Of Plymouth Plantation 225The miracle house of technology falls apart at the
seams, like the disintegrating death of a body, as
fire, wind, and heat sweep through it. Natural forces
destroy the domesticated dog, the mechanical mice,
and the African beasts cavorting on the walls of the
children’s nursery. Tamed, artificial nature gives way
to the uncontrollable forces of the planet. Brad-
bury’s characters cannot breathe, survive, keep track
of time, or think clearly. They lose their identities;
their lives; and momentarily, their sanity. They are at
times completely overwhelmed by the planet itself.
Yet Bradbury also uses nature in more subtle
ways to indicate the emotional state of the characters
in question. Flowers, often indicative of perfume,
fragrance, sex and sexuality, and beauty, here
contrast with the bare sterility of Mrs. K’s marriage.
Sam Parkhill’s hotdog stand, located in the vastness
of a dead seabed with a view of Earth on the hori-
zon, shows his utter cultural and moral paucity. The
Martians are different from us not only in their hair
color and the color of their eyes, but by the fact that
they are similar to forces of nature that cannot be
humanized: They die like the snow, they shatter like
ice, they ripple in the wind “like an image on cold
water.” Thus, nature tells us something about the
characters in the story: They are radically different
from us, or they are hauntingly alone, or they lack
richness of thought and imagination.
Finally, Bradbury uses nature imagery to portray
a state of harmony between the characters and the
natural world. In his final chapter, a family enjoys
a picnic boat ride. The children’s hands become like
clams in the water, and the mother’s eyes mirror
the deep pools. They are drawn toward fountains
that still gush forth in the ancient cities. They see
their own reflections in the water of the canal; their
reflections now ripple like the bodies of the Mar-
tians in the previous chapter. They incorporate the
natural world into their bodies and culture instead
of defining themselves against it or destroying it.
Humanity’s hope of survival lies not in importing
Oregon pine from one planet to colonize another,
not by making nature “better,” and not by seeking to
destroy those whom we perceive as destructive, but
rather by reintegrating ourselves with our environ-
ment. The Earth colonizers must become Martians
if they hope to survive, and we human beings, as
evolutionary newcomers, must act as if we are a part
of the planet Earth instead of colonizers of it.
Anna MinoreBRADFORD, WILLIAM Of Plymouth
Plantation (1630–1650; printed 1856)
Written over a period of 20 years, William Bradford’s
journal has become one of the staple of American
literature. The historical information alone counts
for its value and place in Americana. Although
Bradford (1590–1657) began writing in 1630, his
account takes the reader back to the latter part of the
first decade of the 1600s, when the small separatist
congregation of which he was a member emigrated
from England to the Netherlands. He ends his writ-
ing in 1650, when he append to his treatise a list of
the people aboard the ship Mayflower.
Of course, the work is more than just a collage of
facts: It is Bradford’s meditative interpretation of his
world. He often employs a retrospective analysis that
allows him to see God’s hand in the events of the
history. In this he was most influenced by the pietis-
tic/meditative tradition in late medieval and early
modern English religious experience, and by his
belief that the events of history were a sort of drama
replaying the master plots of the Old and New Tes-
taments of the Bible. In fact, some scholars see Of
Plymouth Plantation as being styled in the form of a
Lord’s Day sermon, a particular type of oratory with
which Bradford would have been especially familiar.
Bradford’s 270-page manuscript was bound in
vellum (prepared skin from a young calf or lamb), its
covers being almost the size of a modern-day sheet
of writing paper. It was lost during the Revolution-
ary War (1775–83), was discovered in London in the
1850s, and was first printed in 1856. The manuscript
is currently housed at the State Library in the State
House in Boston.
Matthew HorncOmmunity in Of Plymouth Plantation
From the beginning of William Bradford’s youth-
ful acquaintance with the Scrooby congregation
in Yorkshire to the end of his life as governor of
Plymouth Colony, community played a central role
in his worldview. His community was composed of