The ideas of strength and justice
are defined differently by each character and the separate races in Hope Leslie. Magawisca is the first
character I think of when I hear the word strength. The most obvious example of
her strength is on page 97 in the book where she sacrifices her arm to save
Everell. She is such a strong character during this part of the book because
she is deliberately disobeying her father’s order which is uncharacteristic of
women during this time period. The act of losing her arm for someone she loves
is embodying the character trait of strength entirely. Hope Leslie also embodies
strength, but in a different way than Magawisca. She is also an opinioned
strong character but she seems to know her “place” as a woman more-so than
Magawisca.
The differences
in the way that justice is handled are evident in contrasting the Indians and
the Puritans. In the case of Mononotto, he believes that justice is achieved
when a white man dies after an Indian has. His philosophy seems to be an “eye
for an eye.” However, Mononotto’s definition seems to be opposite of his
daughters opinion because she thought killing Everell would be unjust. The
Puritans main goal is to spread Christianity to the “uncivilized” natives.
However, in attempting to spread religion they seem to have murdered innocent
Indians in order to gain more land. This seems to be opposite of their entire
purpose of coming to America and to their religion entirely.
Emily made a good point saying that Magawisca and Hope Leslie both embody strength in that they rebel against what is viewed as the stereotypical woman. She, however, said that Hope Leslie knows her place more as a woman than does Magawisca. While agreeing with most things Emily said, I disagree with her statement about Hope Leslie. I think she and Magawisca rebel equally as much but it is more acceptable for Hope Leslie to rebel because she is a white woman whereas Magaswisca is an Indian. Hope Lesie rebels just as much as Magawisca but she is able to get away with it because she is charming and can talk her way out of anything. For example, how did Hope Leslie not get caught for setting Magaswisca free? It wasn’t even brought up because everyone was so excited she was home safely.
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