Modern Puritan

Although Puritans are no longer a part of modern society, many of their ideas still exist and many do not.  I don't think that society today is as strict as it was back then, but there are still certain rules you must follow.  For example there are social rules such as things you can't say or do so as not to offend someone.  These types of rules aren't punishable by the law however there are things that are.  In today's society many of the same rules must be followed such as do not murder, steal, etc. that if we don't follow we will be punished for. One big difference is that the idea of forgiveness is widely accepted today instead of rejected as it was in Puritan society.  Our courts will punish people for their crimes, however if you are convicted their are ways to shorten your sentence and in a way be forgiven.  In The Scarlet Letter for example, adultery is punishable by the courts, but today while it is still looked down upon, there is no punishment for it and some people can be forgiven for it.  You aren't publicly shamed and humiliated for the rest of your life and it is easier to move past it.  Also in today's society religion doesn't play as large of a role as it used to.  Reverends and Priests, while still respected, don't have as much power or influence in society as they used to.  If there were a Puritan living in our society today they would be appalled by some of the things they saw and heard.  In fact they probably wouldn't be able to live in our society at all, which is probably why the Amish and other groups like them live in seclusion with their own society.

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

I think that throughout The Crucible John Proctor changes multiple times, but ultimately ends up as a Hero.  He is one of the only characters with the audacity to stand up for himself and the rest of Salem and try to put an end to the madness that Abigail and the other girls have caused.  I think that he grew throughout the play because in the beginning he was neither a hero nor a stooge, he just kept to himself didn't really meddle with other peoples business.  Then in act II when Proctor is informed that Goody Corey and Rebecca Nurse were accused as witches he starts to see just how bad the situation with Abigail and the girls really are.  When Cheever takes Elizabeth from John it really just sends him over the edge and he decides to take matters into his own hands.  I think this is when we start to see him become the hero of this play.  Once we finally see John confess to the court that he committed adultery with Abigail we see him become the bigger man and worsen his name for the sake of his wife and the other innocent prisoners.  However later when he decides to give in and confess my vision of John fell and he became the stooge.  Everything he worked for he was going to throw away and all for self-preservation.  Luckily this moment of doubt is short-lived because John decides to rip up the confession and face the consequences.  He stands up to the court, pushing them to their limit, making them knowingly send an innocent man to his death because they already chose to trust a little girl's word over his and are to worried about their own image to stop the hangings.  This defiance against the wrong doing of the court is ultimately what makes him a hero.

Arrivals... There Goes the Neighborhood

This quote makes me think a lot out the segregation in the neighborhoods of Chicago.  Now I don't think that anybody was necessarily forced off of their land like the native americans were by the settlers, but I think that because of the arrival of different people into different neighborhoods during a different time changed the neighborhoods of this city to became segregated.  In our city the majority of each of our specific neighborhoods are mainly one race.  I think that this is due to the fact that prior-to and during the civil rights movement, whenever a person of a different race moved to a neighborhood where the majority of residents were white, the white people living around that person would begin to move out of that neighborhood to another primarily white neighborhood.  Since other white people didn't want to move into the houses that were just vacated other people, other races moved into them.  During that time most white people didn't want to move to a neighborhood that was primarily black or hispanic or any other race.  However I also think it goes the other way.  Most African-Americans weren't exactly eager to move into a a primarily white neighborhood where they would be discriminated against.  I think that this cycle of moving in and out of neighborhoods and the refusal to move to certain neighborhoods eventually led up to our entire city being split into sections of different neighborhoods with their own races.