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.
Cody,
ReplyDeleteYou make an interesting connection between the city on a hill and the social hierarchy. I never thought of it that way, but it is true that the social elite usually lived (and still often do, as you note) up on the hill - removed from the riff-raff.
It is also true that the U.S. has seen itself, often rightly so, as a model for the rest of the world to follow. And the U.S. has been a genuine inspiration to people all over the world.