Modern Puritans

The number one most popular religion that resonates on planet Earth today would be Christianity. With a believed population of 2,116,909,552, this includes the population of Roman Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, and Anglicans. With this being said, United States is the number one area that houses about 11.3% of the Christian population and 79.5% of the United States are made up of Christians, which can be estimated to about 246,780,000 people in America are Christians. This wouldn’t be a big surprise really, but if it is, hope you learned something from reading this. I wouldn’t be surprised that the Christian population in America to be this big, but yet, I expected it to be even bigger. Since I do know that from the time that America was founded, the first thirteen colonies were dominated by Puritans, and from generation to generation to generations, the beliefs in God hasn’t changed and so hasn’t the constant reading of the Bible, and the worshipping of God, but what has changed was the interpretations of short stories in the Bible.    

The Christian population is just a more “updated” modern version of Puritans, but possibly less judgmental on others beliefs and more respected on others views on things and sense of actions. The Puritans were a group of believers that believed in God, but had a harsh view on others that believed in different deities, and would usually take action to stop their beliefs because they believe that their God was the right God and all other deities were the Devil, and the worship of other deities were like strengthening the power of the Devil, since other deities were consider to be the Devil, and in order to weaken the Devil, the Puritans believe that they must take down his/her follower. The take down can either be death, like hanging or burning, or the confession of believing in the Devil and say that you want to be with God. There is a group that is similar in ways of the Puritans, but they don’t exactly consider themselves as Puritans and neither does society consider them as one. This group would be the Westboro Baptist Church.

The Westboro Baptist Church is known in society a hate group towards nonbelievers of God, nonbelievers of “their” God, and gays. The Westboro Baptist Church members live amongst each other and is hated by nearly everyone in society for their extreme ideology. Some of their young members have been disowned by their families because they dear to either to question the ideology of their ways or because they disliked being hated by others and having no friends. The Westboro Baptist Church isn’t as violent as the Puritans were in trying to stop the support of different deities that were consider to be different from “their” God and also wasn’t as violent as the Puritans were in the stopping of support of subjects that they believe that God doesn’t like because the way of interpretation on the subject from the Bible is negative on the subject. The Westboro Baptist Church believes that God hates gays because the way they interpreted the subject on gays from the Bible were negative upon them and so they, the Westboro Baptist Church would go to events for gays or events that were to support gays and picket, yelling, “God hates Fags!” One example of picketing on gays would be a picketing on a funeral of a man named Matthew Shepard from Laramie, Wyoming whom was beaten to death by two men for being homosexual. The Westboro Baptist Church went to that funeral and picketed say that he deserved it and God accepts the event.       

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge

There are a multiple of different definitions for the words “Hero” and “Stooge”, so it makes it pretty frustrating on what the two words really mean. In the dictionary, the word “Hero” means a person that is admired for his courage or ability and his noble qualities. In a personal preference, hero would mean a person that has made a positive impact on society or in the lives of others. For the word stooge, the dictionary meaning would be a person who serves only as an assist or support for others in wrong doings. In a personal preference, stooge would mean a fool or an idiot from the context that it is used in. From the definitions of these two words, John Proctor is closer to the hero’s definition compared to the stooge definition.

I’m sorry make this blog post really boring, even if it isn’t still, the tone of the whole blog right now is just gloomy and sounds like I don’t like to be doing this, but I mean this is homework so it isn’t that really fun. In order to raise the tone of this blog, I need to have you; the reader read this in a really funny manner or in an upbeat manner, you can use accents or use hand motions when reading to make it interesting. This is a blog! A place where reading becomes fun and interesting and you learn…stuff.

Back to the topic now, John Proctor in my opinion isn’t either a hero or a stooge. In The Crucible, John Proctor didn’t stop the witch trials and didn’t save anyone from dying from the witch trials, but one thing that he did do was that he put the most effort into not only saving his wife Elizabeth Proctor from the witch trials, but also all the other wives and towns people that were accused of witchery. Most of the other men that had their wives accused of witchery by the girls- Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, Susanna Walcott, Mercy Lewis, Mary Warren, and the others, only tried to save their wives from getting hanged and not the others wives that were accused of witchery. Bit selfish don’t you think? The only way to avoid death of hanging for the accused victims was to confess and say that you saw the devil, you signed the devil’s book, you sent your spirits on innocent victims, now you want to be with God and want to walk with Jesus, and you say that you saw so and so with the devil. This was really the only evidence that you can use to save from death, since Salem, Massachusetts during the times of the late 1600s is a theocracy (a system of government in which the government is ruled in the name of God). A confessed person in Salem, Massachusetts has more trust over someone that says that they have never sent spirits on people in the town or either that they never worshipped the devil. Why? Because now that you have confessed your sins and God has forgiven you, it means that you will not lie anymore since now that you’re by the side of God and you will help God fight off the devil that lurks within the townspeople. It also means that you will not break the Ten Commandments since a true Christian doesn’t do that. All the girls confessed that they have seen the devil, danced with him and signed his book with their blood. They have also randomly accused another person. Which I believe that the girls accused whoever they didn't like, or either in some way stirred up hate for them and wanted to see them dead since there is over 100 people in the town of Salem and they only chose that certain person. Doing the confession to the high authorities of seeing the devil and all, gave the accused victims of witchery or being with the devil a get out of death card, which makes you a stooge to the girls because you are assisting them in getting tension off of them for dancing in the woods by including more people into the situation, and soon people will forget what the girls did in the woods, which it was true. When death is involved, mostly every human being will at some point lie or go against their religions laws to avoid  death or pain. Would you want to die or suffer pain for no apparent reason just because someone used you as a scapegoat? Many people will say no and do whatever it takes to avoid it like the townspeople and the girls, while some people will say yes because they either don’t want to break their religions laws or believes that what they are doing is the best option to stop the drama that is happening. For example, Rebecca Nurse didn't confess and decided to die as being honest and a true Christian than to live as a liar, she wasn't a stooge. Same thing for John Proctor, John Proctor did say that he will confess, which he did, but then he didn't want to live as being an even not a good man, Since he already couldn't forgive himself for the committing of adultery with Abigail Williams, and believed that his wife Elizabeth was judging him for doing that, but really his heart was just thinking that his wife Elizabeth was judging him. John Proctor doesn't consider himself to be a good man, but his wife Elizabeth Proctor, well early on in the play, she didn't really consider him to be a really good man, but had a small shred of goodness, but now she believes more that he has more than just a shred of goodness, but he has a lot since he stood his ground and became honest and didn't become a stooge for the girls like mostly everyone else that was blamed for witchery. The standing of his ground and dying as a man that still has a shred of goodness, was really all that John wanted, and he got that at the end of the play. John Proctor wasn't a stooge or a hero but was closer as being considered as a hero than a stooge. Since his wife Elizabeth and Rebecca Nurse did admire his will to not lie to save his life. 

Arrivals...There goes the neighborhood

To dilly dally, I will not be going straight on to the purpose of this blog post, and I’m sorry to put this sentence into this blog post Mr. McCarthy, but it’s the only way that I can think of to make this blog post seem long, boring, and make me seem like I’m an overachiever. I wanted to dilly-dally some more, but I just got scared think of you Mr. McCarthy lowering my grade for dilly-dallying and not getting straight onto the discussion of this blog, “Arrivals… There Goes The Neighborhood”.

The short stories- “A Journey Through Texas” by Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, “The General History of Virginia” by John Smith, and “Of Plymouth Plantation” by William Bradford in the Prentice Hall Literature: The American Experience book all had a common theme, and that theme was the explorers from Afro-Eurasia coming over to the Americas in the hopes of conquering land for themselves or for their kings and queens. The feelings that the Indians had of the “invasion” really depended on how much experience each Indian tribe had with explorers. The more understanding you had about the purpose of the explorers’ comings would make you more hostile towards them. Why? Well first imagine that you owned a piece of land in a really peaceful and exotic environment. On that piece of land, you have about 13-15 triangular prism that has a hole on the top of the prism and about six thin but sturdy oak wood sticks sticking out of that hole and small plots of land that has vegetation. In those 13-15 teepees lived around 30 people that you have gotten really close too and has formed many great memories with each other. Now on a peaceful day, the sun is bright and shinning and next thing that happens is that a group of 7 males walk onto your land and are being extremely nice, greeting everyone and giving away free bead necklaces. Soon you form a friendly bond between the newcomers, and they have built houses and have begun civilization right next to your land. That seems fine right? Of course it is, you have found a new trading partner and have found new allies that can help you during territorial battles. Now you’re thinking that life is all great from what seems to be happening, but your new neighbors have been snatching your women and children from their tepees and putting them on their ship at night without you knowing. Then one day they decide to do assault your men on your own land. Then the explorers decide to leave the land and sail back to their origin land with your women children as their slaves. Doesn’t this enrage you about explorers, the people that you had so much trust on have backstabbed you. This is a reason to why the Indians in, “The General History of Virginia” kill a couple of John Smith’s men and took John Smith as a prisoner and decided on a death of crushing his head. The chief of the tribe believed that John Smith and his subordinates were a threat to them, scared that they would try and conquer their land and enslave them, so the chief decided to make the first move and kill off some of the explorers or else the situation of getting conquered or close to getting conquered over will happen again. For the other stories, like, “A Journey through Texas”, and “Of Plymouth Plantation” The Indian tribes never really did encounter explorers until in these stories they did. In these short stories, the Indians were scared of them because of how they looked, but were also amazed at them because the Indians believed that they were like “aliens”. In the “Journey through Texas” the Indians thought that Alvar and his men were like demi-gods because Alvar performed the first surgery in Texas, but the surgery to the Indians was like a healing ceremony going on. The Indians were scared of them a little bit because it seemed like Alvar and his men had powers. In the “Of Plymouth Plantation” the Indians later on in the story approaches them, but I’m pretty sure that the Indians have already known their arrival earlier, but were just sacred to approach them. When William Bradford and his subordinates were struggling, the Indians saw their troubles, but ignored until they saw that they were in desperate need, that was when the Indians came to help them out, teaching them the agriculture of the Americas and how to protect themselves from the harsh weather of the Americas.  From all three of these short stories, the Indians and the explorers later on did get to forma better bond, but as time passes and more explorers come over to the Americas to start a new life or to get away from their countries harsh judgment on their beliefs, they dominate more land, and soon backstabbing the Indians and pushing them further away. From this most of the Indian tribes that used to dominate the Americas have been backstabbed a few times, but can’t fight back because their technology wasn’t as high tech as the Explorers were. The explorers’ native lands created a snowballing effect, one country would create a new type of musket and another country would get a spark of a new idea for a better and more efficient musket. While in the Americas, there was no snowballing effect since most tribes didn’t really know each other that well, and didn’t like each that well also. As time flies, there are no more Indian reservations, but cities and suburbs.