Thomas Morton

            
            
             This passage was extremely difficult to read. In fact, I read it three different times and still found it tedious. I did, however, begin to form some opinions about this story and the author. I found the piece comical, but I had a hard time feeling sorry for Morton because of all of the noses he "tweaked." He basically got what he asked for. It was like bringing fresh meat to a crowd of starving mountain lions and wondering why they are mauling you too. The story was considerably biased because the Puritans imprisoned him twice. I found the writing to be ingenious. The way he used Greek and Roman mythology to poke fun at the Puritans, knowing full well that the Puritans were firmly against higher education and the only book they were supposed to read was the Bible. Therefore, they did not "get" the jokes. When referring to the island that he was dropped on with only a thin suit that he must go through the winter with is highly questionable. Did the Puritans intentionally leave him on the island to die, and he was simply rescued by chance; or did the Puritans have the intention of coming back to fetch him? No one will ever know.
             Morton's primary goal in writing this selection was to expose the hypocrisy that ran rampant through the Puritan society. In the process, Morton showed the biblical significance between the Puritan ideas and the Jewish ideas. The puritans fled England to pursue religious freedom, just as the Jews did in Egypt, the only problem was that once the Puritans settled themselves in America, they began persecuting anyone who believed differently than them.
             Morton was the cause of his problems. Had he simply played by the Puritan rules he would have never been in the situations that he found himself in. But after all, isn't that what our country was founded on, a group of people that refused to play be by the rules? .