, Mary I became
the legal heir to the throne. As a devout catholic, Mary began her reign by sweeping
away the religious innovations of her father and reestablished the authority of the
Pope. She is called “Bloody Mary” because a large number of religious persecutions
took place during her reign; almost 300 people were condemned to death as a result of
trials for heresy.12 During the period, up to 800 people had to flee abroad. Among
them, many leaders of Protestantism accepted the thought of Protestant theologians
Martin Luther13and Jean Calvin14 in the city of Geneva and Strasbourg respectively.
John Calvin is particularly worth mentioning. His Institutes of the Christian Religion
is considered one of the most influential theological works of all times. At the age of
20, he converted to Lutheranism and believed that salvation came from God’s grace.
But more strongly than his predecessors, he believed that the gift of faith was granted
only to a few and that each individual’s salvation or damnation was predestined
before birth. “Calvinism stressed the absolute authority of the God’s will, holding that
only those specially elected by God are saved.”15 In fact, the core of his theological
thoughts is predestination. Calvin said, “We call predestination God’s eternal decree.
For all are not created in equal condition; rather, eternal life is foreordained for some,
eternal damnation for others”.16 He also said that “many are called but few are
chosen...those who were predestined to salvation, ‘the elect,’ were obliged to govern;
11 Book of Common Prayer the official prayer book of the Church of England and of Anglican Churches
in other countries, including the Episcopal Church in the United States.
12 Microsoft Encarta premium 2006 (Redmond: Microsoft Corporation).
13 Martin Luther: A Germany religious reformer(1483-1546)，the founder of Lutheranism.
14 Jean Calvin: A French religious reformer(1509-1563), the founder of Calvinism.
15 Wang Zuo-liang, et al, European Culture: an Introduction (Bei Jing: Foreign Language Teaching and
Research Press,1992),132.
16 Mark Kishlansky, Patrick Geary and Patricia O’Brien, Civilization in the West, Volume l. To 1715 Third
Edition (London: Longman, 1998), 425.
8
those who were predestined to damnation were obliged to be governed”.17
In spite of the assertion that each individual’s salvation was predestined before
birth, Calvin claimed that each Christian could prove himself to be chosen for
salvation by God through hard work and success in this life18. In this way, with the
proposal of the Theory of Predestination, the Protestants become Chosen People of
God. Assimilating these theories, Protestants coming from England got ready for the
future reform.
In 1558, Mary died, and was succeeded by Elizabeth I. Elizabeth was the
longest-reigning English monarch in nearly two centuries and the first woman to
occupy the English throne successfully. Though she was protestant, her religious
reform was a compromise of different views. She broke Mary’s ties with Roman
Catholic Church and restored her father’s independent Church of England, i.e.
keeping to Catholic doctrines and practices but to be free of the Papal control.
The English Protestantism was defined in part by two measures enacted during
Elizabeth’s reign—the Act of Uniformity of 1559 and the Thirty-nine Articles of 1563.
The Act of Uniformity established a common prayer book and set the basic ceremonies
of the church. The Thirty-nine Articles established religious doctrines that governed
the church until the English Revolution in the 1640s. Both acts were compromises
that favored the views of more conservative or moderate Protestant groups.
However, her religious settlement was unacceptable to both the extreme
Protestants known as Puritans and ardent Catholics. Puritans were discontented with
the Church of England and contributed to religious, moral and societal reforms. The
writings and ideas of John Calvin inspired Protestants and were vital to the Christian
revolt. Puritans contended that the Church of England had become a product of
political struggles and man-made doctrines. The Puritans were one branch of
dissenters who decided that the Church of England should be beyond reform. So they
wanted to “purify” their national church by eliminating every shred of Catholic
17 Ibid. 425.
18 徐新/著《西方文化史》
（北京：北京大学出版社，2002）
，214。
9
influence.
1.2 People Going Westward
As Columbus “discovered” the American continent in 1492, it had been long
exciting in the world as early as other continents. In the light of the continental drift
theory which was put forth by Alfred Wegener, a German geophysicist, about 275 to
175 million years ago, all the continents were united into a vast supercontinent, which
he called Pangaea and about 100 million years ago, they drifted to their present
positions.19 That is to say, the American continent is as old as the Euro-Asian
continent but simply was overlooked by people from other continents. With the
discovery of the continent, great changes have taken place ever since, one direct result
of which is the founding of the United States of America. After the discovery, a small
number of Europeans arrived in the American continent in search of fortune.
But the mass immigration began with the arrival of Mayflower which took 102
Englishmen to Plymouth in 1620. The early settlers from Europe to America were
mainly Puritans for the purpose of escaping persecution from church leadership and
the King. Later, many Puritans emigrated to the New World (Massachusetts,
Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and Rhode Island), where they sought
to found a holy Commonwealth in New England. Puritanism remained the dominant
cultural force in that area into the nineteenth century.
At the same time, accompanied by the emigration of Puritans, Catholics arrived.
However, they took precedence neither in number nor in the power of impact. When
the reformists’ theology was spread among Europeans and taken to America with the
first settlers, a new belief of Chosen People sprang, based on the Theory of
Predestination. And American people became the Chosen People.
19 Historical Perspective (U.S. Geological Survey sponsored by the U.S. Department of Interior):
https/pubs.usgs.gov/publications/text/historical.html.
10
1.3 The Dreams and Reality of Puritans
In as long as 1000 years of the Middle Ages, the absolute authority of Roman
Catholic Church dominated the social and political lives of Europeans. But with the
changes of economic and social structures, the reformers began to deny that the
church and priests were the only authority in the interpretation of the Bible. John
Calvin called for the rejection of the papal authorities.
Unfortunately, the Reformation challenged the benefit of the Roman Catholic
Church. The Counter-Reformation and persecutions began pointing to the reformers.
In spite of the fact that the reformers landed on America to avoid religious and
political persecutions, many of the early settlers were well-to-do and well-educated,
and they lived comfortably and could continue living comfortably if they
compromised with the church authority. In fact, the overwhelming motive of their
coming to America was to find a place that was able to help them realize their
religious ideal. It was an aspiration that called them from the comforts of their former
homes. Facing the inevitable sufferings of exile, their objective was the triumph of an
idea20. They (protestants) left their homeland not only because they wanted to shun
punishment but to establish a Promised Land, to change wilderness to a civilized land
and to change it into an earthly paradise under the call of God, which as the
Mayflower Compact goes:
“In the name of God, amen. We whose names are underwritten － having
undertaken, for the glory of God, and the advancement of the Christian faith, and
honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts
of Virginia …”21
In Exodus, Lord says to Moses, “I have come down to deliver them (Israelis) out
of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and
20 James Truslow Adams The Epic of America (New York: Simon Publications, 2001).
21 Paul F Boller Jr. & Ronald Story. A More Perfect Union, Volume I: To 1877 Fourth Edition (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company, 1996), 18.
11
broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the
Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites”.22 Canaanites are
people living in Canaan which is the Promised Land given by God to his Chosen
People Israelis. Then, for the Puritans, the situation has changed. This time, it is the
turn for American people to enjoy the honor and shoulder the responsibility
commanded by God.
It is well known that the early settlers who took voyages to America are out of
religious ideal. Regarding their landing on the continent as answering the call of God,
They firmly believe that they are Chosen People selected by God to spread gospel
around the world and the United States is the Promised Land bestowed by God to
them just as Canaan was the land promised by God to Israelis. In other words, God
gives the early settlers the land as an award to his loyal sons who will take the
responsibility to save the world “for God so loved the world”23 and as Chosen People
of God, Americans undoubtedly are executors of the cause of salvation.
Puritans believe that human beings are predestined by God before they were born.
Some are God’s Chosen People (God’s Elect) while others are predestined to be
damned to hell. The success of one’s work or the prosperity in his calling given by
God is the sign of being God’s Elect. Therefore, everyone must work hard, spend little
and invest for more business. Working hard and living a moral life are their ethics.
They regard the Bible as the authority of their doctrines. To be able to read the Bible
and understand God’s will, education is essential for Puritans. Puritanism in New
England has a great influence on American culture. Puritans hope to build “a City
upon Hill”24—an ideal community. Since that time, Americans have viewed their
country as a great experiment, a worthy model for other nations.
The Basic Puritan Beliefs can be summarized as “Tulip” as follows:
22 Exodus 3 the Bible: http://basicenglishbible.com/exodus/3.htm.
23 John 3 the Bible: http://biblecc.com/john/3-16.htm.
24 A City upon a Hill is the name of a famous sermon preached by John Winthrop, the second governor
of the Massachusetts Bay Colony based on Matthew 5:14 (“You are the light of the world. A city set on
a hill cannot be Hid”) in which he urged that the Puritan colonists of New England who were to found
the Massachusetts Bay Colony－their new community into a “City upon a Hill”, an example to the
world.
12
1. Total Depravity－through Adam and Eve’s fall, every person is born sinful－
concept of Original Sin.
2. Unconditional Election－God “saves” those he wishes－only a few are
selected for salvation－concept of predestination.
3. Limited Atonement－Jesus died for the chosen only, not for everyone.
4. Irresistible Grace－God’s grace is freely given, it cannot be earned or denied.
Grace is defined as the saving and transfiguring power of God.
5. Perseverance of the “saints”－those elected by God have full power to interpret
the will of God, and to live uprightly. If anyone rejects grace after feeling its power in
his life, he will be going against the will of God － something impossible in
Puritanism.25
The English consider New England an ideal place to build colony, as New
England and the United Kingdom are at similar latitude, hence, New England is also
called “New Canaan”. New England changes from a geographic name to a cultural
region with the founding and development of Massachusetts. Plymouth, Rhodes,
Connecticut or New Hampshire and Maine, all are influenced by Massachusetts.
But when they arrived with enthusiasm, the early settlers saw the virgin forests,
and the vast expanse of wilderness stretching for hundreds of miles. They realized that
God sent them here for a definite purpose of establishing a new world rather than
finding a new one. “They are meant to reestablish a commonwealth, based on the
teachings of the Bible, restore the lost paradise and build the wilderness into a new
Garden of Eden”.26
Since the new world would be a City upon a Hill, a model to be followed by the
rest of the world, it must be a Promised Land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
How could the early settlers change the wilderness, a relatively backward new land,
25 Paul P. Reuben Perspectives in American Literature－A Research and Reference Guide－An
Ongoing Project Chapter 1: American Puritanism: A Brief Introduction:
http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap1/1intro.html.
26 Chang Yao-xin, A Survey of American Literature (Tian Jin: Nankai University Press, 1990)16.
13
into a beacon that may shine the rest of the world? The early colonists believe that to
build a holy society that would be a model for humankind, they must do God’s work
on the earth and they “shared in what was later called the ‘Protestant ethic,’ involving
serious commitment to work...and enjoyed simple pleasures...”
27
since “ceaseless
hard work would be a sign of salvation”. 28 Therefore, hard work becomes the
national character of the United States for they believe that only hard work can make
wilderness prosperous, only prosperity can meet the requirements of God, only
prosperity can attract the rest of the world and let them enjoy the milk and honey of
the Promised Land as they themselves do.
Life in the American wilderness was nasty, brutish and short for the early settlers.
William Bradford, in his Of Plymouth Plantation (1622), wrote about the hardships
experienced by them, “Being thus passed the vast ocean, and a sea of troubles in their
preparation..., they had now no friends to wellcome (i.e. welcome) them, nor inns to
entertaine (i.e. entertain) or refresh their weatherbeaten (i.e, weather-beaten) bodys
(i.e. bodies), no houses or much less town to repair too, to seeke (i.e. seek) for succore
(i.e. succor)”29. On the other hand, diseases such as malaria, dysentery and typhoid
often attacked them and took away hundreds of lives. What is more, they had to bear
loneliness because “the great majority of immigrants were single men in their late
teens and early twenties.…Surviving males competed for the affections of the
extremely scarce women.…Most men could not find mates to marry and most
marriages were destroyed by the death of a partner within seven years”30
However, united by their desire for prosperity and their faith in God, the early
settlers struggled on and planted different seeds on this Promised Land, which has
been proved by history that after more than a hundred years of hard work, the
Americans had turned the wilderness into a prosperous country, and as an open
immigrant country, it has accepted millions of people from the rest of the world to
27 David M Kennedy, Thomas A. Bailey. Lizabeth Cohen &Mel Piehl The Brief American Pageant
(Lexington: D. C. Heath & Company, 1993) ,28.
28 Wang Zuo-liang, et al, 1992:132.
29 Kennedy, et al, 1993:40.
30 Ibid: 40.
14
seek for their dreams.
Till today, the American values that lay emphasis on individualism, hard work,
and respect to education owe very much to the Puritan beliefs.
1.4 The Great Awakenings and Edwards
Jonathan Edwards, the American theologian and Congregational clergyman, was
called as the prince of Puritanism whose sermons stir the religious revival called the
Great Awakening. One of Edwards’ most famous sermons entitled Sinners in the
Hands of an Angry God (1741) caused his congregation to raise weeping and moaning
from their seats. By 1742 the revival movement had grown out of control, for the next
60 to 70 years it had prevented American religion from any attempt of liberal
interpretation of doctrines.31
The Great Awakening was the general revival of Evangelical32 religion in the
American colonies, and reached its peak in the early 1740s. In every community, the
Great Awakening produced tension, discord, and factional rivalry, so that the religious
harmony was disrupted.
The Great Awakening had varied and to some degree contradictory effects on
American religion. In New England, Calvinism was given new life, and Jonathan
Edwards emerged as the leading orthodox theologian. However, opponents of the
revival began preaching against the orthodox doctrines of Predestination, Election,
and Original Sin. Charles Chauncy of Boston, the Congregational clergyman, for
instance, attacked revivalists’ excesses and began to advocate a theological liberalism
that eventually develops into Unitarianism. In the Middle Colonies, on the other hand,
many Scottish and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians reacted by reaffirming orthodox
doctrines which they thought were weakened by the revivalists’ emphasis on religious
experience.
31 Microsoft Encarta premium 2006 (Redmond: Microsoft Corporation).
32 Evangelical is a Christian church believing in the sole authority and inerrancy of the Bible, in salvation
only through regeneration, and in a spiritually transformed personal life. (Kingsoft Powerword 2007).
15
From the analysis above, we know that the Great Awakening movement is so
fanatic that it is beyond any other movements in the history. At present, Historians
agree that the Great Awakening is a watershed symbolizing that the United States of
America leaps into “modern age” from then on.
When the fanaticism wanes, as a consequence, many churches split into factions.
The churches for the Great Awakening are called “New Lights”, while, those against
that are called “Old Lights”. It is irony that after a few decades, the “New Lights”
develop into New England Theology which is abstruse and difficult to understand. In
contrast, the “Old Lights” are becoming free and open, finally evolve into
universalism and deism. Whether they are “New lights” or “Old lights”, they shake
the foundation of Christianity. The so-called “Religious Revival” just accelerates its
decline.33
1.5 The Spring of Deism
As the “New lights” and “Old lights” were in hot dispute, in the eighteenth
century’s burning crucible, elements of modern capitalism were decocted. A vital
problem that is often neglected is the change of western people’s view on nature.
From mankind’s perspective, the relationship between mankind and nature is
deism. Deism is, in a strict sense, a rationalist religious philosophy that flourished in
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, particularly in England. Generally, Deists
hold that a certain kind of religious knowledge (sometimes called natural religion) is
either inherent in each person or accessible through the exercise of reason, but they
deny the validity of religious claims based on revelation or on the specific teachings
of any church.
Deism emerged as a major religious and philosophical view in England. The most
prominent seventeenth-century Deists are Edward Herbert, John Toland, and Charles
Blount. All of them advocate a rationalist religion and criticize the supernatural or
33 布鲁姆等：
《美国的历程》
（上册）
，杨国标等译，(北京：商务印书馆 1995),108。
16
irrational elements in the Jewish and Christian traditions. In the early eighteenth
century, Anthony Collins, Thomas Chubb, and Matthew Tindal sharpen the rationalist
attack on orthodox by attempting to doubt the miracles and mysteries of the Bible.
Although these challenges to traditional and orthodox interpretations of
Christianity aroused much opposition, the Deists did much to establish the intellectual
climate of Europe in the eighteenth century. Their emphasis on reason and their
opposition to fanaticism and intolerance greatly influenced the English philosophers
John Locke and David Hume. In France, Voltaire, the philosopher becomes a
particularly effective proponent of Deism and intensifies his predecessors’ critiques of
Scriptures. Nonetheless, he retains the English Deists’ view that a deity certainly
exists. Some versions of Deism, approaching atheism, were advocated by many other
prominent figures of the European Enlightenment.
Deism is also influential in the late-eighteenth-century America, where Deistic
views are held by Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. The
most famous Deists in the United States are Ethan Allen and Thomas Paine. Deism in
Europe and America plays an important role both in exposing traditional religion to
rationalistic criticism and in encouraging the development of rationalistic philosophy.
Elements of the Deists’ ideas have been absorbed by Unitarianism, Modernism, and
other modern religious tendencies.
1.6 Diversity of American Religion
As time goes by, the theology has greatly liberalized in the United States. Hence,
some new churches with American characteristics come into being. These that have
had strong influence on American society will be mentioned as follows.
Mormonism which is also called The Latter-Day Saints, a major world religion of
12,000,000 members, was established in 1830 by Joseph Smith, known as the prophet.
Followers of this religion are called Mormons. From only a handful of members at the
beginning, the movement has grown steadily. By the early 2000s there were 5,500,000
17
Mormons in the United States and the number in other countries around the world
totaled about 6,500,000. Its founding doctrines are based on the assumption that
Christianity is more or less corrupt and that restoring the true Christian Gospel is
necessary. However, such a restoration requires a new revelation from God to give the
truths of Christianity in pure form. Thus, the Mormon Church is Christian as well as
restorationist in its self-definition.34
Adventists are members of a number of related Protestant sects that stress the
doctrine of the imminent second coming of Christ. Adventism received its clearest
definition and most earnest support under the leadership of an American Baptist
preacher, William Miller. Miller and his followers, known initially as Millerites,
proclaimed that the second coming would occur between March 21, 1843, and March
21, 1844. The failure of this prediction was called the First Disappointment, and many
followers left the movement. Following this, a second date—October 22, 1844—was
set, and many Adventists disposed of their property in anticipation of the event. The
movement was widely ridiculed after the day passed uneventfully. From then on,
many Adventists lost faith and returned to their former churches. Those who remained
split into four main bodies, which still continue to flourish.35
Shakers, the name applied to the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second
Coming, is a sect first heard of about 1750 in the United Kingdom. The first leaders
were James Wardley (or Wardlaw), a tailor, and Jane, his wife. They do not believe
that Jesus Christ is God, but believe that the Holy Spirit is the intermediary between
God and the world. Jane, especially, claimed to have special spiritual illumination and
to have “received a call” to go forth. From the peculiar trembling of the members at
their meetings came the name Shaking Quakers or Shakers. In 1774, Ann Lee, of
Manchester, introduced the sect in the United States. She was known as Mother Ann
to her followers, who regarded her as a female counterpart of Jesus Christ. With
Shakerism’s flourishing, by 1826, 18 new communities existed with a membership of
34 Microsoft Encarta premium 2006 (Redmond: Microsoft Corporation).
35 Ibid.
18
about 6000. These communities held property in common, practiced asceticism, and
honored celibacy above marriage. The movement diminished after 1860, and in the
early 2000s only a few members remained in a single community: Sabbathday Lake,
Maine.36
Amish, North American Christian group of Mennonite origin. The Amish have
maintained a distinctive and conservative agricultural way of life despite the
influences of modern industrial society. The name Amish is derived from Jakob
Amman, a Swiss Mennonite bishop. He insisted that discipline within the church
should be maintained by excommunication. Conventional social relationships with the
excommunicated, such as eating at the same table, buying and selling, and, in the case
of a married person, marital relations, were forbidden. The Amish, subject to
persecution in Europe, migrated in the eighteenth century to Pennsylvania, where
their descendants are called Pennsylvania Dutch (the German deutsch, “German,” was
misunderstood as “Dutch”). They then spread into Ohio, other Midwestern states, and
Canada. The most conservative are known as Old Order Amish. They dress in a
severely plain style, using hooks and eyes instead of buttons to fasten their clothes.
They ride in horse-drawn buggies instead of automobiles, and the adult males wear
beards. Religious services are held in homes; foot washing is practiced in connection
with the communion service; marriage with outsiders is condemned.37
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), American Protestant sect emerged during
the frontier revivals in the early-nineteenth-century Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Its
founders hoped to serve as a unifying force among Protestants. The Bible, particularly
the New Testament, is the sole ecclesiastical authority for the Disciples of Christ. The
founders of the Disciples were Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander Campbell.
Their followers became known popularly as Campbellites, though they preferred to be
known as Disciples of Christ.38
Plymouth Brethren, Christian sect founded in Dublin in the 1820s. The first
36 Ibid.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
19
church to be organized (1831) in England was at Plymouth. The movement rejected
the formal ritual of the established church and preached the second coming of Christ.
Churches soon appeared throughout the Great Britain and in some parts of the
continent of Europe, particularly France, Switzerland, Italy and in the United States.
John Nelson Darby, a British clergyman became the most prominent leader of the sect.
The Brethren on the continent of Europe were generally known as Darbyites. The
Brethren believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible and have no ordained,
salaried clergy. They prefer to be called simply Believers, Christian Brethren, or
Brethren. In the late 1990s, the sect had 1,150 churches and 100,000 members in the
United States.
Unitarian Universalist Association, liberal religious sect formed in 1961 by the
union of the American Unitarian Association and the Universalist Church of America.
By the mid-nineteenth century, Unitarians and Universalists held the same general
principles, with a strong emphasis on congregational independence and humanitarian
concerns. They believe that Jesus is an entity sent by God on a divine mission. Thus
the word “Unitarian” develops, meaning the oneness of God. This is the belief that no
person would be condemned by God to eternal damnation in a fiery pit. Universalists
believe that all people will be saved, i.e. universal salvation. This is the reason why
they are called Universalists.
Christian Science, a religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, in
particular the healings attributed to him in the New Testament. According to Mary
Baker Eddy, the founder of the faith, Christian Science grew out of her lifelong study
of the Bible. Eddy’s belief that God is the loving and all-powerful Father of all people
impelled her to question the fundamental reality of the evils and frailties of human life.
Eddy attributed her sudden recovery from a severe injury in 1866 to her “glimpse of
the great fact” that life is in and of Spirit (God). Eddy spent the remaining 45 years of
her life searching for a fuller understanding of her insight and its practical
applications. Throughout her search she remained convinced that salvation included
obedience to Jesus’ command to heal the sick. Eddy believed that Jesus’ healings were
20
not miraculous interruptions of natural law, but the operation of God’s power, seen as
spiritual law. Eddy taught her students that through prayer they could dispel sickness.
Thus, Christian Scientists turn to prayer rather than conventional medicine to heal
illness. When Christian Scientists need help in their prayer they often turn to
registered practitioners who work full-time in the practice of Christian Science
healing. This is called Christian Science. Some practitioners are also teachers
authorized by the church to hold classes instructing pupils in the principles of
Christian Science.39
Other organizations such as Salvation Army, Young Men’s Christian Association,
and Young Women’s Christian Association also flood fresh energy to American
Puritanism.
Other than the various churches of American Puritanism, Roman Catholicism,
Orthodox Church and Judaism can not be neglected.
1.7 Contemporary Christianity in the United States of America
Nowadays in the United States of America, religion’s power spread everywhere.
Christianity is the center of American culture and the omnipotent protection of
American people. In that country, 95 per cent of the population claim that they believe
in God. Among them, the Christian accounts for 88 per cent of the population.40 Even
presidents of the country are pious Christians. Statistics shows that 39 of the total 43
presidents in the U.S. are Christian while the rest four are closely connected with
Churches.
According to 1991 statistics, the numbers of Christian groups’ believers in the
United States are as follows:
Table1.1 Membership Statistics in 199141
39 Ibid.
40 雷雨田/著，
《上帝与美国人》(上海：上海人民出版社,1994),1。
41 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, 1991 Edition (Nashville: Abingdon Press).
21
Religious Body
Inclusive Membership
Roman Catholic Church
57，019，948
Southern Baptist Convention
14，907，926
United Methodist Church
8，979，139
Jews
5，944，000
National Baptist Convention
5，500，000
Evangelical Lutheran Church
5，238，798
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints 4，175，400
The Church of God in Christ
3，709，611
Presbyterian Church
2，886，482
By 2000, the number of Roman Catholic Church is up to 62,018,436; Southern
Baptist Convention will be increased to 15,729,356; The Church of God in Christ
develops rapidly, ranked third. Evangelical Lutheran Church ranked fourth; Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints ranked fifth.42 In comparison with the creation of
the North American colonial period, the influence of church has changed
tremendously.
However, compared with the non-Christian forces, the Christian forces in the
United States still enjoy the absolute superiority. The United States of America is
currently the world’s most powerful Christian country. Through the broad overview of
the Christian development in the United States, we can draw a conclusion that
Christianity not only influences Americans in all aspects, but is the background color
and basis of understanding the whole United States. Therefore, in order to know the
United States of America, we have to explore Christianity.
42 Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches, 2000 Edition (Nashville: Abingdon Press).
22
Chapter 2 Traces of Christianity in American Literature
T.S. Eliot, the modern poet,43 once said:
“Our art is formed and developed in the Christianity－All of our thinking are
meaningful precisely on the basis of the Christian background. Although a European
may not believe the authenticity of Christian beliefs, his words and deeds are not able
to escape entirely from the Christian culture. Furthermore, they are significantly
depending on Christianity…… Were Christianity to disappear, our entire culture
would disappear. Then you will have to start from scratch painfully, and you can not
come out a new culture.”44 In other words, whether they are for the Bible or against it,
the western authors have inner connection in spirit with the Bible.
The concept of America came into being in 1776, but the concept of American
culture and literature can be traced back to 1620, the famous ship May Flower, which
is just like the Noah’s Ark in the Bible carrying Puritans who thought they were the
selected by God fled the sinful European continent and headed for the new continents
－new paradise created by God.
As we noted in the preceding chapter, the source of American culture lies in
Puritanism. The thought of Puritanism not only permeates every inch of land,
penetrates through every inch of air in the United States, but also deposits on the soul
of American people, melts in the blood of American people, then, it exerts a subtle
influence on the ethics, values, social customs, and lifestyle of American people. With
the evolution of American society, the early “asceticism” of American Puritans comes
to yield to hedonism of modern culture.
Nevertheless, the individualism which lays emphasis on individual effort and
success may be traced back to the early Puritan pioneers and salvage by personal hard
43 T. S. Eliot (1888-1965), American-born writer, regarded as one of the greatest poets of the 20th
century. His best-known poem, The Waste Land (1922), is a devastating analysis of the society of his
time. Eliot also wrote drama and literary criticism. In his plays, which use unrhymed verse, he
attempted to revive poetic drama for the contemporary audience. His most influential criticism looked
at the way the poet should approach the act of writing. Eliot won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1948.
44 转引自 T. S.艾略特著《基督教与文化》
，杨民生,陈常锦译，
（成都：四川人民出版社 1989）
，205 -206。
23
work and diligence. Though the development of literature is increasingly diverse, the
Puritan ideals combined with various new thoughts and concepts have been expressed
in later American literature. Early American literature, whether in colonial religious
fanaticism, or the Romantic Legend in Puritan concept of Original Sin, or
Transcendentalism strengthening harmony between man and nature and the
importance of purified Puritan morals are under the influence of Puritanism, and
subsequently, whether Realism, Naturalism, the Lost Generation of American
Contemporary literature, concerning for the fate of the individuals, preferring to the
aloof and proud heroes are the characteristics that are quite different from other
countries’ literature. The figures characterized of flaunting personality and the theme
of escape are also related to Puritanism. Puritanism is just as an undercurrent hidden
in the American literature, together with other origins jointly contributes to the
Evolution of American culture. Writers are accustomed to creative writing with
Puritanism and myths. They extensively utilize the metaphor, symbol, irony,
anti-imitation and other skills and form one new myth after another to achieve the
American Dream－founding “a City upon the Hill”.
In addition, the Bible becomes the theme of American literature and the
inexhaustible source of imagery: such as God creates all things, God creates human
beings, the heaven, the Garden of Eden, Adam, Eve, eating forbidden fruit from the
Tree of Knowledge, Nemesis, the Original Sin, large-scale floods, Noah’s Ark, the
doves holding olive leaves, Babel Tower, the Chosen People, the Promised Land, etc.
These repeatedly appear in American literature to explain the theme of the works as a
presentation. In this sense, this chapter can be divided into four parts.
2.1 The Savior and Manifest Destiny
The belief that Americans are the Chosen People by God and only those specially
elected by God are saved forms Americans’ self-righteous good feeling and further
directly evolves into the concept that America is the Savior of God in the world. Such
belief can be traced back to the ship Mayflower. Just as mentioned before, the
24
colonialists landing from Mayflower drew up the Mayflower Compact, and declared
that the purpose of coming to American continent is “For the glory of God, and
advancement of the Christian faith…” In 1630, when John Winthrop, the Puritan
leader, sermonized to the immigrants, he expressed such hope that “We must consider
that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.” The sermon
indicates the beginning of American superior “Exceptionalism”, and set the tone of
American foreign policy before the establishment of the Puritan colonial towns.
Exceptionalism that they hold means that God is on the American side, the United
States represents progress and the best social model of the future world.
In 1760, Benjamin Franklin said in the letter to Lord Kames: “I have long been of
opinion, that the foundations of the future grandeur and stability of the British Empire
lie in America ...”45 This is in accordance with George Berkeley’s theory. George
Berkeley is perhaps best known for his 1726 poem America: A Prophesy.46 The poem
is widely credited with inspiring the doctrine of “Manifest Destiny,” the concept that
the United States has a sacred mission to expand to the edge of the Pacific Ocean,
bringing enlightenment and “democracy” to the “savages” of the West. The
inspiration is based on the poem’s final stanza:
Westward the course of empire takes its way;
The four first acts already past.
A fifth shall close the drama with the day;
Time’s noblest offspring is the last.47
The Manifest Destiny Theory makes people believe in the 1840’s the Americans
should be predestined territorial expansion to the Pacific Coast or the entire North
American continent. Internal expansion is expressed in the Westward Movement,
while the external expansion is plundering the overseas colonies. They consider
themselves as saviors, the expansion as a mission. Therefore, the Americans
themselves shoulder a God-given “mission” that spreads the Christian civilization and
45 Henry Nash Smith Virgin land (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1971), 8.
46 George Berkeley America: A Prophesy
http://uic.edu/~hilbert/Images%20of%20Berkeley/Berk_life.htm.
47 Ibid.
25
the Christian Gospel to the whole world. All countries should follow the United
States’ mode on the developing road. The thoughts of the “Savior” and “sense of
mission” are handed down from generation to generation and deep-rooted in the spirit
of the United States. Furthermore, the root of the outbreak of current Iraq wars can be
found here.
● The American Myth Made by Puritans
“In a certain sense, the fundamental spirit of North American colonial literature
is to understand, explain and participate in the process of colonization according to
Puritanism.”48 Puritanism brings North American the Gospel of God. They not only
create God’s country, but also cultivate its own national spirit, national beliefs and
national self-confidence. Here is nothing but a place that dream can start and come
into reality. It is not only a time of fulfilling dreams, but also a time full of passion.
All the ideals and fantasies can be realized here. The purpose of Puritans is to
establish a New Canaan in the American continent, let people live on the earth,
dreaming of paradise. God is always with the United States, and always favors the
Americans. All the hardships and difficulties under the halo of God’s glory are
overshadowed. American dreams are inspired by the myth that the United States are
under the God bless. At different times, different American dreams display in
different faces in front of every aggressive American. Such as dream of pioneering,
dream of border land, dream of religious freedom, dream of political democracy,
dream of material pleasures…... Between the God’s mission and the dreams, the
American spirit and the American character are gradually shaped, which eventually
constitute individualism and idealism that are characteristic of self-publicity,
pioneering, equality and optimism. In the history of American literature such heroes
can be found everywhere.
Philip Freneau, the most influential poet in his poem A poem, on the rising glory
of America said:
48 刘海平，王守仁/著，
《新编美国文学史 第一卷》
（上海：上海外语教育出版社，2003）
，51。
26
A new Jerusalem sent down from heav’n
Shall grace our happy earth, perhaps this land,
Whose virgin bosom shall then receive, tho’ late,
Myriads of saints with their almighty king,
To live and reign on earth a thousand years
Thence call’d Millennium. Paradise a new
Shall flourish, by no second Adam lost….49
The poem is the best explanation as the colonizers and immigrants consider the
North American continent as “their own land” that God gives. They are endowed with
God’s mission and vocation. With the further development of the colonial society,
politics, economy, and culture, Puritanism as a religion is constantly subjected to
various challenges, and ultimately withdraws from the stage of history. However, the
view of the North American continent stemmed from the Puritanism deeply roots in
the consciousness of immigrants, and finally becomes the foundation of the American
“founding myth”.
● The Concept of Savior and Idealism in American Literature
With the dream of freedom of religion and belief, the United States immigrants
came to the New World to expand the geographical frontiers, at the same time, fought
for the social and cultural development of the new frontier. During the American War
of Independence, the founders of the United States of America “have” accepted the
Puritans’ concept of the West. John Adams, Timothy Dwight, John Tytler, and other
revolutionists not only combined a new dream of the West with Puritans’ thought of
“the New Canaan”, but also with the idea of “free, rational and with the light of the
Republican”. Freedom and democracy become their new unshakable dreams,
especially after the victory of the North American War of Independence. James
49 Hugh Henry Brackenridge A Poem, on the Rising Glory of America:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-poem-on-the-rising-glory-of-america/.
27
Fenimore Cooper, who is universally recognized as the first American novelist,
achieves his worldwide reputation through the publication of the five-volume
Leather-Stocking
Tales
provides
us
a
representative
of
early
pioneers.
Leather-Stocking is the nickname of the hero Natty Bumbo. Huckleberry Finn in the
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn written by Mark Twin is a little hero who subverts
the unequal racialism. Such kind of heroes can be found everywhere in American
literature.
2.2 Temptation and Choice
The conflicts between God and Satan, God and the faithless human being, God’s
Angels and fallen Angels (demons and evil spirits), well doers and villains are
expressed in every aspect. In terms of setting: heaven vs. hell; in terms of people’s
minds, the God’s will vs. the temptation of devils; in terms of action, abiding by
God’s wishes vs. rebelling God’s will. It embodies bipolar conflicts in human
experience: sense and sensibility, rules and vitality, order and impulsion. A main
theme in the Biblical literature is the problem of relationship between Divine and
human being. God explicitly demands a variety of requests while Satan and evil
forces similarly make contrary requests. In other words, there is no neutral between
them. Human beings have to obey or betray without other choice. Hence, such choice
or confrontation becomes the general theme of the literature, and is expressed in
various ways.
● On the Scale of God’s Will and Devil’s Temptation
The conflicts between God’s will and the devil’s temptation are expressed in
human soul as challenges and tests for human nature. Desire and morality, sense and
sensibility, good and evil constitute the two extremes of human nature. And the
eternal conflicts are the theme of any literature. The American literature that is
constantly seeking for “ego” under the Christian background is not an exception.
Early American fiction mainly has three modes: sentiment and sensibility in the
28
service of moral instruction, picaresque, and adventure, gothic modes of fiction. The
fiction of sentiment and morality was influenced by Samuel Richardson，the English
author.50 Richardson’s dominance determined that the bulk of early American fiction
would be didactic in purpose, sentimental in tone, and sensational in materials.51
The Power of Sympathy written by William Brown, is regarded as the first
American novel. One of the novel’s stories of seduction mirrored a scandal taking
place in Boston. His character Ophelia reflects Frances Apthorp, a woman who
engaged in an affair with her brother-in-law, named “Martin” in Brown’s novel, and
eventually commits suicide. Another character Harriot Faucet falls in love with
Thomas Harrington who is her own brother with different mother. Soon after, she
commits suicide. Harrington follows suit, taking his own life out of depression from
lost love and his frustration in falling for his own sister. The author interestingly
includes incest once again as a terrible consequence of blind seduction.
The Coquette by Hannah Foster is worth mentioning most. Ms Elizabeth
Whitman, the daughter of a clergyman gives birth to a stillborn, illegitimate child at a
roadside tavern. She refuses to reveal the father’s name, and also refuses to marry two
men of wealth. Though she is seduced, she assumes all penalties. Her self-esteem,
independence and equality are displayed, which is beyond the religious and moral
condemnation. Elizabeth Whitman is the precedent of Hester, the heroine in The
Scarlet Letter.
With the increasing maturation of American literature, such simple structure and
plot gradually become complex and abundant. The expression of conflicts between
god’s will and devil’s seduction is diversity. People have new understanding of the
traditional Puritan morality particularly after the two World Wars. On the one hand,
Americans in the long process of historical and cultural accumulation are still
pursuing their American dreams; on the other hand, they concern more about human
nature. Morality that confirms to humanity is real morality. That is the reason why the
50 Samuel Richardson (1869-1761), the author of Pamela.
51 Emory Elliott Columbia Literary History of the United States Part 1 (New York: Columbia University
Press, 1988), 170.
29
god’s will and devil’s temptation are always closely integrated and why contemporary
writers are still fond of investigating such theme inexhaustibly.
● Idealists beyond Material Temptation
The idealism embodied in the blood of American contributes to rebel heroes’
emergence in every time of American history. Didacticists and transcendentalists are
rebel heroes who exceed material temptation during the period of the start and the
development of Capitalism in American history. After the American War of
Independence, facing the boundless, mysterious frontiers and wilderness, American
writers change their theme. Though the politically independent America longs for the
ideal of “a City upon a Hill” and “the Hope Land”, and indulges in the success of
entire breakup with the old world, the early philosophers and saints fall into a mental
panic because of the cultural blanks. Hence, they lament the cultural legacy of the old
world, and meditate the mysterious nature. Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne are representatives of this mood.
Especially, Thoreau in his Walden escapes and resists material temptation while other
people at that time blindly chase material enjoyment.
Emily Dickenson, as a firm idealist, fearing that she would be misunderstood,
published only seven poems during her lifetime. After her death, Dickinson has come
to be considered as perhaps the greatest female poet since Sappho. Her over 1800
poems inspire later generation with optimistic and upbeat mood.
Herman Melville is the writer struggling between temptation and choice. There
are two groups in his novels Typee, Omoo, and Mardi and his masterpiece Moby Dick:
good men fight against villains, God against Devil, will against soul－without a
compromise, which let him plunge into pessimism and predestination. He is a realist
as he embodies the rebel spirit that transcendentalism endows him. Transcendentalism
believes that the world and God are as a whole, everyone has an inherent divine
nature, and the interpersonal relationships are essentially equal. Everyone can find
that there is a God in their hearts through introspection, at the same time
30
Transcendentalism expresses doubts about all religions and secular authorities. This
provides theoretical basis for American individualism. The large number of
Transcendentalists and the spirit of individualism encourage writers of Realism and
Naturalism to dedicate to the eternal ideals persistently.
2.3 Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained
Just as it has been mentioned, since first Puritans settled in America, they begin to
understand their life and history in an entirely new perspective. They regard Europe as
the Old World and the newly found America as their Promised Land, themselves as
new Israelis. With the independence of America from England in the late eighteenth
century, American sense of separation from the old world and their emancipation are
radically intensified and the view of American life and history as an entirely new
beginning becomes more prevalent than ever before. The authentic America, at that
time, was conceived as “a figure of heroic innocence and vast potentialities, poised at
the start of a new history”. For a Bible-reading nineteenth century, this conception of
their national personality was easily identified with the image of “Adam”, who “was
the first archetypal man and fundamentally innocent” and their territory was naturally
related with “The Garden of Eden”. This Adamic-Edenic self-conception pervades all
levels of American culture at that time and becomes a dominating image in the
American literary imagination. It creates many Adamic characters in American
literature such as James Fenimore Cooper’s Natty Bumbo, Mark Twain’s Huck Finn
that we have mentioned before, Melville’s Billy Budd, and Henry James’ Newman,
Isabel Archer. James even names his hero directly as Adam in his final novel The
Golden Bowl. However, since these literary characters are imagined to be various
Adams, then, at the same time, they must face various “falls”, as their archetype
suffers in the Garden of Eden, that is to say, they all have to leave their Garden of
Eden, experience the world and confront evils. The story of Adamic character and his
“fall” thus become a popular model of narration in the nineteenth-century American
literature.
31
As a matter of fact, God in the Bible arranges two “Gardens of Eden” for human
beings. Some people only pay attention to the “Garden of Eden” in Genesis without
taking notice of the implicit description of the Garden of Eden in Jeremiah.52 As for
the description, there is no difference, but the way to go there is different: “Garden of
Eden” in the Genesis is the paradise founded by God, that is to say, at that time God
constructs the Garden of Eden for mankind without any extra conditions; while
“Garden of Eden” in Jeremiah is acquired only after painful sufferings and efforts. It
is because Adam and Eve have eaten the forbidden fruit at that time, people begin to
commit crimes. To punish crimes committed by human beings, firstly, God let
Jeremiah send prophecy to mankind, and let Jeremiah tell people: in order to access
the “Garden of Eden”, human beings must pay. Secondly, the two “Gardens of Eden”
are touchstones of human nature. Thirdly, in the Bible, “Garden of Eden” in the
Genesis is “reality” which had happened; while the “Garden of Eden” in Jeremiah is
the promise of future. In American history, Garden of Eden built on good natural
conditions in the Southern United States is the God-given and without extra
conditions. And then, after the United States army defeated the Great Britain in 1812,
during the period of westward expansion, the garden that people are yearning for in
the western United States is the “Garden of Eden” in Jeremiah.
Walt Whitman was one of the writers to sing for the latter Garden of Eden. He
believes that the journey towards the west signifies that the whole humanity
ultimately return to their spiritual home. Whitman, in his collection of poems Leaves
of Grass has mentioned the mission of the American people and in order to prove the
sacred mission of the United States, it will ultimately be realized in the west, he said
that “the future generations of Adam: went to the West ... ( they) came from God, from
the saints, from the hero, ...” it is obviously that Whitman regards the American nation
as God’s Chosen People, are sent by God to fulfill the mission of building the new
Garden of Eden.
52 Genesis Chapter 2 and the Book of Jeremiah Chapter 17,31 ,11:
http://www.mybiblescripture.com/Bible/l_op=ShowBible/cid=2/trans=KJV.html.
http://www.mybiblescripture.com/Bible/l_op=ShowBible/cid=26/trans=KJV.html.
32
2.4 The Pure and the Sophisticated
● Growing Pains
Europe is a permanent pain to the growing United States, the complex just as
Oedipus loves and envies his mother gnaws at Americans. For the sake of breaking
away from the “mother”, the United States strongly display self-optimism and
naiveness. By contrast, Europe is a synonym of sophistication and depravity. As early
as the founding of the republic country, in Letters from an American Farmer written
by Michel-Guillaume Jean de Crevecoeur, the French immigrant, Europe has become
degraded Adam in Americans’ mind. The confrontation between the United States
and Europe is like that of the new paradise and old Paradise. The United States
represents the Holy Land of Canaan and opportunity that people escape from the
corruption of the aging Europe. Furthermore, what it is not able to do in Europe seems
that it can be done in the United States. The Letters from an American Farmer is
considered as the source of national consciousness of the United States.
In the nineteenth century, the literature tradition is continuing. Henry James, the
great master of American literature, traveled in the Europe. As an American writer
living in Europe, his theme is the opposition of new Adam and old Adam, that is,
conflicts between the pure and straightforward America “new men” with the elegant
but sophisticated Europeans. Daisy Miller (1879) is one of James’ masterpieces, in the
novel, Daisy, the young and innocent American, finds her values in conflict with
European sophistication and Isabel Archer in The Portrait of a Lady (1881) becomes a
victim during her travels in Europe. Isabel perfectly shows Americans’ immatureness
and straightforwardness, as a growing American “new man”, though she unfortunately
plunges into the sophisticated culture which brings disappointment to her, she finally
experiences the growing pains, and gradually becomes mature.
Such themes that describe the contradiction that they both love and hate Europe
become the deep-rooted psychological obstacle of the United States.
33
● Pure Asking
The nineteenth century is the time that American literature discovers self,
displays self, and transcends self. Shortly after the American War of Independence,
the famous Lexicographer, patriot Noah Webster points out: the United States should
also seek independence in literature. American idealism and optimism stem from
these. before Ralph Waldo Emerson, though the writers of Romanticism such as
James Fennimore Cooper and Washington Irving has emerged in American literature,
but by that time the dominant culture in the United States is ‘overseas imports’ from
the United Kingdom. Many writers living in the United States simply copy European
models without taking root in American life and emotions.
Then comes Transcendentalism－the summit of American Romanticism as the
result of the pure－American literature deviating from the sophisticated－European
literature. Nature written by Ralph Waldo Emerson in 1836 is regarded as the Bible of
New England’s Transcendentalism. Emerson advocates a direct intuition of a spiritual
and immanent God in nature. In his opinion, man is made in the image of God and is
just a little less than Him. His Nature records his “moment of ecstasy”, the moment of
losing one’s individuality.53
Nature as the symbol of God, in the eyes of Emerson,“is the vehicle of thought,”
and “particular natural facts are symbols of particular spiritual facts”. Thus everything
bears a secondary and an ulterior sense. A flowing river indicates the ceaseless motion
of the universe. The seasons correspond to the life span of man. The ant is the image
of man himself, small in body but mighty in heart. This is why Emerson calls his most
important work Nature rather than anything else.54 Emerson advocates that American
writers should write about America itself and right now. America itself is a long poem
that is worthy of celebrating. The transcendental ideas cause the outbreak of a strong
self-awareness in American literature, which plays a decisive role in repositioning
53 Ralph Waldo Emerson(1803-1882) English-e-corner.com:
http://www.english-e-corner.com/americanlit/contents/Authors/Emerson.htm.
54 Ibid.
34
American literature. Since the spring of Transcendentalism, American literature
possesses distinctive characteristics. Transcendentalism not only has great impact on
American literature, but also on the writings of the members of the group, and on such
diverse authors that we have mentioned as Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman.
Since that time, American literature has become totally independent from Europe.
However, in the long march of creating their own Garden of Eden, Americans are
sentimentally attached to the Europe. Hence, the identity issue－that is pure asking
“who I am”－is another permanent theme in American literature.
In the thesis, the two authors Hawthorne and Melville are particularly referred to
because they are profoundly influenced by Christianity from which they gain the
inspiration for their work. Through their works we are able to know more about the
influence of Christianity.
35
Chapter 3 Interpretations of Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter
with Reference to Christianity
Leslie Fiedler,55 the author of Love and Death in the American Novel (1960) has
inspired a generation of critics to read established greats like Herman Melville and
Nathaniel Hawthorne with new lights. In this thesis, the author tries to make her own
investigation.
3.1 Biblical Archetypes and Moralities in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick
Herman Melville, one of the greatest American novelists, is best known for Moby
Dick (1851)，or the Whale. Unfortunately his work was only recognized as a
masterpiece 30 years after his death.
The central story of Moby Dick is the conflict between Captain Ahab, the master
of the whaler Pequod, and Moby Dick. The narrator of the story is Ishmael, a seaman
aboard the Pequod, who finds Ahab mysterious and frightening. Ahab is robust and
capable, but unfortunately lost a leg in a voyage by a great white whale known as
Moby Dick. Depressed all daylong, he is thinking to revenge. During the voyage
Ahab reveals to his crew that he seeks revenge upon Moby Dick. From this point the
voyage becomes a pursuit: Ahab drives himself and his crew over the seas in a
desperate search for his enemy. When the whale is at last sighted and attacked, it rams
the ship, killing Ahab and all of the crew except Ishmael. He alone is rescued to tell
the tale of Moby Dick, Ahab and the Pequod, “which, like Satan, would not sink to
hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her.”(Moby Dick: 469)
Moby Dick, or, The White Whale is a book of amazing depth. It can be read on
several levels: for over a century it has charmed young readers, naturalists, historians
and literary scholars alike. On the surface, it is both an adventure story set upon the
high seas and a compendium of information about whales and the whaling industry.
But the reader who searches more deeply discovers both a complex psychological
55 Leslie Fiedler (1917-2003), an American literary critic.
36
study and a powerful allegory dealing with the archetypes of good and evil struggling
together within the tenets of nineteenth-century Calvinism.56
Melville endeavors to expose the invisible forces of the universe and the effects
of these forces on human being. In Moby Dick, he recognizes the power of both God
and Devil.
3.1.1 Biblical Archetypes
Narrator: Ishmael
Ishmael as an outcast and wanderer is typically indicated here, which is identified
with his archetypal figure Ishmael in the Bible: Abraham’s wife Sarah has not born
him any children. But she has an Egyptian slave girl named Hagar, so she asks
Abraham to have a child by Hagar. When she finds out she is pregnant, Hagar
becomes proud and despises Sarah. Sarah becomes angry with Hagar. And then she
treats Hagar so cruelly that Hagar runs away.
The angel of the Lord meets Hagar at a spring in the desert on the road to Shur
and says, “Hagar, slave of Sarah, where have you come from and where are you
going?” She answers, “I am running away from my mistress.” The angle tells her, “Go
back to her and be her slave.” Then he says, “I will give you so many descendants that
no one will be able to count them. You are going to have a son, and you will name
him Ishmael, because the Lord has heard your cry of distress. But your son will live
like a wild donkey; he will be against everyone, and everyone will be against him. He
will live apart from all his relatives.” Hagar bears Abraham a son, and he names him
Ishmael.57
The Lord blesses Sarah and Abraham. She becomes pregnant and gives birth to a
son Isaac to Abraham. One day, Ishmael is playing with Isaac, Sarah sees them and
says to Abraham, “Send this slave and her son away. The son of this woman must not
56 Moby Dick By Helman Melville (1819-1891) Studyarea.com’s Free Essays Site:
http://essay.studyarea.com/cgi-bin/essay/Essay_board.cgi?quote=not_empty&az=post&forum=Book
_Report&om=136&omm=0.
57 Genesis 16.
37
get any part of your wealth, which my son Isaac should inherit.” This troubles
Abraham very much, because Ishmael also is his son. But God says to Abraham,
“Don’t be worried about the boy and your slave Hagar. Do whatever Sarah tells you,
because it is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I have promised, I will
also give many children to the son of the slave girl, so that they will become a nation.
He too is your son.”
Early the next morning, Abraham gives Hagar some food and a leather bag full of
water. He puts the child on her back and sends her away. She leaves and wanders
about in the wilderness of Beersheba. When water is all gone, she leaves the child
under a bush and sits down about a hundred yards away. She says to herself, “I can’t
bear to see my child die.” While she is sitting there, she begins to cry.
God hears the boy crying, and from heaven the angel of God speaks to Hagar,
“What is it that’s troubling you, Hagar? Don’t be afraid. God has heard the boy crying.
Get up, go and pick him up, and comfort him. I will make a great nation out of his
descendants.” Then God opens her eyes, and she sees a well. She goes and fills the
leather bag with water and gives some to the boy. God is with the boy as he grows up;
he lives in the wilderness of Param and becomes a skillful hunter. His mother gets an
Egyptian wife for him.58
After reviewing Ishmael, we can see that first of all, he is the archetypal pariah of
biblical tradition. But although he is the illegitimate son of Abraham, his name, is
translated as “God hears” according to nineteenth-century biblical scholars; God
indeed blesses him and makes him fruitful. In brief, Ishmael is an outcast beloved of
God.
When Melville takes the name of the blessed pariah, the outcast beloved of God,
and when he first write the name “Ishmael” into his manuscript, we can see that
narrator Ishmael is indeed like his archetype. At the beginning, Ishmael in the novel is
in despair, hoping to find a place where he can live a happy and ideal life. So he
decides to get to sea as soon as he can. Just like his archetypal character, God has
heard his cry of distress, too. It follows that God makes Ishmael encounter Queequeg
58 Genesis 21.
38
before he goes to sea. They sleep in the same bed. At first, he is afraid of Queequeg,
whom he calls an infernal harpooner, a cannibal. Waking up next morning, he finds
Queequeg’s arm throwing over him in the most loving and affectionate manner. His
bridegroom clasp warms Ishmael’s heart.
Ishmael thought that:
…I saw the traces of a simple honest heart; and in his large, deep eyes, fiery
black and bold, there seemed tokens of a spirit that would dare a thousand devils. And
besides all this, there was a certain lofty bearing about the Pagan, which even his
uncouthness could not altogether maim. He looked like a man who had never cringed
and never had had a creditor. Whether it was, too, that his head being shaved, his
forehead was drawn out in freer and brighter relief, and looked more expansive than
it otherwise would, this I will not venture to decide; but certain it was his head was
phrenologically an excellent one. It may seem ridiculous, but it reminded me of
General Washington’s head, as seen in the popular busts of him. It had the same long
regularly graded retreating slope from above the brows, which were likewise very
projecting, like two long promontories thickly wooded on top. Queequeg was George
Washington cannibalistically developed. (Moby Dick: 52)
This soothing savage redeems his heart.
“There he sat, his very indifference speaking a nature in which there lurked no
civilized hypocrisies and bland deceits” (Moby Dick: 53).
After pleasant, genial smoke, they become bosom friends. They lie in bed with
confidential disclosures. That is, they open the very bottom of their souls to each other.
Thus, Ishmael and Queegqueg－cosy, loving pair, are in their hearts’ honeymoon. As
a result, he reconciles to make a friend with Queequeg. He is no more alone, begins to
love life again before he goes to sea. Ishmael is beloved by God just like his
counterpart. Therefore, Ishmael echoes his biblical archetype.
Evidently, Ishmael in Moby Dick－that the image of the rescued wanderer is in
accordance with the “vagrant and abandoned” image and luckier in the Bible.
The hero－Ahab
39
Ahab is first of all a sea captain of the nineteenth century, excessive in command
because of his injured body. But from the beginning, the presentation of Ahab will not
allow such simplification.
In Chapter l6, “The Ship,” Captain Bildad tells Ishmael that Captain Ahab of
Pequod “is a grand, ungodly, god-like man” (Moby Dick: 76) and “Ahab of old, thou
knowest, was a crowned king!” Before Ahab was born there were prophecies of some
extraordinary destiny, which caused his mother to name him Ahab. At last, Captain
Bildad adds, “he happens to have a wicked name” (Moby Dick: 77).
It is this double images that narrator Ishmael proposes to the reader. What does a
reader think of Captain Ahab’s name? It is certain that he will remember the biblical
account of King Ahab, in The First Book of Kings. He marries Jezebel, who is not an
Israel and worships Baal. He builds a temple to Baal in Samaria, makes an altar for
him, and puts it in the temple for God. He also puts up an image of goddess Asherah.
He does more to arouse the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than all the kings of
Israel prior to him. King Ahab is indeed one of the most arrogant self-asserters among
Israelite rulers. According to the doctrines of Christianity, man can only worship the
Lord of God; man is sinful and should be humble and be obedient to God; man’s
greatest flaw is arrogance. Therefore man’s arrogance is a kind of sin and should be
condemned. Here what the Bible strongly condemns are King Ahab’s idolatry,
arrogance and disobedience to God.
Prophet: Elijah
Though the old sailor Elijah is not the main character, but impressive. When
Ishmael just boards the Pequod, he meets the old sailor Elijah, who warns him to
beware of Ahab, the veiled words imply that the fate of the crew.
In the Bible, a prophet named Elijah, warns King Ahab, “In the name of the Lord,
the living God of Israel, whom I serve, I tell you that there will be no dew or rain for
the next two or three years until I say so.” After some time, in the third year of the
drought, Elijah goes to see King Ahab under the orders of God. When Ahab sees him,
he says, “So there you are the worst troublemaker in Israel!” “I am not the
40
troublemaker,” Elijah answers. “Both you and your father are. You are disobeying the
Lord’s commands and worshiping the idols of Baal. Now order all the people of Israel
to meet me at Mount Carmel. Bring along the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400
prophets of the goddess Asherah who are supported by Queen Jezebel.” After a
competition for praying rain, Elijah wins victory. He orders the people of Israel to kill
all the prophets of Baal. King Ahab tells his wife Jezebel everything that Elijah has
done and how he has put all the prophets of Baals to death. She sends a message that
she will kill Elijah and Elijah flees for his life.
There is another prophecy made by the prophet Elijah to King Ahab. King Ahab
covets Naboth’s vineyard, so his queen Jezebel brings false witnesses to accuse
Naboth of treason and sacrilege－of speaking evil of the king and cursing God－and
he was found guilty. Hence, Naboth is taken out of the city of Jezreel and stoned to
death. Knowing the truth, the prophet personally accuses Ahab, and tells Ahab that he
has been sinful. He and Jezebel and their descendants will suffer horribly because of
their wickedness. Later on, his prediction has come true.59 The old sailor in Moby
Dick has an insight into the world. Though he does not confront with the captain Ahab,
his vague language foretells the ultimate destiny of Ahab and the Pequod.
Other Minor Characters
Except Elijah, there include Blidad, the owner of Pequod and Gabriel, the whaler
of Jeroboam. Blidad stems from “Blidad, from the land of Shuah in The Book of Job”
and is one of Job’s three Friends. He is more orthodox and firmly believes God’s
impartiality, and has ever advised Job to have faith and trust in God, the reason why
Job and his family suffer disasters is the guilt they had committed. The almighty
caritative God will wrong the innocent. While, Blidad in Moby Dick is also a devout
Christian and he studys the Bible everyday. When he encounters others, he delivers
sermons to them. Ironically, such a person is so greedy to make a fortune in the
59 The Kings 21 the Bible.
41
whaling industry without sparing any business opportunities.
The appearance of Gabriel accompanies with strong religious atmosphere. He
carries a large bowl, calling himself “the Ocean Savior”, and the white whale is the
embodiment of god. He warns the captain not to provoke it.
“Gabriel solemnly warned the captain against attacking the white whale, in case
the monster should be seen; in his gibbering insanity, pronouncing the White Whale to
be no less a being than the Shaker God incarnated; the Shakers receiving the
Bible.”(Moby Dick: 267)
That the chief mate Simeon Macey violates the taboo to attack Moby Dick
contributes to his death at sea.
“But when, some year or two afterwards, Moby Dick was fairly sighted from
the mast-heads, Macey, the chief mate, burned with ardor to encounter him; and the
captain himself being not unwilling to let him have the opportunity, despite all the
archangel’s denunciations and forewarnings, Macey succeeded in persuading five
men to man his boat. With them he pushed off; and, after much weary pulling, and
many perilous, unsuccessful onsets, he at last succeeded in getting one iron fast.
Meantime, Gabriel, ascending to the main-royal mast-head, was tossing one arm in
frantic gestures, and hurling forth prophecies of speedy doom to the sacrilegious
assailants of his divinity. Now, while Macey, the mate, was standing up in his boat’s
bow, and with all the reckless energy of his tribe was venting his wild exclamations
upon the whale, and essaying to get a fair chance for his poised lance, lo! a broad
white shadow rose from the sea; by its quick, fanning motion, temporarily taking the
breath out of the bodies of the oarsmen. Next instant, the luckless mate, so full of
furious life, was smitten bodily into the air, and making a long arc in his descent, fell
into the sea at the distance of about fifty yards. Not a chip of the boat was harmed,
nor a hair of any oarsman’s head; but the mate for ever sank.” (Moby Dick: 268)
Gabriel in the name of archangel makes a judge: hunting for the white whale is
offensive to the gods; the whaler’s death at sea is the evidence of God’s punishment.
42
In this way, the relationship between Ahab and his crew and the deified Moby Dick
rises to a human-Devine relationship. Melville intends to utilize the two concepts－
the “punishment” and “trial” to portray Gabriel who is ordered to break the seven
bowls, dropping disasters to punish sinners.
The above “prototype citation” from the Bible constitutes pedigree relationship
between the main characters in Moby Dick. Comparing the figures with the same
names we will find their fates are similar. Hence, it is evident to illustrate the writer’s
Christian faith, fraternity and predestination.
3.1.2 The Christian Moralities
Herman Melville grew in a Christian family, deeply under the influence of
Christianity and with deep-rooted feeling of God. In the book, by means of the
narrator Ishmael’s narration, he admits that: “I was a good Christian; born and bred in
the bosom of the infallible Presbyterian Church.” (Moby Dick: 54) Melville firmly
believes that only God is eternally omnipresent, people’s all activities are to
implement God’s wishes. Therefore, he has strong faith in Christian Predestination,
fraternity, and other ethical standards.
Predestination
Predestination is defined as the act of predestinating, which is an action of God－
who is eternal and foreordains what comes to pass on earth. Opinions vary on the idea.
However, The Old Testament starts with, “In the beginning, God…” This is an
unambiguous statement. God existed before, continues to exist and will always exist
(Revelation 1:4). God has the sovereign right of creation over the earth and man and
He makes no apologies for saying, “Thus saith the Lord!” This statement does not
require man’s understanding or acceptance to be true.
“The truth of predestination is wrapped up in the very character of God.

God is sovereign, which means that He has absolute authority over all that
He has created and He has created “all things”. (Genesis 1:1)
43

God is omniscient, meaning that He has all knowledge and without Him no
knowledge exists. (Job 37:16)

God is omnipresent, giving Him the ability to be everywhere at one time.
(Psalm 139:1-12)

God is omnipotent, which means that God is all-powerful with a
determination to carry out His purpose and plan throughout time into
eternity. (1 Chronicles 29:11 ).”60
Christianity preaches “Predestination”, and argues that life is a sin and man is
sinful. Because of man’s sinfulness, he is unable to understand God, seek God, or do
any thing good. Hence the only way is to cast one’s bread upon the waters to win the
forgiving of the Almighty God, the afterlife can be relieved. As fate has been
predestined, devout Christians will have to completely obey God’s will.
In Moby Dick, Ishmael, the captain Ahab, Elijah, Blidad and others seem to have
been designated by the images of the same name in the Bible. Their destinies
virtually follow along the predetermined orbits: Ishmael, the whaler just like Hagar
and her son in the Bible, drifts from place to place, homeless and miserable, and at the
moment of life and death is rescued by the God; Captain Ahab who is inherited the
“genes” of king Ahab who is arrogant and disobedient to God, and eventually dies at
sea; Elijah, the old sailor is enigmatic as the prophet Elijah, predicts the fate of the
crew of Pequod long before the disaster; Blidad－the owner of Pequod is like one of
the Job’s three Friends, devote themselves to studying The Bible, and spreading
Gospel everywhere.
Fraternity
Fraternity is an important principle in the Christian morality. Melville believes
that God loves all people; personal interests are built on the basis of benefiting others.
Therefore, people should examine interpersonal relationship from the perspective of
the whole mankind. Only love can be loved by others. Through Moby Dick, he tells us
that people should help each other without bearing a grudge as it is between the
60 Predestination－Foreknowledge All About God.com:
http://www.allaboutgod.com/predestination.htm.
44
Christian Ishmael and pagan Queequeg, regardless of race, colour, and class. From
this, we know that Melville advocates an international and a global love.
Communication is like the bridge extending in all directions, can communicate people
of different countries. Only seeing the advantages and strengths of others, can we
build truly friendly relations and can we be filled with love between each other.
Melville has created distinctive images and the characters in Moby Dick on the
basis of the Bible. Through his masterpiece, he propagates Christian predestination,
fraternity. On the one hand, this lets us have better understanding of Christianity; on
the other hand, it is a good example to show the influence of Christianity on American
literature.
3.2 Ambiguities in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter
As Melville’s friend, Nathaniel Hawthorne was born on July 4, 1804 in Salem,
Massachusetts, descendant of a prominent Puritan family. The Scarlet Letter, just like
his other works, is deeply concerned with ethical problems of sin, punishment, and
atonement. Hawthorne’s exploration of these themes is related to the sense of guilt he
feels about the roles of his ancestors in the seventeenth century persecution of
Quakers and witchcraft trials of Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. In the novel of The
Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne turns back to the age of his first American ancestor for a
historical background against which to display a tragic drama of guilt－revealed and
concealed, real and imaginative－and its effects on those touched by the guilt. Few
works in all literatures equal The Scarlet Letter in intensity, compression and effective
use of images and symbols.61
The background of the story is set in Salem, Massachusetts. In this strictly
controlled Puritan town, the inhabitants live by harsh laws and fierce prejudices.
Hester Prynne, a young wife whose husband is presumed dead, is being publicly
humiliated for the sin of adultery. The proof of her sin is her baby girl Pearl. She
conceals the identity of Pearl’s father to protect him from the harsh judgment of
61 Symbolism in the Scarlet Letter Chuck III College Resources Inc:
http://www.chuckiii.com/Reports/Book_Reports/Symbolism_in_the_Scarlet_Letter.shtml.
45
Puritan law. However, she is doomed to spend the rest of her life marked as an
adulterer by wearing a scarlet “A” on her chest. At the same time, Hester’s husband
has arrived in the colony and taken up practice as a doctor. He makes Hester promise
that she will not reveal his identity to anyone. The book covers a seven-year period
during which nobody knows the father. It is Arthur Dimmesdale, the Reverend, who is
renowned as a holy and pious man. Wracked by guilt, he starts to show outward signs
of serious illness. Under the assumed name of Roger Chillingworth, Hester’s husband
moves in and begins taking care of Dimmesdale. Chillingworth soon discovers that
the Reverend is Pearl’s father. However, Dimmesdale thinks that Chillingworth is
simply a doctor. Chillingworth utilizes his influence to multiply the feelings of guilt in
the minister while trying to keep him in physical health, as a form of emotional torture.
At the climax of the story, Dimmesdale confesses his sin and dies. Hester and Pearl
leave the colony. Chillingworth, whose purpose was to get revenge from Dimmesdale,
suddenly finds his life without purpose and dies within a year.
3.2.1 The Expressions of Ambiguity
●Wild Rose
Though the image of wild rose appeared many times, Hawthorne does not
explicitly refer to it. In this way, its multiple meanings are exposed to us together. In
Chapter 1 The Prison-Door we will be dragged in the ambiguous world:
“But, on one side of the portal, and rooted almost at the threshold, was a wild
rose-bush, covered, in this month of June, with its delicate gems, which might be
imagined to offer their fragrance and fragile beauty to the prisoner as he went in, and
to the condemned criminal as he came forth to his doom, in token that the deep heart
of Nature could pity and be kind to him.” (The Scarlet Letter: 48)
Here the wild roses imply nature and beauty usually giving people comfort and
consolation. The ending of this chapter expresses the writer’s hope again:
“It may serve, let us hope, to symbolize some sweet moral blossom, that may be
found along the track, or relieve the darkening close of a tale of human frailty and
46
sorrow.” (The Scarlet Letter: 48)
The Prison door was covered with vigorous wild rose, Hawthorne accompanies
the prisoner Hester with this lovely little life, which shows the author’s sympathy and
compassion for her. Casting aside the shackles of Puritanism that represses human
nature, from the point of view of humanitarianism, Hawthorne expresses sympathy
for the heroine by a wild rose-bush.
Later, the image of wild rose is reflected by the description of Pearl:
“We have as yet hardly spoken of the infant; that little creature, whose innocent
life had sprung, by the inscrutable decree of Providence, a lovely and immortal flower,
out of the rank luxuriance of a guilty passion.” (The Scarlet Letter: 89)
Flowers stemming from evil, though beautiful, have been doomed to sprout with
the brand of evil. Christianity preaches “the Original Sin”, thinking that life is guilty.
The source of the Sin can be traced back to the Bible－Adam and Eve have tasted the
forbidden fruit, so that they have a sense of shame, which arouses the anger of God,
the couple are expelled from the Garden of Eden. Punishment does not stop here; the
transmission of sin lets their offspring have “the Original Sin.” Accordingly, Pearl’s
sin in reality is transmitted by the sin of Hester’s disobeying Puritan law. Therefore,
on the one hand, wild rose is a beautiful symbol of nature; on the other hand, it is born
in evil. The contradiction constitutes a vague characterization.
●The Capital Letter “A”
There are many explanations of the Capital Letter A. In my opinion it has three
meanings.
Adultery
The first and most obvious is that Hester’s “A” stands for “adultery”. The novel
opens with Hester being led to the scaffold where she is to be publicly shamed for
having committed adultery.
According to the Calvinistic canon ， Hester is put into prison because of
committing adultery and she is forced to wear “the scarlet
all
letter” on
her
gown
the time. Here the letter “A” symbolizes shame and punishment. Hester is an
47
outcast from society and people treat her differently by constantly sneering at her in
public. The scarlet letter is a symbol of what society wants to see. Thus preachers will
stop in the street and give sermons when they see Hester. The letter therefore becomes
an example of crime and acts as a deterrent for others in the community. However,
Hawthorne indicates that Hester is now able to see when other people feel sympathy
for her. Thus the letter serves as a gateway to other people’s secret crimes, and acts as
a focal point for the shame of the entire community. That is to say, it represents the
hidden shame of the whole community. In this way, the letter can also be interpreted
as a symbol of shame shared by everyone, rather than by Hester alone. But we can
conclude that the “A” rather than being exotic and lurid, as the community sees it, is
in fact natural，and that those things associated with it－passion and sexuality in
particular － are natural to human nature. This also will explain why Hester,
metaphorically speaking, sees an “A” on many breasts other than her own: because
passion exists as a natural part of human nature in every human being. If the “A,’’ as
we have seen, is a symbol of human nature，then in assigning Hester an “A” of scarlet
to wear as punishment and shame, the community shows that it regards human nature,
especially passion, to be excessive. Hence, “adultery” is the first interpretation of “A”
－the scarlet letter.
Able
The letter “A” manifests in a variety of forms and places. Not only does it
manifest in various forms, but it also acquires a variety of meanings. It represents
more than just the sin of adultery.
To Hester, the letter “A” is a symbol of unjust humiliation at the beginning of the
novel; meanwhile, it also shows that Hester is skillful in needlework. Her skill first
shows in the fine way that she displays the scarlet letter. She stitches a large scarlet
“A” onto her dress with gold thread, giving the letter an air of elegance. It is an object
of art. And her excellent needlework for the rich allows her to maintain a fairly stable
lifestyle. After years of Hester’s helping, serving and sympathizing with the
townspeople, her letter “A” was viewed by the Puritans to mean “Able” rather than
48
“Adultery”: “so strong
was Hester Prynne，with a woman’s Strength” (The
Scarlet Letter: 165)，and “such helpfulness was found in her,…that many people
refused to interpret the scarlet ‘A’ by its original signification” (The Scarlet Letter:
165) Furthermore she tries her best to help the poor and the sick though she is really
poor too. Gradually, people begin to regard Hester as an industrious kindhearted and
able woman.
Angel
The meaning of letter “A” in the author’s arrangement gradually raises until it
evolves into Angel. By means of Hester’s brave and kind behaviors, her image turns
to be Angel in other’s eyes: “A great red letter in the sky, the letter A which we
interpret to stand for Angel.”(The Scarlet Letter: 119).Then the “A” is an attribute of
Angel.
In the Bible, Angels wearing in white with a pair of white wings represent
saintliness and nobleness, the image of noble Angel combines perfectly with the
initially-scorned adultery. In order to protect the reputation and status of Arthur
Dimmesdale, she assumes the entire “crime”. Especially when she knows that Arthur
Dimmesdale suffers the psychological torment of Chillingworth, she not only
comforts him but also plans for his leaving. When she meets her lover, many years’
sufferings and the hardships of raising her daughter alone disappear, only her deeply
love to him remains. Therefore, the letter “A” in Hester’s chest is no longer
representative of shame, but the symbol of honor, holy－an Angel.
●The Characters’ Names
In addition, the characters’ names imply ambiguity. The pronunciation of Hester
is the similar to “hesitate”，while in the novel she is courageous and determined；
Dimmesdale, whose name suggests that he is a dim man, gives the reader an idea of
the character’s personality. Throughout the novel, he is in a state of confusion, and the
community can only see him dimly. But at the end, he refuses to flee. On the contrary,
he chooses to face the punishment. Chillingworth is the ingenious combination of
“chilling” and “worth”. In the end, he repents and leaves his legacy to Pearl.
49
3.2.2 The Source of Hawthorne’s Ideological Contradictions
Today, scholars have a variety of interpretations about The Scarlet Letter from
different angles. “Ambiguity” can be found in different analysis, that is, the
interpretations of the same things are diversified and contradictory. Tracing the source
of this phenomenon, we can easily see that this is the result of collisions of
Hawthorne’s Christian thoughts and the humanitarian spirit. In other words, the
paradoxical nature of ambiguity can be traced back from Hawthorne’s view on human
life and human nature, which is also paradoxical.
From The Scarlet Letter we may see the influence of Puritan teachings. Puritans
believe that good and evil coexist in everyone’s soul. They are constantly fighting
against each other. It is actually a battle between God and Satan.
As far as Hawthorne is concerned, growing in a family with strong Christian
atmosphere, it is difficult to release himself from the impact on the spirit. Just as it is
mentioned above, His ancestors were prominent in the affairs of the colony and once
persecuted heretics with puritanical fanaticism. The pursuit of witches lingers in
Hawthorne’s mind for a long time. Therefore, in a sense, the pessimistic and
doubt-oriented Hawthorne has some in common with the Calvinism. This is mainly
reflected in two aspects: the one is the Predestination mentioned above and the other
is the doctrine of Original Sin.
Original Sin is said to result from the Fall of Man, when Adam and Eve ate the
forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. This first sin (“the Original Sin”) is
traditionally understood to be the cause of “Original Sin” (the fallen state of
humanity). Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden, the resultant
punishment falls on his offspring－the whole mankind. The fact that his ancestors had
ever persecuted heretics plunges Hawthorne into a sense of deep guilt. In the novel of
The Scarlet Letter, Dimmesdale is aware of the suffering of their own “Original Sin”,
and Pearl, the daughter of his and Hester’s, also has to bear the “Original Sin” from
the fathers.
50
The recognition of Calvinism’s Predestination and the “Original Sin” reflect the
rational side of Hawthorne, the tolerance and compassion he gives to the “sinner”－
Hester reflect the humanitarian side of Hawthorne. In short, the collision between
“sense” and “sensibility” contributes to ambiguities of The Scarlet Letter.
The Scarlet Letter represents the height of Hawthorne’s literary genius, and no
one can read half a dozen pages of it without feeling that none but a man of true
genius and a highly cultivated mind would write it. In The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne
reveals his ambiguity in many issues, especially those of religion. However, this
ambiguity might also be the most interesting and confusing and disputing aspect of
the romance.
“During the 1950s, the age of the “New Criticism” in literary scholarship critics
spoke repeatedly of the “ambiguity” of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Now, decades later, this
term is likely to strike us as inadequate. Our Hawthorne is a figure not so much of
ambiguity as of paradox and profound contradiction: a public recluse, openly and
even sociably proclaiming his own isolation and alienation－a mild rebel, at once a
conformist to the literary and social pieties of his day and an ironic underminer of
these pieties.”
62
However, the positive aspect of The Scarlet Letter lies in that the heroine dares to
break through the cage of strict conventions of Puritanism though she pays too much
to gain her own happiness.
Till today, Moby Dick and The Scarlet Letter have remained relevant for their
philosophical and psychological depth, and continue to be read as classics. Both
Melville and Hawthorne explore the relationships between God and man, man and
society, man and nature and the relationship between human beings. Among them, the
relationship between God and man is of prime importance. Thus, the two works
illustrate the influence of Christianity, and continue to impact other writers and
generations.
62 Emory Elliott Columbia Literary History of the United States: 413.
51
Conclusion
As being analyzed in the previous chapters, profound influence of Christianity on
almost every aspect of life in America can be easily perceived. From the moment
when Puritans stepped onto American continent, almost four centuries have elapsed;
American people have being strived hard holding the American dream that came
down consecutively from Calvinism and Puritanism. In other words, the American
spirit under the influence of Christianity and the prospect of the Garden of Eden
constitute the spiritual core of the early American history. In order to establish “a City
upon Hill”, to prove that they are God’s Chosen People and to spread the Gospel to
every corner of the Earth, early Americans developed a pious idealism. At a micro
level, the idealism is an individual heroism which is characteristic of being optimistic,
progressive, and proactive; at a macro level, it is the imperialism characteristic of
predestination. Besides the idealism, Puritanism also brought pessimism to the United
States, namely, the introduction of the “Paradise Lost,” “Original Sin” and the
concept of Election－“the chosen and the abandoned” into the United States, which
had helped to generate in the United States such feelings as repentance, frustration
and disillusionment. This dual nature of the American culture which is both optimistic
and pessimistic passing down directly from Calvinism and Puritanism has created
kernel of American culture.
Therefore, by means of reviewing the great works Moby Dick and The Scarlet
Letter we have a better understanding of the above argument. Though Ahab in Moby
Dick was a failure, yet Hester in The Scarlet Letter finally won the understanding. The
upbeat American images represented by such heroes and heroines have brought the
American dream into reality.
Religion is defined as belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers
regarded as creator and governor of the universe. It provides people with courage to
survive and hope for future. Christian civilization as a belief has dominated western
52
countries for almost two thousand years, and will become a permanent cultural
heritage melting into the long process of history.
With time passing by, the world is becoming a global village, but this in no way
denies the existence of cultural diversity. In modern American literature varieties of
opuses are prospering, which manifests that the influence of Christianity as the
religion itself keeps abreast of the time.
Taking into consideration of China’s further development of reforms and open
policy, it is advisable to receive and digest foreign culture and legacy critically. Hence,
acknowledging the origin of American literature and investigating its far-wide motif
are of great significance to enrich and prosper our own culture.
53
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