The Crucible Act IV

PROCTOR, his eyes full of tears: I can. And there’s your first marvel, that I can. You have made your magic now, for now I do think I see some shred of goodness in John Proctor. Not enough to weave a banner with, but white enough to keep it from such dogs. Elizabeth, in a burst of terror, rushes to him and weeps against his hand. Give them no tear! Tears pleasure them! Show honor now, show a stony heart and sink them with it! He has lifted her, and kisses her now with great passion.
REBECCA: Let you fear nothing! Another judgment waits us all!
DANFORTH: Hang them high over the town! Who weeps for these, weeps for corruption! He sweeps out past them. Herrick starts to lead Rebecca, who almost collapses, but Proctor catches her, and she glances up at him apologetically.
REBECCA: I’ve had no breakfast.
HERRICK: Come, man.
Herrick escorts them out, Hathorne and Cheever behind them. Elizabeth stands staring at the empty doorway.

Here John is final in his decision, he cannot confess to being with the Devil knowing that it is a lie. Elizabeth reconciles with his decision because she too knows that he is doing the right thing. Rebecca, for a while now, had been firm in her decision to not confess, and now encourages John and reminds him that the judgement of God is the only one that matters. Danforth by this time is completely convinced that he was is and has been in the right, and pushes ahead with the hangings, and shows no sympathy or remorse whatsoever. At one time it seemed as though he was wavering, but now he has given himself over to the idea of witchcraft.

The Crucible Act IV

HALE, continuing to Elizabeth: Let you not mistake your duty as I mistook my own. I came into this village like a bridegroom to his beloved, bearing gifts of high religion; the very crowns of holy law I brought, and what I touched with my bright confidence, it died; and where I turned the eye of my great faith, blood flowed up. Beware, Goody Proctor—cleave to no faith when faith brings blood. It is law that leads you to sacrifice. Life, woman, life is God’s most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it. I beg you, woman, prevail upon your husband to confess. Let him give his lie. Quail not before God’s judgment in this, for it may well be God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride. Will you plead with him? I cannot think he will listen to another.
ELIZABETH, quietly: I think that be the Devil’s argument.

I have to admire Elizabeth for this. She loves John, but she will not counsel him to do what is wrong, because she knows that it is wrong, John would know and he would not be able to live with himself if he did the wrong thing.  Hale is desperate for Elizabeth to convince John to confess and get his life back because the guilt of condemning innocent lives is hanging over his head. At this point he wants to do anything to save someone, Elizabeth also wants her husbands life to be spared, but also wants him to do the right thing. Both of them are conflicted but they are dealing with the conflict differently. Hale wants to convince John to confess, while Elizabeth will not tell John what to do because she knows that it must be his choice and his choice only.

The Crucible Act III

PROCTOR: Mary, tell the Governor what they—He has hardly got a word out, when, seeing him coming for her, she rushes out of his reach, screaming in horror.

MARY WARREN: Don’t touch me—don’t touch me! At which the girls halt at the door.

PROCTOR, astonished: Mary!

MARY WARREN, pointing at Proctor: You’re the Devil’s man!
He is stopped in his tracks.

At the beginning of Act III, Mary was testifying against Abigail and the other girls, and I was really rooting for her but then the pressure got to her and she reverted. If the "court" didn't take everything Abigail said as absolute truth, maybe Mary would have gone through with her testimony, and Elizabeth and John and others would have gone free.

The Crucible Act III

DANFORTH, reaches out and holds her face, then: Look at me! To your own knowledge, has John Proctor ever committed the crime of lechery? In a crisis of indecision she cannot speak. Answer my question! Is your husband a lecher!

ELIZABETH, faintly: No, sir.

DANFORTH: Remove her, Marshal.


Natural inclination in this situation is to save the reputation of your husband, no one would want to make it public that their husband cheated on them, especially when they love them. Elizabeth loved her husband and thought only to save him, it is a natural reaction and even before she gave her final answer, it was obvious that she was struggling. She wanted to tel the truth, but she didn't want to ruin his name, and then when John revealed that he had already told the truth, my heart broke for her because she had just condemned herself trying to save John.

The Crucible Act 2

"That bloody mongrel Walcott charge her. Y’see, he buy a pig of my wife four or five year ago, and the pig died soon after. So he come dancin’ in for his money back. So my Martha, she says to him, “Walcott, if you haven’t the wit to feed a pig properly, you’ll not live to own many,” she says. Now he goes to court and claims that from that day to this he cannot keep a pig alive for more than four weeks because my Martha bewitch them with her books!"
- Giles
This so called evidence is pure stupidity, all that Martha Corey said was that yes, it would make sense that his pig died seeing that he didn't feed it, and if he continued to not feed his pigs then they would continue to die. That is how the world works, it is no phenomenon, and every fool knows that. There is no way that any sane person would (or should) consider that valid evidence, but when fear controls the hearts of men, sanity and common sense are thrown out the window as seen by Walcott's testimony.

The Crucible Act 2

"If she [Elizabeth] is innocent! Why do you never wonder if Parris be innocent, or Abigail? Is the accuser always holy now? Were they born this morning as clean as God’s fingers? I’ll tell you what’s walking Salem—vengeance is walking Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! This warrant’s vengeance! I’ll not give my wife to vengeance!" ~ John Proctor

John Proctor is one of the sane group of people left in Salem because Abigail told him the truth which is why he calls her out. He also calls out the fact that the trials are not fair, because the court is not taking into account the fact that the accusers could be lying, here his temper flares up and understandably so.

The Crucible

"It discomfits me! Last night - mark this - I tried and tried and could not say my prayers. And then she close her book and walks out of the house, and suddenly - mark this - I could pray again!" ~ Giles

This just goes to show how extreme their superstition was. There could be so many reasons as to why he couldn't say his prayers. If he was thinking of something else, or was distracted then it is quite easy to struggle with prayers. It just seems like any little thing could have been taken as witchcraft, it's almost as though the wanted it to be true for excitement.

The Crucible

"Now look you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam's dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents heads on the pillow next to mine, and i have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!..." ~ Abigail

This quote sticks out to me, because this shows who Abigail truly is, and just how much power she holds over the other girls. This also shows just how far she is willing to go to get what she wants, and just how little she cares about people other than herself. Her goal was to kill Elizabeth and if anyone stood in her way, then she was saying that she would not even hesitate to kill them. She saw her parents killed, and uses that experience to show that she knows how to kill others, showing the hardness of her heart.

Of Mice and Men: part 3

What stuck out most to me in this story was the ending, it was most definitely not what I was expecting. I was actually in shock when I read the ending because George killed Lennie so that none of the others would be able to, but he still killed Lennie. Lennie didn't know what he was doing, he had no control over himself, he was an innocent guy with no control or awareness of his own strength, but at the same time he was guilty of killing Curley's wife. The ending was very thought provoking, because I liked Lennie and we readers are shown his innocence, but he killed a woman. Then George Kills Lennie and I momentarily hated George, but then I felt sorry for him, he really had no choice, it was either kill Lennie or watch others kill him. Either way was a hopeless situation, and I cannot even begin to imagine how George will feel, having to live with the fact that he killed his one and only companion, the one that he was supposed to look after and protect. I do admire Steinbeck for showing that the world can be a cruel place and that the outcome is not always what we want it to be, he showed the reality of life and it's not always rainbows and sunshine.

Radical: Part 3

The most difficult part of the Radical Experiment for me would be to pray for the whole world. I am the type of person who judges some things based off of my feelings, so when a person does something wrong to me or to anyone that I care about, I find it hard to truly forgive them.  Or if there is someone that I do not and cannot respect, I tend to leave them out in my prayers. As a flawed human being we categorize sins, to us there are degrees of sins. To God sin is sin. So in God's eyes my dishonesty is just as bad as someone else's homicide because if God's spirit is not in you, it is not in you and that is that. Unfortunately I have selective memory, so I can remember that when I have no conflict, when something arises however, I have no recollection of that fact whatsoever. There have been times when I have purposely excluded people from my prayers, and I literally have to pray to want to pray for those people. In all honesty all five components would be extremely difficult for me, because I am not yet at the stage where I am willing to make a ton of sacrifices, and I need and want to be considering what God gave up for me. So until I build a strong relationship with God, this challenge is near impossible for me to do completely.

Of Mice and Men: Part 2

How is the theme of loneliness shown in the story so far?

George and Lennie are inseparable, and that is what makes them stand out. Slim is the one who asks George why they are always together, because the rest of the ranchers do their own thing and don't really seem to care about what others do. Loneliness seems to be the way of life, but it is also not desired by most. George, for example would talk about leaving and pursuing his dream on his own without Lennie, but then he realized that he needed and wanted Lennie's company. Curley's wife came into the barn because she just wanted company, and she complained about Curley never spending time with her, Crooks at first shooed Lennie away, but eventually let him stay, and he even let Candy join him as well. Loneliness also drives some of the Characters to act a certain way, Lennie when threatened with loneliness becomes afraid and dangerous and threatening, showing that although the loneliness is a way of life it is by no means a desired way of life, but that doesn't change the way things are.

Radical: Part 2

On page 104 Platt says, "Our version of the American Dream ends up disinfecting Christians from the world more than discipling Christians in the world." Explain what you think that means,

Platt says, "Disinfecting Christians from the world involves isolating followers of Christ in a spiritual safe-deposit box called the church building and teaching them to be good." The American Dream creates people who are comfortable and content where they are, going to church once a week and then returning to their "normal" lives. It has people thinking that the church is only the physical building, and that people will be drawn to the church (the goal of the American Dream is to attract people to the church in order to have a big church). People begin to forget that God has commanded that we go out and share the gospel, and instead hole themselves up in a building. Discipling Christians means preparing Christians to do God's will and bring more people to him. Platt mentions the Cuban churches that planted other churches, they live in a world where they realize how important it is ti share God's word, they want more people because they know that more people need God, the American Dream wants more people for status, and that is the main difference between disinfecting Christians and discipling Christians. The latter group is aware of the fact that people need God and that God has chosen us, his people to spread his word.

Of Mice and Men - Part 1

The relationship between George and Lennie is a very interesting one. At first glace it seems like your typical "he's the brains, he's the brute" type deal, and while that may be true it is much more complex than that. George is the "mastermind" of the duo, he is the leader and the spokesperson for the two of them. Lennie does not have the ability to think or care for himself, he is not able to be an independent being, and it is quite obvious that he needs George, he imitates and listens to George, who always takes the reigns. George takes care of Lennie, he complains about him, but he does care about Lennie. We see George constantly scolding Lennie over something, but it is only because George sees how Lennie's behavior can and will be a danger to him. George is the only person who understands Lennie and is able to see his true innocence, and he makes an effort to ensure that Lennie's accidental brutality does not cost him greatly. The two have a sort of Father-son relationship where they also balance each other out. George is a rather quick-tempered man who tend to be rather harsh with his words, while Lennie is this sweet, good-natured man who is just misunderstood.

Radical - Part 1

In chapter one of Radical by David Platt,  he begins with introducing the mega-churches. And we, with our "American Dreams" and our secular, close-minded selves think, "the bigger the better". The funny thing is though, that God doesn't say that things work that way, especially not when it comes to salvation. "Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it" Martthew 7: 14. What really caught my attention is how many try to combine the church with the ways of the world. "...American church culture where success is defined by bigger crowds, bigger budgets, and bigger buildings". It's all about fame and status when it should be all about God. I feel like it is a very common thing for us sinful beings to take what was once good, and focus all of our energy one the one part that isn't nearly as important as the main idea. Church shouldn't be about how many people you have compared to another church, the focus again  should always be on God. Now do we want more people to know about the one true God and his love for us, of course. We want our brothers and sisters in Christ to have eternal life, but if we attempt to bring people in the wrong way, the odds are that the focus is too much on getting more people, and less on getting more true followers. Jesus wanted followers who followed because they believed, not because they saw a cool trick, or heard some fancy music. this just reminded me that we need to be like Jesus in everything that we do including how we teach, even if we don't get as many followers. after all Jesus started off with 12.

Dante's inferno Canto's I-III

How does God show grace to Dante in a way that is "tailored" to the pilgrim's needs?

God's grace is shown to Dante in the form of Virgil, a fellow poet, who would be his guide through hell, God chose Virgil to be Dante's guide because Virgil was a master poet and could relate to Dante, also because Virgil was a poet he had a way with words and he knew how to comfort and console Dante as they traveled through the horrors of Hell.

French Revolution Review

1). Identify and explain ONE event that occurred in France in 1789 that would support the argument concerning the causes of the French Revolution in the first passage.

 One event that took place in 1789 that defends the argument was the summoning of Estates General by Louis XVI as an attempt to solve France's problems. The Estates General was the representative body of the Three Estates of the realm. In the past when it came to voting the the First Estate (clergy) and the Second Estate (nobility) would vote against the Third Estate (the rest of society), but the Third Estate decided that they'd had enough, and would no longer put up with unfair treatment. Therefore they left the Three states and declared themselves the National Assembly, showing the unification of the lower classes and the desire for legal equality.

2). Identify and explain ONE aspect of the French Revolution that would support the argument concerning revolutionary ideas made in the second passage.

July 14, 1789 the common people formed a provisional municipal government and organized a militia of volunteers, and marched to the Bastille to obtain weapons. The people demanded that the governor give them weapons, he opened fire, killing 98 people, prompting the crowd to take their revenge, by beheading the governor and taking control of the Bastille. Another revolt, this time led by Parisian women, over the increasing price of bread arose. "These political events were varied; they sprang from widely different causes; they expressed widely different purposes and goals." This shows that the causes of the French Revolution varied and did not stem from one uniform problem.

3).Identify and explain ONE assumption that the author of the first passage would make about the causes and importance of the French Revolution that would not be shared by the author of the second passage

The author of the first passage assumes that the causes of the French Revolution were all linked together and mainly unified. While the author of the Second passage clearly states that the causes of the French Revolution were different and were meant to accomplish different goals.