"The soldiers will 'beat up the drum and march through the country and spoil your corn.' "

In Sarah Vowell's, "The Wordy Shipmates", the whole book seemed bland to me. Hard to get into, in other words. I just wanted to hammer through the book, and get the overall meaning. I spent a-lot of hours, picking up and dropping the book through confusion, but it wasn't until the chapter about the Pequot War, where I actually couldn't put the book down. There were very few points where I got confused, and even understood what roll each character plays. I suddenly realized, this was the first war in Puritan history, and even one of the first in American History. As it seemed then, as a blood-wretched skirmish then, seemed to make a pretty significant impact on America today.

This was the first sign of a rule America still lives by today, an enemy of our foes, is an ally of ours. As the Puritans seek revenge on killing Captain Stone, they form an alliance with Canoncious and Miantonomi, the Narragansett sachems. As days tick on by, we learn from the past, and fix our mistakes, but, as we learn, you need help to win a war. To this day, The United States tries to form allies, and unite with other countries, incase we are ever in doubt.

In order to take out the Pequot indians, the English try to use the sneak attack method, where they  ambush the indians in deep sleep. The war seemed to fall right in their lap, knowing that, " The pequot fort is encircled within a palisade -- a wall made of thick tree trunks standing up and fastened together. Around seven hundred men, women, and children are asleep in wigwams inside." Everyone thought this would be a quick war until they "heard a dog bark," then they knew, "Their sneak attack is foiled." Though the English end up burning all the indians inside their own wigwams, the sneak attack method was used later in history. The most known example was with George Washington, our very first president. The president and his army crossing the icy Delaware River, and defeating the Hessian forces in Trenton. War just seems like something that America can't get away from, and the only way to achieve our goals now, is to see how they were accomplished in the past. This even includes those Puritans that wiped out a the Pequot indian tribe.

A City Upon a Hill

Through out the entire book, Sarah Vowell talks about John Winthrop's vision of a city upon a hill. This city was the future goal, the dream of New England. It never left the Puritans mind no matter the good or bad times. As it served as a goal then, it plays a significant role in American History.

All though many of John Winthrop's writings evolved from the bible, he took the quote, " You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hid." and used the saying in his 1630 sermon, A model of Christian Charity, declaring that the Putitans and himself were going to rule America, and build their dream home upon a hill.

The city on a hill can be interpreted as being a very religious. Once when I was younger, I was sitting in the passengers seat, with my Dad driving. We were driving through Waterbury, and we passed a couple churches. Being the close observer that I was, I asked my Dad why the houses had tall towers on them. Since I was young, he gave me the broad answer of being closer to God. He said they were the house people go to when they want to communicate with God. Using that information now, since Puritans were very religious, you would think that they would want to be as close to God as they could manage. Thus, leading to John Winthrop building his famous, "Shining city upon a hill". Also, the idea of a hierarchy can be connected to the city upon a hill. The higher you are the better off and more power you have. Look at all the people that live on the Beverly Hills, in California. They can look over everyone else, and just live the good life.

"The city upon a hill" was a metaphor that was passed on from John Winthrop to one of our greatest presidents, Ronald Reagan. The metaphor was used in plenty of Reagan's speeches, including one the night before the presidential election in 1980. "Let us resolve they will say of our day and our generation, we did keep the faith with our god, that we did act worthy of ourselves, that we did protect and pass on lovingly that shining city on a hill." And then once again on his reelection acceptance speech, Ronald said, "We proclaimed a dream of America that would be a shining city on a hill." Though, before reading "The Wordy Shipmates," I didnt have a clue who John Winthrop was, now I know he has had a significant role in history. In order to run and maintain a city upon a hill, a community must, "Delight in  each other, make other's conditions our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together, always having before our eyes our commission and community in the work, our communityhas members of the same body. Who ever knew one metaphor could boom and influence America for the rest of it's being? I guess a group of Puritans can make an influence on the world.

"My firkin is your firkin"

I enjoy sarcasm in life and in reading in general. Its something that helps me get through the day or an event. In this case, Sarah Vowell's writing style helped me get through her books, since the material obviously didn't. Of course the first twenty-odd-pages had me confused, and made me put down the book in an instant.  There were so many "John,"s in the book, that my head was getting dizzy. I'm not religious or interested in religious the slightest bit, so this book was a hard read. It wasn't until the connection to Ronald Reagan and the Pequot war, where I actually, "got into" the book.  I don't think I could have made it through the two hundred - forty - eight page book, unless it was for Sarah's unique writing style and input of opinions.


Through the paragraphs of Sarah Vowell expressing herself in the book, you can see that she can be in your face, and try to get you to understand a point through her point of view. She shows her strength, and boldness, though we all know her to make fun of something, or reply jokingly on a statement. For example, when Ronald Reagan was being interviewed by Good Morning America, he told them that, "Homeless people who slept on grates were 'homeless', you might say, by choice." And then I just get a good laugh out of Sarah's comment on the statement, "He couldn't be more right-- I have this fantasy that someday I'll throw off the shackles of my clean sheets and pillow-top mattress and curl up on a subway vent in the rain." When I say chuckle, that remark, literally made me laugh out loud. It was a statement that regained my focus on the book, and kept me reading.


In the average history book, one is overwhelmed with a whole bunch of facts and names, that they easily get confused. In, "The Wordy Shipmates," I was plenty overloaded with such, but Vowell needed to make her writing so long, that I would get reading, and forget what point she was trying to make. Then, I was forced to look back and remind myself what I was reading about. For example was when we met Roger Williams. What a guy. The book went on and on about church and religion, and then went on about Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley and John Cotton, then back to Mr. Williams. Thats when I just needed to put the book down and give my head a break. When I decided to take another look at the book, I needed to reread it, going back 20 pages.


 Though Vowell tries to be funny, and make us get a good laugh about history, she just doesn't know when to go deeper and give us the strait facts of an historic event. I couldn't quite follow a point she was trying to make when she would add her own voice in the middle of a paragraph. Though history isn't an exciting subject to teach, or even read about, I like how Sarah Vowell helps us understand by making connections to the real-world, where we may be able to connect with. For example, was the connection with the Brady Bunch and how the original pilgrims made friends with the indians and they were friends until their land was taken away.