Puritan Influence on Present day society.....

   

           The Puritans were a group that sought religious persecutions from England by immigrating to the new world of America. They were extreme Protestants in the Church of England that were trying to purify the national church of the England. They had to completely start over when they came to America, they had to start living by a completely new lifestyle compared to the ones they lived in England. They made their new society strictly religious, for examples they were required to read the bible to show religious discipline and how deeply devoted to god they were. If they were not following the rules of the church like by not going to church on the Sabbath or not reading the bible they were consider against god and someone who worships the devil. This was especially true in Salem, Massachusetts, where the infamous witchcraft trials occurred written about in the popular book The Crucible. This is where many people were excused of using witchcraft and working with the devil. Salem is also known for the famous House of the seven Gables written about in the book House of the Seven Gables.

             The Puritans were not just know for the witch trials they were also know for many things still present in even today’s society. They set up the first school formal school for education of the colonies. They also set up the first successful government in the New World. They were the first poets of the American colonies, they wrote poetry to examine their Christian lives.  Religion was a huge part of their lives and that was what their government and society was based around. This is not exactly how our government runs now but there are still the extremist religious groups still around, they are like the puritan groups today. They believe so deeply in their religion that if you don’t believe too you are evil. Many terrorist groups are like that, I’m not saying the puritans were terrorist I’m saying that they share the same narrow mindset as them. They believe there is only one right thing and its theirs, an example of the puritans was their violence with the witch trials excusing others of being against god. They targeted people who had different beliefs and practiced different lifestyles. The terrorist actions today are more violent, disruptive and wide spread which is because the technology we have today.  Terrorist today also target larger groups today but the message is still the same of nonexceptance of other people. Others will probably disagree with me but I believe puritans are like present day terrorist they share the same mindset and deep beliefs as the puritans.

     

The Moment I Knew I was an American......

When you grow up in America you never classify yourself as an American. You never think of it that way, you take advantage of the fact that you are because everyone you come into contact with is an American. It’s something everyone shares in common, it doesn’t make you unique like being the fastest runner or the smartest in your class. You take for granted that you are an American and you never describe yourself in that way. Only some people experience being classified as an American and this is when I realized I was American.

          When I was in 3^rd grade my parents took my family to Australia for a two week vacation. We got the pleasure of going to school with the children of my dad’s friend on one of the days we were there to see how school was different for them. And oh boy was is, this is when I knew I was American. Whenever I was introduced I was always the “this is my American friend” or “that American girl”. I never would have generalized myself in that way but to the Australians I wasn’t part of their culture, I was a foreigner. I was asked a million questions about what we do, eat, see, learn, and wear in America. I had always taken advantage of those things, not thinking anything of it until this day. I was not in the United States where everyone just understood these things because they experienced them. No, I was all the way around the world where I was the “American girl”. Being called an American for the first time made me realize who I really was since I didn’t really belong to these people. When I went to Australia I realized I was not just me, I was an American.

Us vs. Them.... Us and Them

The Crucible is filled with many conflicts between the characters and the town both public and internal. Many of these conflicts led to the death of many members of Salem. A perfect example is the affair of Abigail and John Proctor. This was a personal conflict kept from the town but the readers were aware of it. Abigail wanted John Proctor so bad she was willing to kill Elizabeth his wife to have him. Many conflicts led the people in the town to claim witch on someone so they would be executed. I feel the conflicts in Salem became too much for some people so they took the opportunity to take the person out forever so they wouldn’t have to deal with them anymore. I don’t understand why someone couldn’t just problem solve, why does everything in the world have to lead to violence and killing.

                Personally I would not be able to kill someone. I have the biggest conscience, I don’t know what to do about it I feel bad about the littlest things. Not only that but I wouldn’t be able to just take someone’s life, how could someone live with that? I don’t understand how people in the world kill others and don’t even feel bad about it themselves. Everyone in Salem used killing and persecution to solve their problems for them.  So in this situation it is hard to relate to the characters in the story. For people of such a strict religion where god will drop you like a puppet how could they do such a thing. I truly don’t understand, in this case I had no way of relating to the book or the characters. Killing is not a way in any case to solve a problem but no one in Salem got this message.