First of all, the first chapter of the book is entitled “The Mayflower and Before”. The first purpose of this chapter is to recount the history of America during the time that the Mayflower sailed and before. The second purpose is to examine the changes in the English language during this period. The third purpose of this chapter and of the whole book is to correct the errors in history as commonly accepted. For example: Bryson states:

“ The one thing the Pilgrims certainly didn’t do was step ashore on Plymouth Rock. Quite apart from the consideration that it may have stood well above the high-water mark in 1620, no prudent mariner would try to bring a ship alongside a boulder in a heaving December sea when a sheltered inlet beckoned nearby. If the Pilgrims even noticed Plymouth Rock, there is no sign of it,” (2).

In addition to that, there are two ways that Bryson gets across his ideas in the first chapter. The first way he gets his points across is by using poetry. This poem, in Made in America, entitled “T

Thus Squanto had certain grounds to be disgruntled. Europeans not only had inadvertently exterminated his tribe, but twice had carried him off and sold him into slavery. Fortunately for the Pilgrims, Squanto was of a forgiving nature. He settled with them and for the next year, until he died of a sudden fever, served as their teacher, interpreter, ambassador, and friend. Thanks to him, the future of English in New England was assured. The question of what kind of English it was, and would become, lies at the heart of what follows.

On the other hand, the one weakness of this chapter is that Bryson does not tell which language the words below this are from, “Connecticut was variously recorded as Quonectacut, Quonaughticut, Qunnihticut, Coneticot and many other spellings”. (102)

Nquitpausuckowashâwmen- There are a hundred of us.

Tashúckqunne cummauchenaûmisz?- How long have you been sick?

And the woods, against a stormy sky,

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