for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee;
             he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
             American literature has always been faced with very contrasting views on the Lord, our God. Never had American literature been more filled with these thoughts than when the first Europeans began arriving in the New World in the early 1600's. William Bradford and John Winthrop were two very influential men of their times. Both held powerful ties with God. Even though both Bradford and Winthrop's lives had many contrasts, their views of God are the same in that they view the relationship between God and Man as a teacher educating a student.
             Bradford first came to the New World in 1620 with a group of extreme Puritans called separatists. They experienced hardship from the moment they got onto the shore at Cape Cod. The New World climate was like nothing they had ever experienced, it was much colder in the winter and much hotter during the summer. Bradford said, "And for the season it was winter, and they that know the winters of that country know them to be sharp and violent, and subject to search an unknown coast. Besides, what could they see but a hideous and desolate wilderness, full of wild beasts and wild men - and what multitudes there might be of them they knew not" (78). Even though Bradford viewed nature as hideous, he still saw God in all aspects of life. "But herewith they broke their mast into three pieces and their sail fell overboard in a very grown sea, so as if they had like to have been cast away. Yet by God's mercy they recovered themselves... But though this had been a day and night of much trouble and danger unto them, yet God gave them a morning of comfort and refreshing... And they found themselves to be on an island secure from the Indians, where they might dry their stuff
             ...