Journal 10: Virtues

Virtues are a way of life. A set of values that everyone makes for themselves so they know when they've gone to far. They are a line that a person draws, and they train them self not to cross it.Over time, I've adopted my parents values, and I've made some virtues for myself.

The first virtue that I keep is integrity. I don't like it when people are dishonest, especially with one another. No one likes deception. I try to do everything with integrity, even though sometimes it can be hard. It't the same thing as honesty, and honesty in itself is extremely important. Liars don't get anywhere in life, and if you don't do things with integrity, no one can trust you. 

Another virtue I keep is hard work. I believe that everyone should do their best in everything they attempt or succeed in. Having someone else do something for you isn't going to teach you anything. It won't make you a better person, and it wouldn't be yours. I especially keep this virtue when i'm doing homework. I don't copy off of others because first of all, it's dishonest, and second of all, I won't learn anything from that. I do all my work myself, like i'm supposed to. 

I also try to be compassionate. Everyone has bad days. Some people can be kind one day, and grouchy the next. I believe that it doesn't matter. The person is still a person, and just because they have a bad day doesn't mean you have to be really hard on them. In simpler words, I like to 'give people a break'. Give them the benefit of the doubt. I like to be compassionate. 

 I also don't like to judge people harshly. It's always very difficult to avoid judgment, especially when you know everyone else judges you too. I understand that judging others is an instinct, but if I find myself dong that, I try not to think about it. Judging someone in a cruel way before you know them is cutting them short. It't not respectful. Who knows! They could be a really cool person, and you might never know that because you judge them too harshly before you ever meet them! So i keep myself open, and i try not to be judgmental. 

The Declaration of Independence Reflection Blog

“The Declaration of Independence”, to me, was a wonderful work of literature. Honestly, I had never in my  life read the entire thing because I was never given the assignment to.  I actually really liked the work. The thing that really stood out to me was how logical it was. "The Declaration of Independence" was the United States written formal statement as to why they wanted to split away from Great Britain. The work was literally a record of the reasons why they had the right to pull away and be their own country. It was very persuasive to me, and i found myself agreeing with them many times. Thomas Jefferson uses several affective techniques in this work to persuade readers to his side and also to gain their understanding.                                                                    

  The majority of the persuasive techniques described in the “Recognizing Propaganda Techniques and Errors of Faulty Logic” article were describing ‘bad’ and ‘tricky’ ways to persuade someone. They weren’t really being described as good and effective way to persuade, and to me, weren’t assumed to be used in a good way. Thomas Jefferson, however, uses several of the techniques but the way he uses them appears to support his argument well. His major argument was that the Colonies should break away from Britain. He was trying to justify this. The main way he justified his reasons was by using the propaganda technique of “Name Calling”. He attached a bad feeling and name to King George, and listed off the unjustified things he did that drove the Colonies to rebel, using words like “tyranny”,  “refused”, “swarms”, and “harass”.  An example of this was when Jefferson said, “He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people” (Jefferson 124). He goes on later and says that King George is sending over armies to “complete the works of death, desolation, and tyranny,” (Jefferson 124). Jefferson continues this listing of Georges unjustly acts, and makes sure to leave nothing out.  To me, King George does NOT sound like an enjoyable guy, and that is exactly what Jefferson wants. George was a bad guy, and his cruelty to the colonies justified Jefferson’s want to split from them.   

                                                                                                                                                                                     

There were some other major propaganda tecniques I noticed as I read on that may or may not qualify as faulty logic. Thomas Jefferson did not use specific examples. He was very general about everything, and made everything seem like it had occurred often instead of noting specific times when it did. For example, “He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly” (Jefferson 123). Notice, he says ‘repeatedly’. He doesn’t list off the different times the king did it, or who he did it to, he just says ‘repeatedly’ and assumes everyone will know. In the same tokenJefferson also uses a technique similar to “card stacking”. He tells all the bad occurrences and withholds every good one, leaving the audience to assume that King George didn’t do anything good at ALL. And for all we know, he might not have. Jefferson only repetitively mentions all of the wrongful things George did, and with each event, the audience finds themselves appalled by how terrible George was as a king.                                                                      

  In conclusion, “The Declaration of Independence” was successful at persuasion. If it hadn’t been, we might not be the free country we are today. Someone had to write it, and someone had to justify the reasons to split. This document was a logical listing of why the colonies had the right to pull away from great Britain, and Jefferson used several propaganda techniques like name calling and card stacking to get his point across and gain an understanding.                                                               

            

    Jefferson, Thomas. "The Declaration of Independence." Glencoe  American Literature. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, n.d. 82-85. Print.

Journal #10

Brach's Star Brites Mints are the PERFECT pick-me-up for any slow moving day! Craving sugar or sweets but want to stay healthy? Grab a hand full of Mints to get you through your day. They're HEALTHY, and with the drowsy cold season approaching, they are a GREAT REMEDY for opening up your sinuses and giving you a relaxing coolness in your throat. IN FACT, Mr. Langley, you should BRING THEM with you to NEXT CLASS!!! Why bring Brach's Star Brites Mints to your next class? Well, they're are actually many reasons. First, our class is early in the morning, and many people (especially teenagers like us) don't eat breakfast every morning or don't eat enough to keep them going till lunch. Mints are a perfect way to curb hunger and help us focus on the work we need to accomplish in English class, because being hungry is extremely distracting! So next time your hear a student complaining about early morning hunger, all you have to do is give them a few mints to get them through your class! So that is one major reason why you should bring them for us. Another great reason is that, like I said previously, cold season is coming, and mints are great for opening up sinuses and helping us all breathe easy. Having a stuffy nose is very distracting in class time, and instead of having us disrupt the class by getting up to go to the nurse's office to grab a cough drop, why not just give us a fresh spearmint to relieve our ailment?  It seriously works, and in ALL HONESTY I use mints all the time when I have a cold.  A third reason you should bring them is because most of us are drowsy in the morning and maybe didn't get a good amount of sleep the night before. Ever tried to lecture a class only to find out that half of us are asleep? All you've got to do is have us all eat a mint, and the coolness will wake us up and bring us back to focus on the lesson. Overall, mints a great to have in a class room! They have many uses, and I’ve already explained to you some of them. So don't let your class be distracted from the lesson, just give out some mints and you're next lesson is sure to go smoother. 

Journal #9

My favorite season is spring, but Autumn comes in as a close second. I like fall for several reasons. First of all, its the LEAVES. When it comes, everything starts to metamorphasize into something new. The lush green   leaves start to dull, and their colors change to scarlet, orange like the sunset, and yellow like the morning sun.  The hot stuffy temperatures of summer begin to recede, and the air becomes crisp and fresh. My favorite thing to do is open all the windows in the house and let the coolnesss come in. I also love it because you get to wear a hoodie or a jacket, and you never get too hot! Football season is in the autumn to, and i love going to games to watch our Plainsmen.  Because it's cold enough, you can also have bonfires, which are really fun too. Another reason I like autumn  it is the SMELL. The crunchy leaves and the freshness can completely change your day. There is no better thing to wake up to in the morning. With autumn comes chilly winds that blow and brush the colorful trees gently. Halloween and Thanksgiving come too. Halloween is awesomely fun, and my little sisters put on their costumes and run from house to house through the chilly night breezes, then come home with smiling faces, sugary mouths, and pumpkins full of candy. As for Thanksgiving, my family always goes to my Aunt and Uncles house, where we spend time with family all day and eat a TON OF FOOD. For the Tyler family, you can never have enough, so my Aunt and Uncle leave it out all day, and we all get platefulls, sit in the living room, and talk about memories and fun times we had thanksgivings before. It's always funny because my Aunt started up a tradition. After we all eat lunch, we go bundle up in coats, mittens, and stocking caps, and then take a walk through the autumn chill, laughing and talking and just having a good time. By the time we get back, our cheeks and faces are flushed red and we all sprint to the house, fling open the door, and let the warmth and smell of yummy food and the sound of giggling welcome us in. Overall it's a wonderful season. It's full of color, and it's a very family oriented time of year because it lead up to the holiday season, with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and finally Christmas!

Journal 8

One time, when my family moved to a new house and a new town, we let our dog Snoopy out to explore the new area. We had only been there for around a day, and Snoopy hadn’t had a chance to go outside yet and look around our new home. My sister Faith let him out, and he ran outside, sniffing around and looking at the new trees and bushes in our yard. Faith went inside for a few moments to get something, and when she came back, Snoopy was gone. She realized that he had ran off, and after looking around the house, she became very emotional because she was very scared that something bad could have happened to him, or that he might have run off and couldn’t find his way back.  She was crying and was really, very scared for him, and also she knew the rest of us would be upset because we loved Snoopy and didn’t want anything bad to happen to him. Well, that was exactly what happened. Me and my other sister Lydia were really upset, and my parents were too. At first, none of us knew what to do because we hadn’t ever lost a dog before because Snoopy was our only pet at the time. After we reigned in our emotions though, my dad decided to solve the problem in a rational way. He said that the first thing we needed to do was predict where he might go and how far away he might be. My dad said that he most likely would try going towards the houses downtown because there were a lot of dogs in that area that Snoopy would be drawn too. He also noted that Snoopy was quite fast, but that if he was just looking around he would probably go slower so he could sniff things and get a better look at them. My dad then decided to gather a search party. He went around to some of our neighbors to let them know we’d lost our dog, and they offered to help. So we organized a group of people to go scope out the area because the more people helping would result in us finding Snoopy faster. My dad also told them that Snoopy would come to them if they called his name and clapped their hands at the same time. So all of us went out, car windows open, clapping our hands together calling for him. We all went around the intended route, and after around thirty minutes, we found Snoop! He had gone where my dad suspected, and was on the other side of town near a local gas station, covered in mud. At the sight of us he got extremely excited and was wagging his tail and jumping up and down all over us. The experience was extremely scary for all of us, and we all were very emotional, but in the end we solved the problem in a rational way.

Similarities between Jonathan Edwards' "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and Miller's The Crucible

              Hellfire. Angry God. Confession. Sin. Damnation. The Crucible and Jonathan Edwards “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” don’t touch these subjects lightly. In fact, Edwards’ whole sermon is about the wrath of God and the fire of Hell that awaits those who turn from him. The Crucible, on the other hand, is a story of Puritans who, rather than point out things that make God angry, go out and find those people and use their common sins or imaginary ones to condemn them to be hanged. While comparing them,  I found a character with the same beliefs as Edwards, people who demonstrated Edwards words on ‘hypocrisy’, and the tone of them both.                                                                                                                                          

             The very first thing I noticed about The Crucible was the similarities between Jonathan Edwards, and Mr. Parris, the preacher from the book. John Proctor says this about Mr. Parris: “I have trouble enough without I come five miles to hear him preach only hellfire and bloody damnation. Take it to heart Mr. Parris. There are many others who stay away from church these days because you hardly ever mention God anymore” (Miller 28-29). As you saw, Proctor describes Parris preaching ‘hellfire’ and ‘damnation’, which is exactly what Edwards preaches in his sermon. Parris says, “I do not preach for children,” and  “It is not the children who are unmindful of their obligations toward this ministry” (Miller 29)  Edwards also mentions people of the church being hypocrites and not true Christians (Edwards 99). Parris also states that he thinks ‘the better half of Salem village’ are unmindful, and says “There is either obedience or the church will burn like Hell is burning!” (Miller 30). Clearly Mr. Parris and Edwards see eye to eye. Edwards says basically the same thing in his sermon, saying that “instead of one, how many is it likely will remember this discourse in Hell!” (Edwards 99). He also claims that God is the one holding us out of Hells fiery pit (Edwards 96). Mr. Parris and Edwards are extremely similar, and both are preachers of fire and brimstone and misery. They have the same belief system, and call out the sinners of the church, warning them of their fate. Unfortunately, most people, like Proctor, don’t enjoy what they have to say.  
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              One of the people Edwards talks about in his sermon are hypocrites. People who he claims sit in the church      every Sunday and could “be the subjects of this very misery to all eternity”, or the misery of Hell (Edwards 99) So he’s claiming that many of the people in his congregation think they’re fine, but they’re really going to go to Hell in the end. SPEAKING of hypocrites, I saw many of them in The Crucible. The hypocrites I saw were the very people accusing everyone else.  People in the church are NOT supposed to go around condemning everyone and killing them for their sins. The church people of The Crucible claim they are doing God’s work, but really, they aren’t at all, which reveals them as hypocrites. For example, Hale is one, as is Danforth. They both search and try people for witchcraft, and put many in jail to be hung. Edwards plays a role similar to theirs. He preaches God’s love, but then points out everyone’s wrongs and tells them they will go to Hell.                                                                                                              

         The third thing I noticed that is similar between Edwards sermon and The Crucible is the tone of both of them. They are both gloomy, macabre and disturbing. Edwards sermon says things like “great furnace of wrath” and “a wide bottomless pit full of the fire of wrath” (Edwards 98). He goes into great detail and describes the fiery furnace of Hell that people are destined to go to.  The Crucible  on the other hand is just as disturbing. It describes Christian people killing other Christians for crimes they didn’t commit, and the horror of lies and rumors that only lead to death.  Both leave the feeling of death in your mind and are sorrowful and terrifying.  They leave your heart thundering in your chest and your mind reeling long after you stop reading them. The tone is intended to be this way in both stories, and was very similar.                                                                                                                                                                                                

         In conclusion, there were several similarities between Edwards’ horrific sermon on Hell’s fire and Miller’s macabre book of a town that tears itself apart. Edwards’ beliefs and his characteristics are similar to the character Mr. Parris is Miller’s book. Edwards’ sermon talks of hypocrisy, as does Miller’s characters, and the tone of both works is exactly the same: foreboding and gloomy. Both the Crucible and “Sinner in the Hands of an Angry God” are similar in their subject matter.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.         

Edwards, Jonathan. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Glencoe  American Literature. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, n.d. 82-85. Print.

Journal 7: Bullying

Bullying is cruel and it usually occurs because the bully doesn't realize the damage they really do. Even simple joking can turn to bullying, and it's all about how the person being 'bullied' views it. Personally, i hate bully's. I think the world would be a better place if people would stop and realize how terrible it is to make fun of someone else. Everyone's want in life is to fit in with the rest of society, and if a person is bullied, it ostracizes them and makes them feel like everyone in the entire world doesn't like them. Being bullied can lead the victim to depression and anger, and the consequences are great. School shootings occur mainly because the person has been bullied and treated in a cruel, inhuman way. Bullying another person can end up in tragedy, like the Columbine shooting.  the bully usually does't realize the psychological damage they have done to the victim until its too late, and sometimes, the bully ends up becoming the victim. I wish that bullying could stop forever. Hearing for example, about my little sister getting made fun of at school, makes me so angry, if i was there, i think i would do something terrible to the bullies. It's terrible, because she goes to the middle school, so i can't stand up for her, and i know she would't stand up for herself because shes too sweet and tender hearted. I just hate people who are cruel to others. It makes me sick, and the victim is the one who feels the affects, along with the family member. The bully doesn't feel anything. The only affects they get is the satisfaction of knocking someone else down the esteem ladder. It should stop and be outlawed. Everyone should just stop doing it. The only thing that comes out of bullying is pain and hurt, and people these days can be so insensitive to that.  Everyone should just stop and think about what they are doing before they say something cruel.

Human Nature in The Crucible

Human nature is the word that describes our reactions to events, our own inner struggles, and our interaction with others. It is  something every human has in common. There are some things that every human on this earth will do in their life, because all of us have the same basic thought process as the rest. The Crucible has a lot to say about human nature. The characters in The Crucible  are faced with horrific problems, and the entire town is haunted and plagued by the idea that the Devil is among them in the form of witches. This book  shows the characters reaction to terrible situations and proves that all people cling to certain natures and thought processes under pressure.  Some of which are, lying, blaming others out of fear, believing the  majority over minority, and attempting to atone for sins.

Lying and blaming others out of fear came up a lot throughout The Crucible. Blaming someone else for your own wrong doing is an immediate and instinctive reaction to the fear most people feel of getting in trouble. The characters of The Crucible rely a lot on the blame game to get them out of hard situations, and fear is their number one motivator. For example, in the very beginning of The Crucible, Betty and Abigail have many suspicions surrounding them, and in order to direct the townspeople’s wrath away from themselves, they begin to call out names of women in the town whom they claim were in cahoots with the devil (Miller 48). They flat out blame and lie about some women in the town out of fear,  and after that, everyone is distracted from them, and is consumed with the idea of putting the ‘witches’ away. This way, Abigail and Betty escape their fate. Another example of blame is when Abigail accuses Mary Warren of witchcraft to direct attention away from herself, and then Mary Warren accuses Proctor of witchcraft to direct attention from herself ( Miller 114-118). Both Abigail and Mary are terrified of getting put into jail and killed, so they push witchcraft on each other, and in the end, Proctor is the one who gets punished. He denies it, but by that time it is too late. The court believes the children over him. What Mary and Abigail did was terrible, but it just goes to show you how human nature really is. It’s human nature to avoid conflict at all costs, and Abigail and Mary did this by the blaming technique.                       

  Another thing I noticed was that it is human nature to believe the majority over a minority. If, for example, Sally tells Jimmy that Mr. Fido is a witch, and then Jimmy and Sally both tell Josh and Jacob that same story, then that is four people who now believe it. If Mr. Fido claims he isn’t a witch at all, then everyone else will have to decide for themselves who they will believe. That is four people against one. Four people with the same opinion is seen as more reliable than one. This concept  of believing the majority over minority is seen a lot in The Crucible. Abigail and her band of young girls use their power of youth and majority over the whole town. For example, they all use it against Mary when she’s accusing Abigail of being a liar( Miller 114-120). They act out and claim that she’s bewitching them, all at the same time, and Danforth can’t help but believe them. In fact, this majority over minority occurs in more than one place. Once everyone in Salem believes that there is witches among them and begins to accuse people, everyone joins in because EVERY one things EVERY one is seeing witches. The court believes the majority of people over the minority of the people who think it’s wrong. Sometimes the minority is the good side. But it’s human nature to believe in the majority opinion.                                                                                                               

  It is also human nature to atone for past sins. When you do something bad, and you can’t take back what you did, you try to make it up to the person in a different way. Two characters do this in The Crucible. One example is John Proctor. When his wife caught him cheating on her, he tried to atone for it by getting her out of jail by proving her accuser (Abigail) dishonest (Miller 110). He ruined his reputation and gave himself away doing this, but he tried his best. Mary Warren also tries to atone for her wrongdoings to Elizabeth and John Proctor. Proctor convinces her to tell the court the truth, and she does, (Miller 107), but in the end it isn’t enough and she ends up blaming him.                                                                                            

Overall, The Crucible really gives readers a good idea about what human nature is. Like I said previously, people act similarly in different situations, especially under extreme pressure. The people in The Crucible blamed others to avoid conflict, believed the majority over the minority, and some tried to atone for past sins . All of these are examples of human nature, and The Crucible really made them come out because the characters are very intense. It shows what the true side of people really looks like, and that people will sometimes do anything in pressing situations.

                                                               

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.                   

Journal 6--Blaming someone else

All of us can admit it.  We've at least once in our lives blamed someone else for something they didn't do at all to save our own skins. It's human nature, and it's a survival technique: Avoid getting in trouble and let someone else take the heat for it. Though this can save you momentarily, the karma will eventually come back to you, and you'll wish you hadn't said a word. Blaming someone else for something they didn't do is a mean cruel trick, and a variety of things can come back and haunt you if you're the culprit. For one, the person might try to avenge what you did to them. The last thing you want is a fury driven victim  planning your immediate death in the dead of night why you sleep in bed unaware. So who knows what they'll do to you when they get the chance! Another thing that an happen is that you might loose your rep. If someone finds out what you did,  you're in trouble, and no one will ever trust you with anything ever again. Not to mention everyone will think you're an evil scumbag who doesn't deserve any love or care anymore. People strongly dislike people who blame others for things they didn't do. The main thing you have to fear though, out of everything, is the truth. With truth comes wrath, and if you can't keep the truth hidden, you will have to face it. Keeping the person you blamed to keep their mouth shut is hard enough, and it all depends on who is more trustworthy. The worst mistake is when YOU blame someone else, THEY deny it, and it turns out that THEY are the more reliable one. Then YOU look terrible for what you did, and everyone knows what trick you were trying to pull. Talk about embarrassing. In the end though, the most likely thing that will happen is that the guilt will eat you alive. Having to see someone suffer and be punished for a 'crime' they didn't commit can chew you up inside. You might find yourself awake at night wishing that you hadn't done what you did. You might even tell the truth and face the heat. The truth will come out eventually, and if it doesn't find you, the person you blamed WILL.

Reflection: The True Colors of Elizabeth and Proctor from The Crucible

                While reading The Crucible I noticed several distinctive characters whose actions were driven by their True Colors, or their assigned personality traits. As we already discussed, Doer’s are courageous, act on a moment’s notice, and are hands on. Thinkers are logical problem solvers. Helpers tend to be emotional, considerate of other people, and want to make peace and avoid conflict. Planners are organizers.  From reading these character traits,   I  was able to categorize the two main characters of Act Two, Elizabeth and Proctor, by their actions.  I deemed the character of Elizabeth as a Helper and Mr. Proctor as a Doer.  

                                                      

            The first character I was able to put in a personality group was Elizabeth. Her character really stood out to me because of her actions. Throughout Act Two, she only wants to make peace and dislikes the corruption and fighting the town is going through. She doesn’t like conflict, and always attempts to avoid it.  For example, Elizabeth mentions Mary Warren leaving the house despite her directions to stay, and then tells Proctor that she let her go. Elizabeth took this action because she is a Helper, and wants to avoid conflict with Mary Warren (Miller 52). Elizabeth also tells Proctor to expose the issue from the day before as a fraud, and urges him to tell Ezekiel about it (Miller 53). She again, does this because she wants peace in the town. When talking to Proctor, I noticed she was very careful about what she said. She doesn’t want to anger him, and on page 53, before her line, after Proctor asks her a question, in italics it says “She doesn’t want friction” (Miller 53). So Elizabeth is a very peaceful Helper, and does her best to avoid all fighting. In the end of Act Two, in a final struggle, she willingly goes with Hale after being tried for witch craft to protect her husband Proctor from getting hurt and causing uproar (Miller 77). All of her actions are driven by her personality group. As a unanimous Helper, Elizabeth tries to keep herself and others from arguing with each other.                                   

         
           Like Elizabeth, I was also able to pick up on Proctor’s personality group. It was a hard choice, but in the end, I deemed Proctor as a Doer rather than a Thinker, Helper, or Planner. From the very beginning of Act Two there is a hint that Proctor might be a Doer. With his wife, he discusses how he was farming outside all day (Miller 49). That is a major indicator that Proctor is a Doer because farming is a very hands-on activity and occupation, and people with hands-on jobs tend to be Doers. Another thing I noticed about Proctor that revealed him as being a Doer was how he dealt with Elizabeth’s sad mood. He knew she was upset, and instead of trying to talk to her about why, he offered to buy her a cow from his friend instead to make her happy (Miller 50). Doers like to DO things for people to cheer them up rather than talk to them, so that was another indicator.   I also noticed that Proctor did a lot of things on the spot, especially when angry. When Mary walked in, he immediately grabbed for his whip and meant to hurt her (Miller 55). When his wife was issued a warrant of arrest, he suddenly ripped it from the man’s hands and tore it in half without thinking (Miller 76). And finally, when his wife is taken, he vows to her that he will rescue her and challenge the courts, which is a very courageous thing to do, and a definite Doer trait (Miller 77). Proctor even tells Mary Warren that he will ruin Abigail by revealing her dishonesty to the court . He means to do this by telling them the story of their ‘affair’ in order to have them spare his wife (Miller 80). That is a very courageous thing to do and Proctor doesn’t think much on it. He seems fully prepared to march in and do just that. All of these actions of Proctor’s made me categorize him as a Doer.                          

          Like most say, actions speak louder than words.  Elizabeth’s actions allowed me to put her in the Helper group, and Proctor’s  in the Doer group. Elizabeth tried to avoid conflict and make peace with everyone, even when facing false accusations,  and Proctor was courageous and did things on a moment’s notice, and even planned to go as far as condemn himself to save his wife. These characters were strongly driven, and they did the things they did because of the type of character they were, and I believe that I put them in the right group.

                                                                                                                   

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.     

                                                                                                                  

Journal #5

I think that taking away technology in general is a cruel punishment, mainly because in this generation, our phones and our tech devices are our connection to the world. Teachers now incorporate technology like text messages to alert students when they have a test, or what their homework is and when it's due. We do text a lot, and we get a lot of notifications from things that are happening around us via text messaging, but the main thing is teacher contact.  So taking away the texting could affect the students grades sometimes. Taking away email is bad too. Students also use that to connect with teachers, and some homework requires them to email their teacher or email them for help on their homework assignment. I personally use email alot, probably more than anything else, because i ask teacher questions on assignments, i use it to email work to myself that i do at school, and teachers email me sometimes to answer my class questions. So texing and email are defanatly not fair. The one thing that i DO think would be fair is taking away facebook. Teachers do not contact students over facebook. Facebook is an online world, that is true, but you don't speciafically need it for school or anything related to education. It would be painful to be separated from it though, because people talk with friends ALOT on it, so it definitely would be a punishment. I'd be really bummed if i got it taken away from me. I talk to my homies on there ALOT and i check it almost everyday to see whats new with everyone. Not being on facebook would cut me off from the net gen world, which i wouldn't enjoy at all, but it wouldn't affect my education. I think that taking away facebook would be a just punishment.

Reflection: How does The Crucible display the qualities of Puritans – And what is the breakdown of Puritan beliefs as well.

There were definitely a lot of Puritan qualities in The Crucible.  I saw many of the usual characteristcs, like mentioning God frequently, discussion of sin, and centering God in ones life.  I also noticed the superstitions that went along with the Puritan lifestyle.   The other two stories, the poem by Bradstreet and the other by Rowlandson, were very reflective of the good qualities of the Puritans and focused mainly on the act of using God to cope with hard situations, and being accepting of hard times and relying on God. The Crucible, on the other hand,  discusses more of the darker side to the religion, and how corruption  and superstition can leak into any system despite efforts to suppress it.                                                             

   The opening pages describe the Puritan society setting. They describe the Puritan breakdown of morals and spell out plainly what the Puritans beliefs are.  Belief number one: God should be the center of one’s life. It says that the Puritans established a theocracy for their government. “For good purposes, even higher purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies” (Miller 7).  This is very reflective of the Puritan lifestyle. So, pretty much, the Puritans want God to be the center of everything, even the way they run their community. They are very religious people, and it makes since that they chose this type of government. In the same token, their choosing of this particular government also reveals the fact that they believe every Puritan should put God in the center of their own life.                

 Belief number two: Life should be devoted to God and prayer.  Belief number three: No one should be part of anything resembling “Vain enjoyment” (An example would be dancing) (Miller 4). It plainly states these rules in the beginning pages, saying, “Their creed forbade anything resembling a theater or ‘vain enjoyment.’ They did not celebrate Christmas, and a holiday from work meant only that they must concentrate even more upon prayer” (Miller 4).Clearly their belief system disagrees with anything that might separate them from the Lord. Vain enjoyment could lead to a sinful obsession, and holidays could lead to sins too. To them, prayer was the only thing to be done outside of work and church. Their  lifestyle demanded that they refrain from sin.                          

 Besides those three major beliefs and qualities of Puritan writing, I stumbled over a lot more. First of all, this novel highly reflects the characteristics of Puritans because of the way the characters act. When sickness struck, and no one had any reliable medical reason for it, they immediately turned to the enemy of God, Satan. I noticed throughout the story that they believed prayer was directly linked to God, and being unable to pray was linked to Satan. An example of this was when Gile claimed his wife was reading strange books, and in her presence, he couldn’t pray. He then claimed that this meant she might, in some way, be touched by the devil (Miller 40). Anything that was related in some way to something deemed ‘ungodly’ or anything that went against their belifs was concluded to be Satanic. Abigail’s dancing was thought to be Satanic, and Betty’s medical mystery, and Mrs. Putnam’s loss of her children. If anything went wrong, they automatically thought it was the devil, when in truth, it might not have been at all. It might have just happened.                                                                                                                 

   The Puritans in The Crucible  follow the typical Puritan beliefs, and the writing reveals alot of it. They put God in the center of their government, they believe God should be the center of everyone's personal life, they believe all should refrain from sin, and they pray to God. God is a good thing, but the people of The Crucible are clearly superstitious. The way that they act and their strict beliefs show that they are really a very frightened group of people that are terrified of offending God. God should be feared, as the bible says, but the people of The Crucible are letting their fear control their actions. They fear sin and they accuse others of witch craft. The Salem witch trials were a time where innocent people were brutally murdered over superstitions, lies, and fears. Instead of letting God help them, the Puritans in this story are trying to play God, and our accusing people too fast, in my opinion.

                                                                                                                            

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.
                                    

Journal #4

My Family Trip to Disney World

Last year for Christmas, my family took a trip to Orlando, Florida. Normal people fly there because it only takes a few hours and you get to watch movies and eat peanuts and eveything, but my family isn't exactly normal. We decided to drive there (well, my parents did). There are six people in my family. I have three sisters, and a mom and dad. Two of my sisters are under the age of twelve, and they sometimes don't get along. We were only in the van for about five minutes before they started to bicker with eachother. Unfortunately, we had to stay in that van for around three days. The trip, like i mentioned, started out with a bang, and before i knew it, i had been sitting in the same spot for hours, listening to my i-pod, reading, then doing it all over again. My sisters fought off and on, and so did my parents. The GPS was acting up, and that caused some problems because my mom, the appointed navigator, didn't really have any idea exactly where we were going in the first place. The hours dragged on and on, and thankfully my dad stopped in some gas stations on the way. We stocked up on snacks and drinks and tried to stretch our legs out, but all of us dreaded having to go sit in the van for more long hours. Traveling with my family can be fun too. Haiving to sit next to eachother for a long time forces us into conversation, and we are all really close to eachother in the first place, so we have things to talk about. We played card games and took pictures, and told jokes and counted all the Waffle Houses we saw on the way (TRUST me, there is ALOT!).  It was also fun stopping at rest stops in the early hours of the morning because we were all slap happy and realy tired, so everyone laughed really easy (and sometimes at nothing at all!). There was alot of laughing, but there was always the occasional groan. It was long, but the good thing was, none of us were alone. We all had to sit through it, and the excitment of getting to Disney was enough to keep us going.  Finally, we got to Orlando. It was five am, and we stopped at a gas station before we got to our resort. It was wierd because it was warm out! like 70 degrees! And it was winter! That was one of the coolest things about the trip. Getting to our resort, FINNALY was a godsend. We were all exausted out of our mind, and our dad drove through the night pretty much for the whole trip, so we hadn't actually slept in a bed for a while (Our dad drank a TON of Mountain Dew to keep himself going!). We were staying in a 'Cabin' in the Disney resort, and we did as follows: Unloaded our stuff, located beds, passed out. Every single one of us. We were complelty tired, but after resting for a couple hours, we were as good as new, and we went to Animal Kingdom for the rest of the day.

How does Bradford's writing reflect the qualities of Puritan writing?

I saw so many characteristics of Puritan writing in just Bradford’s first chapter. Though his writing was somewhat difficult to decipher and understand at times, I was still fully able to recognize and see how his writing reflected the qualities of Puritan writing. He puts his trust in God despite hard times, he doesn't complain,  and he believes God will persevere.                                                                                  

 Bradford starts off the story describing the persecution of the Christian church, saying that they were being ‘tormented’ and ‘banished’ and oppressed, and that many places they were at were being ‘watered with ye blooud of ye martiers’  (Bradford 2). He sets up a pretty dire circumstance. He goes on to describe how the church was being corrupted and how people were charging Christians with unjustly acts and that many of them  were put into jail and hurt.                          

 Though the situation he suffers through is terribly sad,  he takes a different outlook on what is happening. Even though times for the church are rough, he says that people who ‘profes Religion’ and want to serve God must stay strong and  sustain ‘mocks and injuries’ even though they live ‘amongst ye enimies of Religion’ (Bradford 4). He knows that it is difficult, but believes that Christians should stay strong and call on the Lord in their troubles and pray that he will preserve them in hard times.   “But it is ye Lords doing, and ought to be marvelous in our eyes!” (Bradford 6) He doesn't complain in the hard times, and believes that God will deliver them.                                                                               

 He continues to write about how the Lord will take care of them, and uses many bible verses to back up his points, some of which are : 1 Cor:10. 22, Mat:15. 13, Jer. 50. 24, Jer. 50. 31, Rev. 19. 1,2. and Psa. 126. 1. One verse that I particularly liked was Revelation 19:1-2. “Should you not then rejoyse, yea, and againe, rejoice, and say Hallelu-iah salvation, and glorie, and honour, and power, be to ye Lord our God;for true and righteous are his judgements” (Bradford 7) I thought this was really powerful. Even though Bradford and his Christian people are suffering because of their beliefs, he still has faith in the Lord and believes that it is God’s judgment and plan, which is a very Puritan characteristic.                        

 Bradford, later on in the text, talks about how God brought other groups of his followers out of trouble in the past. He talks about how God overthrew tormentors of Christians. “Doe they provoke the Lord to anger? Are they stronger than he? No, no, they have mete with their match” (Bradford 6) Then he says “ And are not these greate things? Who can deny it?’ (Bradford 7). He says that it was only the Lord who could overcome such things and quotes a verse from Revelation that says that he is the ‘King of Kinds and the Lord of Lords’. I thought it was amazing that he has faith in God and believes that God will overcome their hardships.                                                                                                                      

Bradford goes on to a new topic, and describes how new people were coming to Jesus, but that the ‘multitude’ persecuted them (Bradford 9). He then says that the people ‘ shooke of this yoake of antichristian bondage, and as ye Lords free people, joined themselves (by the covenant of the Lord) into a church estate’ (Bradford 9). Many times in the passage he mentions that only the Lord could have allowed such things to occur. He has true faith.                                                       

The first chapter mainly just talks about the hardships Christians went through, and how their suffering led them to want to go to America to practice their own religion. But throughout his description of the pain the Christians suffered through, he mentions bible verses and talks about how the Lord is a judge and that the things happened for a reason. He reflects so many of Puritan qualities in his writing, even in only the very first chapter. He quotes bible verses, he sees a Godly plan throughout it all, he doesn’t scold his persecutors, and he has faith that God will preserve them all.

Bradford, William. "Chapter One." History of Plymouth Plantation. Ed. Charles Dean. N.p.: n.p., n.d. 1-10. Print.