"You're Either Brave, or Stupid" (John Proctor, Hero or Stooge?)

Alrighty then; John Proctor. Is he a brave soul or an idiot? Let us look back on past events in the story...

• [In response to Rebecca Nurse's "I think she'll wake when she tires of it...a child's spirit is like a child, you can never catch it by running after it; you must stand still, and, for love, it will soon itself come back."] "That's the truth of it."
• "This society will not be a bag to swing around you head, Mr. Putnam."
• "I like not the smell of this 'authority.'"
• [After Elizabeth Proctor's "You must tell them it is a fraud."] "Aye, it is, it is surely."

...And the list goes on and on. I'll stop to spare your eyes. XD From my point of view, Proctor is just trying to look out for the town/village, and he will not jump to conclusions such as witchcraft or other nonsense without tangible evidence. I think that is a good trait. I also believe that all the other townsfolk are far too eager to accept witchery and the Devil's work as a source of mischief, but hey, that was then, and they handled it as they did. Whether it was right or not is another question, but here we're debating the status/role of Mr. John Proctor.

I feel like he's attempting really hard to get everyone to come to their senses about the whole "witched girl" thing. He's a sensible man, and he agrees with Rebecca Nurse that it is probably just an act of foolishness from the girls. So far, he, Rebecca, and Elizabeth are the only ones who see the supposed witchcraft as false. Everyone else just wants to blame other people at random. I sympathize with Proctor...I mean, how must it feel to be the only one who has the slightest bit of an open mind???

So, in that aspect, I think Proctor can be seen as a hero, because he tries so hard to get everyone to see the light. He even got a confession out of Mary Warren and tried to free all the wrongly accused prisoners (even though the scared girl went right back to lying, just because she has no backbone; but I'll let it slide b/c she was being pressured).

However, one thing kind of throws a wrench into my thought process. The fact that Proctor had an affair with Abigail, and he still lets that affect him. I mean, when his wife suggests he go to Cheever and let him know that Abigail was pretending, he hesitated, either because he didn't want to get the brat of a girl in trouble, or because he didn't want his sin to come to light. I still don't think that qualifies him as a "stooge," but it definitely counts as a strike against his hero status. Just saying.

I thought of something, actually. About Proctor. (Note: this is straying away from the subject of the post, but I covered my thoughts, sooo.....) I know that the word "proctor" has to do with tests, like the person who gives out an exam or something (thank you, Naruto). My handy dictionary widget defines proctor as "a person who monitors students during an examination." I thought that was a strange coincidence, mainly because my mind made connects between the definition of a proctor and John Proctor's role in the Witch Trials. Looking at it, he does in a way monitor everyone else in an examination of sorts--the witch hunt. That doesn't mean that he is the one giving the test, oh no. But he's like a supervisor, and it's like he's the teacher: no nonsense, and you can ask him for help.

That's just my thoughts on the matter. I feel like John Proctor was a little Hero in the town of Salem, even if he gave in to the madness around him in the end of Act Three. I hope that everything turns out alright for him...

"Is the accuser always holy now?"

REPENT WHILE YOU CAN (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God)

[Edit/Note: I have added the found poem; it's at the bottom of the post. If you've read this and returned to read it, just scroll down.]

Heh. I got a kick outta this one.

We read an excerpt of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," a sermon  given by Jonathan Edwards. The class was also told to draw/create an interpretation of what we thought of when we read the sermon. I could upload a picture of my drawing, but meh, that's too much work. If you're really curious, though, here's a link to my art/drawing blog. I wasn't very original; I drew God's several hands, and the obvious images from the sermon. I think I treated it more like a practice session in drawing hands in perspective...BUT! This post is not entirely about my drawing skills (or lack thereof, depending on your personal views), rather, it is about my interpretation of the sermon "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." I'll give it the ol' college try, whatever that means.

OK. Sooooo...erm...The sermon. It was...powerful, I'll grant you that. There was a lot of anger in there, and it wasn't necessarily that of God. To me, Edwards seemed to dislike the humans (or at least, their sins) as much as God supposedly did. I mean, all he did was talk about how bad they (we) were (are), how each day we continuously build up the pressure of God's wrath. I wouldn't feel very comforted listening to that kind of sermon, and being yelled at, no less. If church is the house of God, should it not be a place of peace and solace? Mr. M said to put ourselves in the shoes of the five-year-old Puritan child who had to sit and listen to the sermon. Well, I'm fifteen and have a wild, vivid imagination, so I was scared just by hypothetically hearing it. All that talk of sins and the trip to Hell and the fact that God was/is only keeping us alive out of pure entertainment was just....WoW.

Now, I would like to just talk from what I guess is an objective view, so do not take offense or judge me, please. First of all, I am not a very religious person. I do...no, I won't even go there. I take some things religion-wise into consideration, and some things I'll turn to at certain times (vague, right?). But, from my point of view, which is quite indifferent about the whole thing, I just, well, didn't care? No, I wasn't as into it as I guess some people would be or expect to be. I read the sermon, sure, but I was like, "Okay, man, humans sinned, and we still do. No denying that. But...what's your point?" I don't know; don't judge/hate me. That's just how I was as I read it. Like I said, I was indifferent. I felt like Jonathan Edwards wanted to make humans as fearful and docile as possible.

One thing I did as a fun little add-on as I read was write a "found poem." I picked it up last year in Survey Lit., courtesy of our student teacher, Ms. Levine. A found poem is a...well, poem (usually freeverse) that consists of key or significant phrases or words from a text. I practiced doing it last year: once or twice as assignments, and once as farewell/thank you gift to the departing Ms. Levine, and I must say, it has grown on me. And now, I shall share with you my found poem of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God"...

¥†∆¬ß!!!! Darnit, why didn't you people remind me to bring it with me??! It's in my locker, so, yeah. No tengo la poema. However, I overheard Mr. M tell someone that we can indeed alter/revise our posts, so I will bring it home tomorrow and share with you the Awesommeness that is found poem. (I am aware that "awesommeness is either misspelled or not a real word altogether. I also know that "share with you...found poem" may not sound right to some, but whatevaz; I write as I please.)

Until I revise my post and add my poem--
Alex

[Edit: Here's the poem. I hope you like(ish) it. ^-^]

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" Found Poem, by TrinnBloom

The wrath of God
Is like great waters
Dammed
Rapid and mighty
When let loose.
Floods of God's
Vengeance
Withheld
Your guilt
Constantly increasing
Treasuring up more
Wrath
Everyday
The floodgate would open
Fiery floods of fierceness
Omnipotent power

The bow of God's wrath
The arrow on the string
Bends at your heart
Nothing but the mere pleasure of God
Keeps the arrow.

Never
A great change of heart
Never
Born again
Nothing but his mere pleasure
Keeps you from everlasting destruction

Peace and Safety
Were nothing
But thin air and shadows

God
Holds you over the pit of hell
Abhors you
You are ten thousand times
So abominable in his eyes
You have offended him

You did not go to hell last night
You were suffered to awake again
You have not dropped into hell
God's hand has held you up
Provoking his pure eyes
By your sinful wicked manner

O sinner!
Fearful danger
You are in
A great furnace of wrath
A bottomless pit
Full of fire
By a slender thread
With flames flashing about
Nothing you can do
To induce God to spare you
You are thus in the hands of an angry God.

---

I had fun with that. All you do to make a found poem is take out important words/phrases (or those that pop out at you) and write them down. I tend to rearrange some words or phrases to suit my tastes. You can do it too, if you so choose. Just pick any thing of text and go for it.

I think my next post is on John Proctor...Until then, friends.

"Does your watch tell you what year it is?"

New Kid on the Block (Arrivals...There Goes the Neighborhood)

New Arrivals...hm. Well, honestly speaking, I don't have much experience (thank you, spell check) in that area--the only time I've moved would be 3 days after I was born-- it's late, as you'll find out @ the bottom of this here post, aaand I tend to get a bit...eccentric when I'm tired. Hehe. See if you can follow my train of thought, which most likely will not run on a track.

The first thing I would like to address is the fact that I lived a sort of introverted childhood, neighborhood-wise. I mean, my range of playmates were my siblings and my direct-next-door-neighbors. The people down the lane and across the street were just that. People. (Ah-HA! Idea. Remember that sentence, in case I refer to it again.) I didn't start going out and playing in the front until my other neighbors came and asked for me. They'd ring the doorbell, and we'd spend the day outside.

But that sounds normal. I said so in my introduction: Normal bores me. So, yeah, that specific aspect of my life I wouldn't exactly call exciting. BUT! The matter at hand is what happens when different lives meet, or more dramatically, COLLIDE!! Hehehehehe....Sorry. I got excited.

Hello World--er, English

Hey, I'm Alex(andra)                 , and this is my blog for American Lit. Pleased to make your acquaintance. This first post is to be an introductory one, so I suppose I will talk about moi, myself, and I.

Let's see. I enjoy drawing as well as writing poetry and stories, but it much easier to read those that are already published. I read mainly fiction: fantasy, realistic fiction (strange things that can almost happen to people in reality), and anything that tells the story of things out of the ordinary. Normal bores me. For instance, I am a fan (haha, I typed "naf;" what's a naf?) of the W.i.t.c.h. series, and I'm this close to having every book that's out there, namely, novels and graphic novels. W.i.t.c.h. is, as I'm sure you've guessed, a story revolving around five recently-made-magical girls who are chosen to protect the realms, endowed with magical abilities, and destined to save a world or two...etc, etc.

What else...OH! I have this collection of children's classic books, and I love all of the stories. I'm particularly fond of White Fang, The Call of the Wild, and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass. I'm telling you, Lewis Carroll (author of the last two books) was thinking up some crazy stuff; he really makes you wonder about some things. Sometimes it warps your view of reality (it did for me, anyway). Speaking of which, I also love the Chronicles of Narnia series; all seven books.

I may or may not have digressed a bit, but other things aside, I'm done for now. I'll see you next week, I suppose. I'm looking forward to this.
Hmm...I wonder if smileys are allowed?

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?"