Reflection Blog: Declaration of Independence

Everyone has different tactics of persuasion, but sometimes when someone thinks they are being logical they are actually appealing to emotion. In the Declaration of Independence there are a surprising number of accounts of faulty logic. But it is not easy to avoid these techniques because they often do work and if it can persuade someone then why would you not use them?
One example in his work could either be considered name calling or an ad hominem. Jefferson says that the King of Great Britain is an absolute tyrant, but that is not exactly true (Jefferson, 123). For a while Britain did not mess with America at all, but now they have started taxing and interfering. Jefferson provides some examples of other awful things he has done, but they do not make him a tyrant. He is more like a leader with too much power. Admittedly he does make several good points, but they are somewhat invalidated because he calls the king a tyrant (Jefferson, 123). Jefferson goes on to say that the British army has put themselves “independent of, and superior to, civil power” (Jefferson, 123). It is true that the British did interfere in the colonies along with arbitrary killings, but this is an emotional appeal. He says that they are “quartering” in the colonies and are protected by “mock trials” (Jefferson, 123). When he says they are quartering he is wanting the people to think that the British are completely interfering, and when he says mock trial, although this may be a good term, he is insulting the trial to convince the people that Britain is totally unjust (Jefferson, 123). One of the most jarring fallacies is when he says “he [the king] has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people” (Jefferson, 124). This is sort of a direct appeal to emotion. With the last two phrases he makes the people think that Britain is just out ruining lives and burning the nation down. That is not exactly true. There were some issues going on between the two countries, but it was not consistent in every colony that burning towns was going on. When Jefferson is concluding, he says they have a “firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” (Jefferson, 124). Basically he is making people believe in him because they believe in God. These people see that Jefferson is backed by “Divine Providence,” so they have to join his side. Jefferson’s points probably could have been portrayed much more dominantly if he did not use all of these faulty reasons.
Thomas Jefferson does make many good points aside from the large amount of emotional appeal. He has a long list of unlawful acts that the king of Britain has done, and it does show that Britain needs to be taken out of control over the colonies (Jefferson 122). The reasons Jefferson uses both tactics of emotion and logic is because that gets all groups of people, but the ones who side with logic may not like the emotional side.

Jefferson, Thomas. “Declaration of Independence.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 122-124. Print.

Journal #10 Logic

We should postpone the vocab assignment for many reasons. We do vocab all the time, and we just finished a test. I am not saying that we just do not want to do the assignment, but we have too much work already. It is simply too difficult to do this vocab with all of our other homework. Aside from just English, we all have other classes with just as much homework. Along with this we are also getting other homework in this class. We have to read the Declaration of Independence for homework, and we have to write another five hundred word blog on it. It is just not possible to get this blog done, and still have time to finish the vocab assignment. We have been working too hard, so we need a break from the vocab test that we just had to look at the words. We should have some time to think about the words, and then we should try to figure out what they mean without looking it up. After we have these opinions we can find the real meaning. This will give us time to do some real thinking, and learn from our mistakes. It has been scientifically proven that people learn better from mistakes than from success. If I think I know a word and I develop an idea on what it means, and then I found out it means something completely different then I will never forget the meaning. Postponing the vocab assignment would not only make me learn the vocab words at a much better success rate, but it would also allow me to do better on the next quiz. It basically just makes sense to postpone the vocab quiz. If it is not postponed we will all have more problems on the quiz and in actually learning the words. Based on all of the facts and reasons that I have stated, the vocab assignment should not have to be done until at least the next class.

Reflection Blog: Rationalism

Patrick Henry is probably one of the most superlative examples of the Rationalism Period. This is a time when people begin to use logic and reason instead of emotion. It is a quick-setting contrast to "The Crucible". "The Crucible" was the exact opposite of logic. It was people of a theocracy acting on religion and emotion, and causing harm to others either for pleasure or to get themselves out of danger. Patrick Henry faces a much more noble cause, and he truly goes about it in an unparalleled manner. He was an impactful man who could only be rivaled or juxtaposed by someone like Thomas Paine, the author of "Common Sense". Both of these men were working toward the same thing. They wanted revolution, and they presented cases that could not be refuted because their writings and ideas just made sense. They were logical, reasonable, and also practical. Paine’s take on the revolution was so powerful in "Common Sense" that it is often considered the most important piece of literature proposing the idea of a revolution against Britain (Reill and Wilson). Of course Henry’s oratorical and written speeches were important, especially in his saying “Give me liberty, or give me death!” which still resonates in modern times as an important speech (Henry 118) Most people have at least heard that said before, but there is much more preceding it. He says that no one is more of a patriot than he is, and that it is not a question of having control or being controlled, but it is a question of freedom or slavery (Henry 116-117). He reiterates that there are many things that he will not do that he would consider treasonous. It would be treasonous, he says, to hold back his opinions (Henry 117). One of his main points is that people need to realize that Britain is restraining them. There military is not there for anything else, but to control these Americans. After he has made it clear that Britain is the enemy, he says that they need to do something because the same unnintervening attempts are not doing anything (Henry 117). His ideas directly appeal to people’s logic. It is a speech about using sense to handle this situation of revolution. When it comes to rationalism or deism there is no one equivalent to Thomas Paine. In "The Age of Reason" he basically slanders Christianity and denounces many of the miracles it is revolved around (Reill and Wilson). Paine used reason to go about this, and it was so slanderous that it was banned from England. In the second part of "The Age of Reason" he focuses on the Bible, and after this he was accused of Atheism (Reill and Wilson). His idea was to scientifically explain the impossibilities of certain religious ideas, and in doing so he was not accepted so easily. His story was an example logic being persecuted by religion. Although this was a time of Rationalism, it still had its troubles in some places.

Henry, Patrick. “Speech to the Second Virginia Convention.” Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 116-118. Print.

Reill, Peter Hanns, and Ellen Judy Wilson. "The Age of Reason." Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, Revised Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2004. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.

Journal #9

During this year I have been getting a lot of homework. I have two AP classes, and most of them are weighted. I also have to do the work that everybody else did over the summer for AP history because I did not get put into that class until August. I basically have multiple hours of homework everyday, so it can be somewhat overwhelming at times. As school was just getting started, and I the homework was beginning to pile up, I became upset. I did not know how I was going to get it all done for the next day. I was pretty angry, and I did not know what to do. Then my mom told me to just take a break, and step away. She said that I did not get much sleep last night, so I should just rest. I took her advice, and I simply took a nap. I got some rest, and then I was thinking more logically. I got back to work, after listening to my mom, and I finished it all up. It took a while, but I did get it done after a couple hours. I am usually level headed all the time, and there is really only a handful of people who have ever seen me angry even once. The only time I ever get upset is when I have trouble on homework. I do not like it when I cannot understand something, but I really only react when I do not have enough sleep also. I think this is mostly because I usually do understand everything when I first learn it, so I do not like when it does not make sense to me. Usually my mom will give the good advice to just step away from it and relax for a second. Usually doing things in a rational approach will work almost every time. I pretty much take a rational approach to everything I do, so I complete things the way that they need to be done most of the time. I think that avoiding emotion can help accomplish the majority of tasks.

Journal #8

I would say that autumn is my second favorite season. My favorite season would probably have to be spring because it is a good temperature outside, and it has a more attractive appearance. Fall has an alright temperature, but it can be too cold. It is still summer now, and it was below forty degrees. This is likely to imply that this will be a cold season for fall. Fall is somewhat of a boring time of year. We start school; then we have Halloween, which is really not much of a holiday; after that is Thanksgiving where we simply eat a lot of food. It feels like most seasons have at least something of significance to them, but all that autumn has is school and September eleventh. Summer has an entire three months off of school, Winter has Christmas and the respective Winter Break that goes along with it, Spring has Spring break and it takes place when we get out of school. Fall could almost be considered the worst season because of its shear boredom. The leaves fall off of the trees, and make them look more boring. The weather becomes cold and dull, so the climate is in a way boring. There is not much going on because everyone is getting started with school, and there is not really anything going on. The only thing that autumn has going for it is football, and not everybody enjoys football. I did not even watch it until last year. But football is probably the most entertaining sport unless there is just a game with little action. I really do not think that Autumn is that good of a season. As I am finishing up this blog I am starting to think that it is becoming my least favorite season. Autumn really has nothing going for it except football, which not everybody likes. I think that this time of year is really one of the worst.

Reflection Blog: Crucible act 4

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and "The Crucible" are two completely different stories, but one commonality they have is their religious basis. The Crucible is set in colonial Massachusetts where everyone had to be a Puritan (Miller). It was simply a theocracy, and people were judged by their allegiance to their religion and to God (Miller). "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is somewhat similar because it is basically Jonathan Edwards angrily judging people. He declares that these people are sinners, and that they are almost disgraceful for being the way they are (Edwards). The only thing that is keeping them alive, he says, is the mere pleasure of God (Edwards).
Jonathon Edwards really reminds me of Danforth from The Crucible. Danforth would be the type of person who is always right, and nothing can change it. He has somewhat earned it by becoming some sort of leading judiciary, but that should not mean that he has the final say on everything. Obviously one reason he should not be so highly regarded is that he was entirely wrong about the witch epidemic. He even looked down upon the people who did not comprehend the “danger” that the witches presented. Jonathan Edwards reminds me of Danforth because he seems to act like what he says is automatically right. He appears to act as if he is speaking for God. The way he says things like

The God that holds you over the pit of Hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked… he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. (Edwards 98)

He acts like he is better than everyone else, and that he has some sort of right to judge others for what they do. Edwards could probably learn from Roger Williams who said that God should be the only one to judge people. I think that he could also learn a great deal from The Crucible. He would be a person who believed that there were definitely witches in Salem and nothing could prove otherwise. I think Edwards could learn that judging people so unreasonably is not a good thing. In Salem it brought the death of nineteen people.

Edwards says

But here you are in the land of the living, and in the house of God, and have an opportunity to obtain salvation. What would not those poor damned, helpless souls give for one day’s such opportunity as you now enjoy. (Edwards, 98)

He seems to be saying that because we are alive, and God has let us live, that we are in great luck and salvation. But Proctor, his wife, Rebecca, and many others are being hung for something that they did not do. They are alive, but they are not living in salvation. Proctor has to decide whether to let them hang him, or to lie and live. He faces a conundrum that the others must also face, and they are by no means living in salvation. I think Jonathan Edwards took his sermon too far, and that what he preaches is somewhat far from what people should follow.

Edwards, Jonathan. "From Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 97-99. Print.

Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible". New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Journal #7 Bullying

Bullying is usually only considered to have an effect on the victim. The victim can receive a physical bullying where they take pain from what the bully does to them. The bully could also give the other person an emotional devastation where they have a pain in their feelings. Another type of bullying would be when they hurt another person via the internet or any sort of technology. This is commonly referred to as cyber bullying. All of these forms of bullying could have definite repercussions on the victim. The victim could lose some self esteem because they are constantly being put down. They could also be feeling miserable all the time if they are constantly being physically abused. It is also a possibility that the victim could sort of blow up. When the bully takes it too far, the victim could then retaliate or even take it to a level of insanity. The victim could do something irrational like bring a gun or other weapon to school. This could harm many innocent people or just hurt the bully all because he did something as stupid as hurt the feelings of someone. The effect on the bully could be death in this case. It is of course usually not that severe. Usually the bully will get a form of instant relief or almost gratification from hurting someone else. They feel better because they make someone else feel worse. It is not the best way at all to deal with a problem. The bully really does not get much out of it. They hurt someone's feelings, get some relief, but then they will probably feel bad later. Usually people do not take joy in having hurt another's feelings when they look at it in hindsight. Bullying does not really benefit anyone. The only positive thing that could come out of it is maybe making the victim stronger when they are bullied the next time. With one positive, bullying is not something that should continue.

Reflection Blog: Crucible act 3

The subject of human nature is a very prevalent motif throughout "The Crucible". One reason for this attribution is that the story takes place in Massachusetts, where everybody has to be Puritan or they are most likely exiled (Divine). The people are even questioned about their allegiance to the religion, and it is usually taken too far. In Act Two Proctor is interrogated about his knowledge of the Ten Commandments (Miller). He is clearly religious man in the first place, but he has a bit of trouble. It then comes to the last commandment which is actually ironic and brings up the first example of human nature. The last commandment was adultery, and his wife had to fill it in for him. The ironic part of this is that Proctor broke this commandment. It is also somewhat human nature to break this one. This also leads to another illustration of human nature. As Abigail is brought into the court in Act Three Proctor says that he did commit adultery with her and his wife is aware, but Abigail denies it. They call in his wife to ask her about this. Because of Abigail’s human nature she denies that her husband did anything to protect his reputation. She does not want anything bad to happen to her husband, so she lies to protect him. Of course Proctor wanted her to tell the truth, so now something that could have been resolved is now turned against him. All he has left his Mary Warren, but she soon turns against him. Abigail starts to say that Mary is using her spirit to make a bird attack her. Everyone except for Proctor and Hale seems to believe it. Eventually Mary has to give in and play along or something horrible could happen to her, so she claims that Proctor was working with the Devil to put her under his spell. Of course all of this falls under human nature including what Abigail is doing. Abigail wants to protect herself, but she also seems to almost be having a little fun with it. She is getting too powerful which makes Mary give in and join her side. Abigail is getting almost everybody on her side because she is a charming young girl, and people are more likely to believe someone like that. Parris sides with her because she is his niece, and usually people are prone to protect their family members. The next bit of human nature comes from Danforth. He is a man of the court, so he has to be impartial. He shows that it is human nature to attribute something that cannot be explained by logic or reason as something supernatural (Miller). This is an overbearing theme throughout history because people have always been using God or gods to explain things that they do not understand. People who did not understand the sun declared that it was some sort of otherworldly being. If the people did not understand how thunder came then they would say it was a god. Basically people have been using godly beings to explain the unexplainable forever. Human nature will preside over man forever unless we can find some unfathomable way to conquer it.

Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, H. W. Brands, and Ariela J. Gross. America Past and Present AP Edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.

Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible". New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Journal #6 Blaming

Blaming someone for something they did not do is really never a good thing. If I accuse someone of taking my pencil when they did not then they will be quick to defend them self. I would keep assuming that they stole it and think that they are a liar until I found the pencil. Then I would have to apologize for it, and they would probably accept the apology. That is probably the most typical situation of blaming someone for something that they did not do. It is much more problematic if someone blames someone else for something more serious. An example could be something like a bank is robbed and the police question a person. This person points to a guy, and says that it was him. This guy, in this situation, is completely innocent. Then it is possible that this guy has to go to court and be put on trial. He could then proceed to go to jail if he was the only suspect and there was more evidence of it. Just because one person hastily blamed this guy for robbing a bank he could be going to prison. Then the person who accused him would always have it on his conscience that he was the main reason that this guy is in jail. Whether the person thought the guy did it or not, he has made him a prisoner. This guy could possibly hold a grudge against his accuser also, and many more events could transpire from this. It is pretty easy to say that blaming someone for something they did not do is not a good thing to do. It could possibly ruin their life or at least give them some troubles. It could also change people's opinions about the person. I think everyone should do their best to refrain from wrongfully blaming people. It does not help anything, and it works completely against the justice system. People should never blame others for what they did not do.

Reflection Blog: Crucible act 2

There are few characters in the second act of "The Crucible". Many of them are also of similar character and motives. As far as their true colors go most of them are similar, but just because they have the same color does not necessarily mean they have the same personality.

Mary Warren would probably have to be classified as a blue (Kalil). She acts in a way of emotion and drama (Kalil). This is also how her decisions are made. When she is asked a question she appears to reason with it based entirely on her feelings (Miller). After Proctor’s wife Elizabeth is accused of putting a needle in Abigail with the doll Proctor quickly tries to tell that it was Mary. Mary shows up and Proctor is accusing her in an almost angry manner. Mary is taken over by defensiveness and really just emotion. She does not want anything to happen to herself. At first she answers honestly, but later she seems to just be thinking of herself. When she is accused about the poppet she is very emotional, mostly frightened and bewildered, and she does not appear logical in any way (Miller).

John Hale is almost definitely a gold (Kalil). He is the expert on witchcraft, a subject that nobody else has much information on, so he thinks he knows everything (Kalil). Proctor and his wife are thinking more that there probably are not witches in Salem, but Hale says that there are definitely witches (Miller). It is almost like it does not even cross his mind that there is a possibility that there are not witches. If someone admits to being a witch he takes it as truth, not that they are simply confessing so they do not get hanged. He believes also that the court and the judicial system will handle everything, and that it will be the one to decide the witches. Because of this he thinks that they should not bother with trying to figure out who the witches are themselves, but the court can figure it out and they should just testify what they know. He is also not the most logical man, but he is not emotional. He just thinks there are certain things he knows to be factual (Miller).

Proctor is the man of logic. He is a green (Kalil). He gets angry at times, but he retains an intellectual opinion on most things that makes sense (Miller). This really makes him a typical green person. They are prone to react in an emotional way when under stress or something like the situation he is in (Kalil). It seems to be apparent that he does not believe in witches, but he will not admit it like his wife (Miller). He does not admit it because he is more logical. He knows that if he admits that he will be considered a non-Christian by Hale. He also cannot see how these people will so easily be influenced by others to believe that someone as Christian as Rebecca is a witch. Proctor is almost the voice of reason in this time of rampant accusations based on vengeance (Miller).

Kalil, Carolyn. "Carolyn Kalil's Personality Quiz." Follow Your True Colors. Web. 11 Sept. 2011.

Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible". New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Journal 5

I think it is a difficult task for parents to find a way to punish their kids these days. They cannot just simply hit their child like they used to, so they have to do something else. Children these days are kind of spoiled throughout a lot of the country, so one thing they do is take away privileged technologies that they have been given. They can take away their cell phone; they can take the computer; they can take video games; they can take TV; they can take anything, but it does not always work. A good punishment for me would be taking away my cell phone or something similar, but I can easily live without it. My cell phone is not a necessity. I will use it when I am bored or need to talk to someone, so I guess it would be an inconvenience not to have. I still do not think it is a harsh enough punishment if I did something that was really bad. At this point in my life there is really nothing my parents could do that would provide a proper punishment. I am more independent than a child and I could almost live on my own if I had an income of some sort. I am not sure what would make the best punishment for a child except for taking away something important to them. The problem with taking away something from someone my age is that they could have possibly been the one to buy the thing. The parent would not have the right to take it away in that case. I think that parents are kind of losing their power over their children. They really can't get away with making their kids do something in a lot of cases. The prime reason they have to make them do something is that they are living under the parents roof. This is hard to apply to someone older than me because they could move out of the house. Parents really need to come up with whatever punishment they can that will work.

Reflection Blog: Crucible act 1

Puritans established their religion to purify the Church of England (Divine). They had a strong belief in God; the providence of God; predestination in the form of the elect and the damned; and established this in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Even though they came to the colony to get away from religious persecution they continued to persecute other religions. They exiled Roger Williams after he proposed radical ideas. One of his ideas was that man should not punish people for what they believe because that is the work of God. This is really the prime reason that he was exiled, but in "The Crucible" Mrs. Putnam provides the same idea while in Salem, Massachusetts (Divine). She says that she sent her child to learn from the slave Tituba (Miller). Rebecca is immediately horrified and questions Mrs. Putnam for sending her child to conjure up the dead. She replies by saying that God is the only one who should blame her (Miller). This is almost exactly why Roger Williams was exiled to Rhode Island. This is a sign that Puritanism is breaking down in the first act. Another representation of this denomination dissipating comes at the end. Abigail and Betty repetitively denounce multiple Bay Staters as people who worship, or were at least seen with, the Devil. This is probably going to lead to many problems with
Puritanism, and cause a large dishevelment between the people.

"The Crucible" is riddled with a display of Puritanism. It is basically correlated with religion in every single page. Juxtaposing Puritanism with "The Crucible" is very easy because of this speculation. The founding of Massachusetts was established by Puritans to be “the city on the hill,” where it would entail perfection for all people of this monotheistic society (Divine). Because of this everyone in Massachusetts, or more importantly Salem, was of the same religion and the same beliefs (Divine). The most interesting thing about this was that this made the society based more upon religious beliefs than logical beliefs. So when the idea that people were witches under the spell of the Devil came up, people simply took this as fact. It made sense to the people even though it seems like something that does not abide to anything that holds true today. They also cannot explain the phenomenon that is the illness coming about. Betty, the daughter of Parris, is stricken with some sort of affliction that the doctor can’t explain (Miller). She is bedridden and is in a sort of in a continually reawaking coma. She wakes up occasionally and performs weird acts such as trying to climb out the window. The cause of this illness is passed off as the Devil’s work. Betty and many other girls were out with Tituba, and they are dancing around while, for a reason that is not exactly clear, they drink chicken blood. Word of this got around, and everyone is filled with the idea that they are witches. With this idea and no medical diagnosis for Betty, they called in an expert on witchcraft. This man, Reverend Hale, tries to figure it all out. It finishes off with Abigail and Betty, at this point completely awake, slandering several others as people who are in cahoots with the Devil (Miller). This all appears to be a problem with the Puritan society because it should have some sort of logical basis instead of declaring everything that can’t be explained as the work of God or the Devil.

Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, H. W. Brands, and Ariela J. Gross. America Past and Present AP Edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.

Miller, Arthur. "The Crucible". New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print.

Journal 4: Traveling

I have not done very much traveling in my life. It is mostly just visiting family members once or twice in a year. I have really never been out of the state without going to one of my family member's house. The only impact it could have on me is the impact that my family members have on me. I do not visit them very often. As I said I maybe see the rest of my relatives once or twice a year. My grandparents and one of my uncles live in Arizona; another uncle lives in Florida; and the rest of my family is pretty much just located in Chicago. I usually go to see the family in Chicago because it is closest and we will usually do our family reunions there. My travel experience is pretty weak compared to many people. I have been on a plane once in my life, and I have never left the country. I would like to visit other places around the world and absorb some culture, but there are many problems. I do not have the finances to take a plane and go somewhere foreign. I really do not have the time to do that either. I have school, so the only convenient time for travel would be a time we do not have school. I think the only time I would be able to travel to different countries would be in my older years. For now travel has had a minuscule impact on my life, but I would like to change that somehow. Hopefully in the near future I will see someplace that I have never been too. I have only been to Iowa, Minnesota, Arizona, and Wisconsin. That is something that I would like to change because one thing I am missing in my life's experience is that I have not seen many different cultures. I am used to the typical lifestyle that is the United States.

Reflection Blog: Bradford

The Pilgrims had many problems in their history, but they remained faithful to their Puritan beliefs (Divine). They originally had to migrate to the Netherlands because of religious persecution, and then they had to go to America because they did not want their children adopting the Dutch culture. They were headed for Virginia where they had the right to land, but they landed in Massachusetts. Before they even knew it they were already facing many problems. They had even lost roughly half of their people to disease. After settling in Massachusetts the Pilgrims would experience a harsh winter leading into what would be called the Starving Times. The Starving Times would be a horrific moment in Pilgrim history where some people would even resort to cannibalism. Even with all of these troubles the people remained true to what they believed (Divine).

Both passages from William Bradford are good representations of Puritan writing. In his first passage it tells of a man who is constantly swearing and cursing at others. He wanted to get rid of half of the passengers, and eventually he was stricken with a disease that would soon take his life. Bradford and the others would believe that he died by the hand of God. They believe that He took his life because he was not following the laws of God, and he was shaming the Puritan ideals.

The second passage is a more upbeat view on Puritanism. It deals more with thanking God for things than with God making others suffer for wrongdoings. From the time that they land near Cape Cod they are already thanking the Providence of God (Bradford 64). It is a strange thing because they have lost many companions and landed in the completely wrong place, but they still manage to thank their God. They are thanking Him because he has allowed them to reach land, but I think many people today would upset with their god if they were placed in a similar situation. Soon after this they are subjected to a unrelenting winter, and even in times of immense difficulty there are people who simply try to work to help others. These people are said to never receive the sickness that is tormenting many, and it is assumed by the people that it was the act of God. They think that because these people were helping others and doing what God would want them to do that this is why they do not get sick. After this they interact with the Native Americans. Squanto provides the Pilgrims with many services and teaches them many things, so he is considered to have been sent by God. Squanto acted as an interpreter to the Pilgrims, and along with this he also taught them to cultivate corn and where to fish. Almost everything that happened to the Pilgrims was just thought of as an act of God. They had made God out to be someone that could do nothing wrong. When something bad happened they were optimistic about it, and thanked God for even the smallest goodness that came out of it. Whenever there was something good it was a gift given by God for them being good followers (Bradford 64-67). It is amazing the impact that religion had on not just the Pilgrims, but on all peoples throughout history.

Bradford, William. "Of Plymouth Plantation." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 64-67. Print.


Divine, Robert A., T. H. Breen, George M. Fredrickson, R. Hal Williams, H. W. Brands, and Ariela J. Gross. America Past and Present AP Edition. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print.

Journal 3

I think I would cope very well if I was in a hostage situation. I would probably try to do something that would be considered heroic to get out of it. I would try my best to fight my way out of it. I think I would be able to win a fight with my captor and win without much problem. I am of pretty good size, and I could most likely win a fight with someone close to my size. I am also pretty smart, and I should not have much of a problem thinking of a way out of a sticky situation such as this. I think it would be a very odd thing if I was held hostage in the first place. There is no reason that someone would want me as a hostage in the first place. I am sixteen year old male, so the only reason I would be a hostage is if I was maybe the nearest person if someone was trying to rob a place. But then I would try to fight off the person. The trouble would come if there was more than one person. I do not know how well I could fend for myself if I had to fight more than one person that is armed. I think I would try to put up a fight and do my best to win, but in all honesty that would most likely not work out very well. Two people are better than one especially if they have weapons. I think I would put my life at risk to attempt to save the others, but it really would not be worth it unless I could stop at least one of the captors. I think I could take one person out, but then the other would stop me. Hopefully another person could help, and we could stop the robbers. This is really all just a hypothetical situation, so I will not know what would happen unless I was actually in the situation.