Question

Read the following passage and write a brief paragraph that identifies:

-the subject of the passage
- the author's purpose for writing
- the intended audience
- the tone of the piece, and
- the perspective or point of view.

Be sure that your paragraph has a topic sentence that identifies the subject, and provide evidence (quotes) from the excerpt to support each part of the analysis.

"Many times hath Satan troubled me concerning the verity of the scriptures, many times by Atheism, how I could know whether there was a God; I never saw any miracles to confirm me, and those which I read of how did I know but they were feigned. That there is a God my Reason would soon tell me by the wondrous workes that I see, the vast frame of the Heaven and the Earth, the order of all things, night and day, Summer and Winter, Spring and Autumne, the dayly providing for this great houshold upon the Earth, the preserving and directing of All to its proper end. The consideration of these things would with amazement certainly resolve me that there is an Eternall Being."

Answer 1

This pasage refers to the questionings regarding the existence of God by atheists and by those who would drive her away from her faith. Author Anne Bradstreet wrote it for her children with the purpose of letting them know what reasoning leads her to maintain her faith in God and conveying this faith to them. The passage has a philosophical tone, in which she examines the opposite points of view and manifests her own, according to which the order of nature is proof of God's existence.

Answer 2

The following are the correct answers to each point of the question:

-Subject of the passage: religion.

-Author's purpose for writing: her children to know what she thinks and believes in.

-Intended audience: the author's children.

-The tone of the piece: philosophical.

- The perspective: The author expresses openly her doubts about the existence of God, and the veracity of the Bible.

Step-by-step explanation:

Anne Bradstreet was the most prominent English writer and poet who lived in North America. As a puritan herself, Bradstreet wrote about her personal life through a religious viewpoint, in order to express her beliefs and opinions. In her work called "Letter: To My Dear Children" she writes about religion, and how she has battled having her own doubts about the existence of God and what others write about it. Her purpose for writing the book is for her children to know their mother's thoughts and beliefs and to be able to have her words with them, even after her death. Although she openly expresses her doubts about God and its existence, she says that at the end, the proof that she holds to in order to believe in God is the world we live in, with its many intricacies that work together and give humans a home to live in. The tone of the piece is visibly a philosophical one, with the author diving in topics such as death, religion, and miracles.