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.

Journal #3

I think that the main emotion I would feel if I got held hostage is fear. All consuming fear. I'd be frightened and terrified, and i'd probably miss my family terribly. It would be super hard to cope with something like that, especially in today's world. Most hostages end up dead anyway because the kidnapper gets tired of taking care of them, or is a psychopath and is out of their mind. I guess it would depend on who the kidnapper was. If it was someone really mean and violent it would be even harder to cope with the situation. But if they were more civil and I could see that they were in a terrible jam that drove them to something as severe as a kidnapping, I would feel more pity than fear probably....but that still doesn't compensate for the fact that the person was holding me against my will. I'd do my best not to show weakness, and maybe even try to negotiate with the person. Most people who take hostages do it because they are scared and frightened and don't want to get hurt or get in trouble. They do it because they sometimes don't know what else to do. Sometimes they need money or have a family problem that drives them to do drastic things. I would try to negotiate with them, and try to make them see that doing what they are doing isn't right.  The biggest coping mechanism I would use is probably prayer. I'm a  religious person, and i'd use prayer to help me stay strong in my situation. I'd also hope that someone would save me. That would be a seriously driving goal that would keep me going. I might even plan an escape, and that would also help me cope because i'd feel like I had something under my sleeve 'just in case' , and i'd plan it very carefully and wait for the right moment to do it.  I'd also use my own inner thoughts to keep me going. I'd think of my family and remember the good times. I most likely though, out of all the coping mechanisms, would use hope to keep me going. I'd just keep hoping that someone would come help me, or come get me out of my situation.

Homework: How do the two authors reflect the Puritan writing style in their works?

I really enjoyed the literature by Rowlandson and Bradstreet. Their writing was very heartfelt and emotional, and they did wonderful at describing what happened to them and narrating their personal stories. I noticed many times that Rowlandson and Bradstreet’s writing reflected the Puritan style of writing. Both have a strong Christian background, clearly, and they often mention God in their writing. Most of all, they praise him and thank him in their times of trouble, rather than scold him for their misfortune. They give him utter authority, and many times they connect their domestic life with their religious and spiritual ones. Their religious beliefs affect how they react to the harsh and cruel situations that they go through, which is a strong characteristic of a Puritan. Mr. Langley’s presentation on Puritans says that Puritans used their writings to explore their inner and outer lives for signs of workings of God, and also that they commonly wrote diaries and histories that directly expressed the workings of God. I saw all of these typical Puritan writing techniques in these two works.                                                               

  First of all, Rowlandson’s story A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson was extremely reflective of Puritan styles. From the very beginning she compares her current situation to a biblical one, and quotes something that Job said in the bible, comparing her life to that of his because Job was tested and went through many hardships, but continued to rely on God (Rowlandson, 82). Right from the start she connects her situation with a Bible story, which is very reflective of the Puritan style. As the story continues, she continues to mention God, saying once, “but God was with me in wonderful manner, carrying me along, and bearing up my spirit, that it did not quite fail” (Rowlandson 83). She recognizes God’s authority in her life, and her religious belief reflects how she views her situation. Another thing occurs and shows how her beliefs affect her views. When her child dies, she mentions having thoughts to kill herself, and claims that it was only God who ‘preserved’ her from ending her ‘own miserable life’ (Rowlandson 83). This shows how her belief in God changed her perspective on the situation, and she doesn’t take her own life. Later she describes a direct ‘working of God’ in her life, and tells readers how she got lost on her way to see her son, and though she met many new Indians she didn’t know, none of them harmed her (Rowlandson, 84). She directly gives God the credit for this miraculous situation. At the end of the story, she describes how the Lord dealt with her ‘mercifully’ and how she had ‘been in the midst’ of ‘roaring lions’ and ‘savage bears’ and how none of them offered her any ‘abuse’ (Rowlandson 85). She trusts in the Lord and believes that Her brought her out of her pit with his mercy and preserved her life. Her writing is very reflective of the Puritan style from beginning to end.                                                                                                         

  The other writer, Bradstreet, also had many Puritan writing characteristics in her work. She expresses a strong belief and reliance on God in her writing, which is a very common Puritan characteristic, and is constantly seen throughout her poem. She starts out describing how she saw her house burning and says that she cried out to God to strengthen her in her distress (Bradstreet 91). Rather then call on  anyone else, she first cries out to God, which shows her utter devotion and trust in him. As she watches her house burn to the ground, I noticed how she drew God’s divine plan out of it, and how she had a simple understanding of her situation because of her belief in God. She mentions blessing his name because he is a giver and a taker, and the one who provided her with the means to even have a house in the first place (Bradstreet 91). This, again, reflects the Puritan style of writing because Puritans linked situations in their life to direct workings of God. She describes her sorrow and grief for losing everything that she ever owned, and you think that the story is going to end on that melancholy note, but instead, she talks of God’s heavenly home that he is building for her in heaven (Bradstreet 91). She has a positive outlook in this harsh tragedy, linking it to God, again reflecting the Puritan characteristics.

Rowlandson, Mary. "A Narrative of Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson." Glencoe    American Literature. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, n.d. 82-85. Print.

Bradstreet, Anne. "Upon the Burning of Our House." Glencoe American Literature. N.p.: McGraw-Hill, n.d. 91. Print.