The Modern Puritan

I don't think there is any group of people that can be compared to the Puritans because they were so strict and unforgiving, and that mind set and belief just doesn't prosper today. So I am going to write about how a Puritan would feel in today's modern world.
A Puritan in modern times would definitely be outcasted for their beliefs, because they are so radical. I also feel like the modern Puritan would be pretty judge mental towards people not of their faith, by thinking they are better than everyone. Almost everyone in today's society would be going to Hell if what the Puritans believed was true. 1) nobody dresses like the Puritans did, conservatively and dull. 2) many people don't go to church and keep the sabbath day holy, as the Puritans strongly believed should be done. 3) most people don't even know their 10 commandments. As we see in The Crucible, in extreme cases doing these things lead to people getting hung, granted we aren't going to have a Witch Trial; but still, we can see that the Puritan's were very strict and very opposite to the morals we, as a society, hold today.
In The Scarlet Letter we see Hester, being outcasted and completely ridiculed because of a sin she committed. The world today is filled with sinners, big or little sins, but sinners none the less. If Puritans were in our world they would attempt to outcast the sinners, but it would be difficult to do, seeing as just about everyone sins.
This is all not to say that there aren't any groups of people, and religions that do believe in strict rules and laws, but there aren't any quite as extreme as the Puritans.

John Proctor, Hero or Stooge?

            In this play John Proctor really cares about his “name” and what the town thought of him. Through out the play this shows in the way he interacts with the rest of Salem. A major example of this is when he is reluctant to confess his affair with Abigail.

            I think John is a hero because in the last scene he is about to lie and “confess” to being a witch, but he then decides on integrity. Proctor rips up his signed confession and goes to be hung. John chose to have integrity even though it was so easy for him to lie and not be hung. John stated that to lie and stay alive it would be a dishonor to the people who chose to not lie. I also think that he did this to not dishonor his name; Proctor wanted to be brave enough to die for something that he didn’t do.

            I enjoyed this last scene because of the emotion and dialogue between John and Elizabeth. John asks Elizabeth for forgiveness, to which she replies, it’s not mine to give. He later asks again and she tells him that she doesn’t need to forgive him, he needs to forgive himself. I think this means that he has been so caught up in holding his image and hating him self for his sins that he forgot to forgive himself. Even though Elizabeth was hurt by the affair she still loves John and John still loves her. This was a nice ending because John was able to see himself and he was able to choose integrity.

There goes the neighborhood

Written in a child’s perspective from Carthage Illinois in the early 1840s.

             I woke up on Monday morning to my parents arguing about the Mormons, those dang Mormons. They think they can just come to Illinois and have so much power, they have so much political influence here; at least that’s what my parents say. At school I heard some kids saying that their parents said the Mormons were bad, that they tried to take our stuff, and our land. I asked the kids why they would try to take our things, they told me that the Mormons steal everything, and that’s why they’re in Illinois. They used to be in Missouri, but they were kicked out because they wouldn’t stop stealing people’s stuff, so they moved here. Now the Mormons are taking our power in this state and in Hancock County.

            Months later I heard that the state had called for Joseph Smith and Hyrum Smith’s arrest, Joseph Smith was the founder of the Mormon church. I wondered why they would want him arrested, I knew that yes everyone was worried about his growing power, but he didn’t commit any crimes. A lot of people told me things like, he’s a bad man who wants to steal our stuff, and take our land, but I knew that wasn’t really why. I finally found out that he had ordered that the facilities that produced the newspaper, the Nauvoo Expositor, be destroyed. He didn’t like that newspaper because they published an issue saying that the Mormons practiced polygamy. My mother told me polygamy means that a man can have more than one wife.

            Joseph was finally arrested and he was to be kept here in Carthage. A lot of the people in the town were angry that they were to be staying here. I heard some people saying they wanted to hurt them, but they couldn’t because Governor Ford promised them safety. Despite the promise, one night a mob attacked the jail and shot Joseph and Hyrum. Everyone in the town talked about how they deserved it, about how these men were awful.

            After the men were killed, everyone in town still hated the Mormons. In Warsaw, a nearby town, they called for a wolf hunt; the wolves they would be hunting were the Mormons. When the Governor heard about this “wolf hunt” he ordered that it be stopped. The people of Hancock County continued to hate the Mormons.

            A year later I woke up to people rejoicing in the streets, I hadn’t seen people so happy in year. I asked my mom why everyone was so happy. She said that the Mormons are finally leaving Illinois. I learned that the Mormons said they would peacefully leave Nauvoo if they were left alone.

The Mormons were forced to leave Missouri in 1838, they fled to Nauvoo and built a very successful town. Other towns in Hancock County were nervous and jealous of this extremely powerful town. Persecutions began and eventually the Mormons were forced out of Illinois too. When the Mormons arrived in Illinois the people there felt that they were “taking over the neighborhood.” This is the story I thought of when given this prompt. I think its interesting that even when people don’t do anything wrong specifically, and they don’t mean to do harm to others it can still threaten and worry the people around them.