The minds of people in early America were filled with positive ideals. These ideals gave rise to a very interesting creative period in early American novels. These novels promote moral behavior while recognizing the social constraints of the time. The term naive played a very important role in these novels and also increased the popularity of these uplifting novels during this period. Two very important authors of this era, Susanna Rowson and William Wells Brown, used this concept in their novels, Charlotte Temple and The Power of Sympathy. The term naive appears in these novels by illustrating the errors of the main characters with the sole aim of attempting to raise awareness of how educating the reader's mind could prevent them from achieving the same fate as these characters . The following quote, illustrates what was considered by Brown to be appropriate literature for women at that time "I would describe the human mind as a vast plain... If the course of the river be rightly directed, the plain will be fertilized. .. and cultivated advantageously; but if the books, which are the sources which feed this river, rush into it from all sides, it will overflow its banks and the plain will be flooded. When therefore knowledge flows in its proper channel, this vast and In a precious domain, the mind, instead of being covered with stagnant waters, is cultivated to the maximum and flourishes abundantly in the general efflorescence - for a river well limited by high banks is necessarily progressive” (Brown). The author uses strong dramatic images and metaphors to illustrate the importance of education.When The Power of Sympathy and Charlotte......middle of article......the results of naive behavior. Susanna Rowson, William Hill Brown, and many others interested in this period of history all recognized that the young girls in these novels were vulnerable because of their naive and sometimes innocent personalities. It is true that genre plays a major role in these first American novels, it is also true that the naive factor is a very powerful profession with devastating potential, where strong morality and experience are sometimes not enough to protect oneself from it. . and Marion Rouille. Charlotte Temple: authoritative text, contexts, critiques. New York: WW Norton &, 2011. Print. Brown, William Hill and Hannah Webster Foster. The Power of Sympathy (Penguin Classics, 1996)