Hero or stooge? I decide.

Although some people might argue that John Proctor was a hero in the crucible by confessing his affair with Abigail, I think he was a stooge that got “played” by the girls at the court.  In my opinion, a hero is a person that has the ability to save others while at the same time not putting themselves in harm’s way which was untrue in this play.

In the play, John Proctor at first tried to use Mary to convince the judges that the girls were pretending to be possessed by the people who were convicted. Although Mary was able to tell the truth, she was mentally broken down when Abigail and the other girls pretended they were attacked by spirits sent by her. Due to their well-planned strategic maneuver, Mary’s words were considered as lies forced upon her by John who was on the Devil’s side. When Mary was thought to have lied to the judge, her words were discarded summarily but on the other hand, John Proctor was deemed a liar so now his words doesn't have any persuasion anymore.  

The next approach he used to try to save the victims was confessing to having an affair with Abigail which would reveal her motive of taking revenge upon Elizabeth to have John all to herself. When people in that court first heard him say it, they were shocked and in awe because they just couldn’t believe that a man as respected as John could ever commit such a monstrous sin in the light of God. To convince them to believe it, John belabors the point and describes to them when and where that sin was committed. In order to prove his word, the judge demanded to have Elizabeth come to the court to testify which she denies such an event had happened. Due to her words, John was shamed as a liar and a sinner. Next the girls put their scheme of being chased by spirits sent by the devil into motion in order to convict John of siding with the evil one which the judge believed. No matter what words John try to say afterward, he had been “played” by the girls and was sentenced to execution if he doesn’t confess.

          Overall, John couldn’t save anyone and gotten himself killed which is similar to a stooge in a drama who isn’t successful at anything and always getting himself/herself into trouble. If he was a hero, he should have confessed sooner so the girls couldn’t gain so much trust/power in the court and predicted their reactions/schemes before going to court. Throughout the entire process, his fate was tossed around in the hands of those malevolent females and with the movement of their bodies and mouths; they were able to toy with him until he walked straight to his death.

Well, let's respond to Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

After reading Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God in class yesterday, I felt like I just learned about a new aspect of Christianity because as you may guess, I’m not a Christian nor do I believe in any religion. Now if I were to think about what would happen if I lived in a Puritan neighborhood during that time period, I probably would accept it as if it was the truth all along. The reason for that is because although the Ten Commandments already told us the things we shouldn’t do and I already know what the seven deadly sins were, then why should we be surprised to hear about what would happen to us if we commit a sin.  Naturally it occurs to me that God is very angry with man because he had already send a flood to kill us once so why wouldn’t it be common sense that he’ll condemn us to Hell if we commit a sin which he hates.

                Now referring back to how I would’ve reacted, I would just be sitting on the bench listening and show the same expression as the group. If I don’t do that, then maybe they’ll think that hearing this revelation doesn’t surprise me at all and burn me at the stake for being a heretic for not caring about God. Although this sermon given by Jonathan Edwards might surprise many people in that Church and some might even run out of the Church screaming, I would just be absolutely calm on the inside because I know that was the truth all along. The reason is because if people could just repent for their sins after they had committed it, then what is the point of not committing any sins. That’s just my opinion because I agree with what he’s saying that if people actually didn’t commit sins their entire life, then they definitely deserve to go to Heaven while the others who couldn’t persevere should go to Hell which is where they belong in the sense that they anger God. If my parents who were with me at that time was surprised and decided to run out of the Church screaming, then I’ll just follow them in a normal pace but if they reacted like I did on the inside, then I would just accept it as I would for whatever reaction they might have. Basically, I would go with the crowd because I feel that Jonathan Edwards is a sensible but others might think he’s crazy and I don’t want to anger the crowd so I would conform.  

If you were me at that time, what would you have done? Please leave a comment below about your thoughts!

There goes the neighborhood

Well I can’t think of an account that fits this topic so I decided to write about a factual account from my mother who had an experience with this kind of situation.  This came about when she saw me struggling with this assignment and asked me what I was stuck on. Then I gladly told her what I was working on and she told me that she had an experience that’s germane to this blog topic. After talking to her, she persuaded me to write about her experience when she was still living in her village in China.

                My mother remember that one day when a city couple decided to move into the village she grew up in, they brought with them electronics and beautiful furniture  that wouldn’t be of any use in the village. When the other villagers saw that the couple brought a lot of furniture and electronics with them, they decided to help those couple move their things into their house. Upon seeing the villagers moving toward their belongings, the couple quickly moved to their things and angrily told the villagers to not even think about stealing from them. Even though the villagers meant no harm, the couple still decided to misjudge them because they think the villagers are uneducated thieves/lowlifes who don’t have enough money to support their lives in the cities.  Then the groups of villagers dispersed with anger in their minds while the couple went into their new house.  

                For the next day and the days afterward, the couple never leaves their house unless they were going to the market to buy groceries.  Due to that fact, they never got the chance to have any meaningful conversations with the villagers so wherever they go, they would bear those prejudice thoughts of the villagers in their minds. On a few occasions where a random villager stopped the couple for a quick conversation, the couple would always tell the stranger about their lives in the city and how they should be more like them instead of being lowlifes.  As the days went on, hatred started to build up between the couple and the villagers because of the couple’s prejudiced view of the villagers and the unfriendly attitude from those welcoming villagers as a response to the couple.

                From those days afterward, whenever the couple comes in contact with any of the villagers, they would argue about the most ridiculous things such as how the villagers should become more civilized and how the couple is trying to convert the villagers into carping snobs like them. With the fuel provided from the arguments, the fire of hatred strengthened until it was to the point where the couple would either apologize to the villagers or they would be evicted by any means necessary. Eventually the couple decided to apologize to the villagers but not because they changed their minds but because they think that it is a waste of energy for them to argue against lowlifes that can’t accept change.

                Even though this continued for a few years while my mother was living in her village, the idea of there goes the neighborhood applies because of how the newly moved in couple is trying to change the village while the villagers are not allowing them to do that. Historically, this could be compared to how Christopher Columbus tries to convert the Native Americans to Christianity and there were some Natives who strongly refused to change what they believed in.  

Introduction

             Hello everybody! My name is Yi Dong Mei. This year I’m going to be one of your classmates in Mr. McCarthy’s 7th period American literature class. I hope that by reading this blog entry, all of you could know a little bit more about me. At this time, we probably know a few or a lot of people in this room but by the end of reading all of these blog entries, we would be more familiar with each other than we are now. Now let us get started on knowing a little bit about me!

 This year I’m a sophomore attending Whitney Young High School. My birthday is in July each year so I had just recently turned fifteen years old. Since I was the only child and my father immigrated to the United States, my mother and I moved here when I was just eight years old. To this day, I live in Chicago’s one and only Chinatown where Chinese culture are displayed almost everywhere. You can find traces of them from the food made in bakery stores to the zodiac animals at Zodiac Square. Well, that’s enough about my personal information so now read about my personality.

Some of my interests are playing badminton, going for bike rides with friends, and listening to almost any kind of music. Besides from hobbies, I am interested in reading science fiction books such as the Ender’s game series by Orson Scott Card, learning about Chinese culture and participating in the Whitney Young Garden Club. The reason why I actually participated in the Whitney Young Garden Club is because it’s very enjoyable to spend one or two hours every week taking care of plants with other students who are also interested plus there is opportunities for students to obtain service hours. Last year, we get to build our very own greenhouse from scratch and we grew some of the vegetables that we used in the dishes to sell at the Taste of Whitney Young.   

Well that’s almost all there is to know about me because by this time, most of you might already be placing your attention on other more important tasks in your minds.