Native American Literature

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Native American literature is quite different from most every other type of literature that people study. The Native American works of literature are meant to be oral. They are meant to be acted out. Many times, the stories get changed and become confusing because of translation issues. They also get changed around and lose, sometimes very important, parts of their literature. This happens because it is very hard to put a story, that is meant to be acted out, in a third person narrative. There are four main types of Native American literature: trickster tales, origin and emergence stories, cultural hero stories, and historical narratives. Trickster tales can either question or reinforce a societal norm, be used as a scapegoat, or they …show more content…
He takes the events of the Salem Witch Trials, and puts it down into a story form for people to read. He wrote the literature to explain the actions of the Court of Oyer and Terminer. Though, one could also say that the beginning of his work, could be considered a trickster tale.
A trickster is described by the authors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica as, “a malicious destroyer and a childlike prankster, the trickster-hero serves as a sort of folkloric scapegoat onto which are projected the fears, failures, and unattained ideals of the source culture.” (The Editors of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Trickster Tale”). In this piece, Mather takes this tragedy, and tries to explain why and how he thinks that the Salem Witch Trials take …show more content…
A historical narrative takes a historical event, and turns it into a story, or a work of literature. They usually focus on a person or an event and the actions that occurred and why it is considered to be a historical event. Here one can see that Mather takes the components of the trial of Carrier, and writes them down, so that the trial is recorded. He tells of all the testimonies given by her own children, people of her town, and other witches that claim to have been at the same meetings where they met the devil. It also incorporates her own words and her defense of herself. These included the unnatural and unexpected death of cattle, sores and pains that came about after having differences with Martha Carrier, and an account where she supposedly took over her son’s body and held a young man down while they were
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