General+History+Questions

1. A history is an unbiased account of events. John Smith is attempting to "sell" the New World to his audience.

2. The listing of goods shows a certain callousness of Smith in regards to the more natural, human concerns, that might be expected in a dire situation such as this. Yes, it is natural for people to focus on the means of salvation in a desperate situation, but rather than focusing on the situation and the emotion this might cause, the "grocery list" distracts from the human concerns and draws the reader to the material concerns and the economics involved.

3. Although Smith doesn't use the first person pronoun "I" in this passage the focus is clearly on Smith and how great he has as a leader. Choosing to use the 3rd person narrator simply reinforces what Smith is trying to sell the reader--the picture of Smith as hero from a supposedly "unbiased" narrator.

back