She admits to suffering from internal conflict regarding her religious beliefs several times in “To My Dear Children,” even explicitly stating “I have argued so with myself” (Bradstreet 164) . His struggle with what to believe has been so great that he almost abandons his original goal of writing to his children. This letter begins by addressing his children directly, but after the first paragraph he does not write in the second person, with one exception, until the conclusion. Instead, Bradstreet writes the entire middle section about the problems he faced in his life regarding his religion and how he overcame these problems. This also gives great perspective on the mindset of all of his neighbors in Massachusetts. The “city upon a hill” (Winthrop 149) that John Winthrop told the Puritans they could create was not a perfect utopia even though they were finally free from the oppression of the Catholic Church. Doubts arose as to whether God was truly on their side when the Puritans discovered how strenuous it was to live on earth and away from the luxury they were accustomed to in Europe. They began to question their own beliefs, just as Anne Bradstreet did. He presents these doubts in his letter and provides an understanding of how this was not the perfect society it was supposed to be. He also defends all his doubts with