Search for Truth

Throughout this story there is constant turmoil within Elizabeth over the unrealistic, rigid Puritanical religion foisted on her by John Winthrop, and the individual search for truth and for a genuine sense of her own spirituality. Elizabeth catches glimpses of something real when she is with Anne Hutchinson, and when she is in nature, particularly at the pond in the woods in Greenwich. But toward the end of her life, Telaka helps her see a glimpse of true beauty, whose significance is that of pure love. Elizabeth finds the truth, where the religious zealots of her time likely never did. It is also made clear in this story that one man's truth is not necessarily the same for another. The Indians did not see that their land rightfully belonged to white men, but the settlers felt entitled to the land because, if God had not wanted...