A Principle to Keep

The human race claims to uphold principles and morals. Many people contemplate disobeying these morals multiple times in their lives, some more than others. 

Morals tell us as people what we should or shouldn't do. Some are personal, while others are more lawfully backed. 

It is in human nature to act morally, therefore, one who acts morally is better pleased with himself than one who does not act morally. 

Since the first homo sapiens, people have had the choice to act morally or not to. A paper written on early human mortality suggests that those who prospered in early human life were the ones who chose a moral living standard.

Humans who live morally are happier, and have greater success. Humans who don't live this way are caught up in wrong doings, sadness, and despair; they don't prosper.

There are many principles that are considered moral, and that should be upheld in order to maintain the moral nature of humans. The most prominent of these, is to care for the people around you. Humans should recognize the struggles and imperfections of others around them and try to help them. 

Modern morals don't hold this principle as high as it should be. Humans are becoming more and more distant from each other, and they aren't able to help each other anymore. 

Like I said earlier about people disobeying morals, many people don't uphold principles that should be kept. These can be big or small principles, there is always a part of the human mind that will question the right answer, or path.

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving I am grateful for all of the interesting conversations we have in this English class. I'm thankful for all of the smart people in this class and for all of their input and knowledge that they give. I'm thankful for my group work buddies, Alex, Peter, and Dillon because they're smart and funny. I'm thankful for all the kids in the class that say stuff in the discussions when the rest of us are too scared, tired, or just too stupid to say anything. I'm thankful for all of you. Happy thanksgiving!

I Celebrate Myself

In society today it is hard for most people to express themselves for who they really are. People are afraid of judgement, and often do not even realize who they actually are. There is a sense of conformity that almost everyone follows, they go through trouble to be who they should be, not who they are. If people could realize how much potential they had, and how much they could accomplish; great things would happen. Everyone is different, they should't try to be something else, or be held back by societies  
views and restrictions.
During Thoreau's time everyone was focused on self realization and self thinking. People wanted to find out things for themselves and learn and become great things. Now, most people don't strive to gain knowledge and understanding of their capabilities.
The ability to celebrate yourself is extremely valuable and helpful when you are trying to accomplish things. With celebration of your abilities, and self realization, you are confident and better able to do things that are tough. Confidence is key in life, without it it is very hard to try new things and be social.

Poe

When Poe was two years old his mother died, and his father had already left the family. The Allan family adopted him and he began writing in his early teen years. He was always writing. He went to The University of Virginia and gambled to get money to pay off his debt but that didn't work, his only choice was to leave the school. He later applied to West Point, after schooling he began working as a writer full time. He started as a critic for newspapers and magazines. Many people saw him as the harshest critic. He released multiple works in the book, Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque.

Because Poe wrote in first person and he wrote about Opium many people thought he used drugs when he wrote. All of his horror works, mystery works, and vampire works led people to be confused by him and they saw him as a kind of dark presence. Poe's death was equally mysterious as his stories, he was found roaming the streets of of Baltimore and taken to the hospital. A few days after arriving at the hospital he died, the true reason is unknown, like all of his stories it was very mysterious and "unwritten."

What is an American?

Technically an American is someone who lives in America, but most commonly Americans are people who live in The United States.
What I think describes an American is someone who lives in America, and who has experience in all types of cultures. The U.S. is known as the melting pot for a reason, there are so many types of people, religions, and cultures here. To live here and not have experienced at least two different cultures in your life is nearly impossible.
To be and American also involves being free, or that is what it's supposed to mean, when explorers came to America they were seeking a few things but freedom was a main treasure they wanted. An important group that came were the Puritans, seeking a new world of their own, without people with different beliefs.
Another part of Americas history that shows freedom was the conflict between newly formed Americans and Britain to establish a new and free people.
To be an American is to be culturally diverse, to be free, free of religious conflict, free of slavery, and free of persecution.

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.