Hope Leslie, The Perfect Storm, and Dinosaur in a Haystack
The three books, Hope Leslie, by Catharine Maria Sedgwick, The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger, and Dinosaur in a Haystack, by Stephen Jay Gould, each persuade the reader to see a one sided story. The reader believes each author and allows himself to be persuaded for two reasons. One reason is he has confidence in the writer because he has not researched the 16th century, nor ever delved into the scientific world of evolution, nor investigated the perfect storm that sunk the Andrea Gail. Sedgwick did research the sixteenth century in order to write her novel about the puritans and Indians. Gould is an accredited scientist and has researched the scientific theory of evolution. Junger actually interviewed the family and friends of the real people that died on the Andrea Gail, and investigated the weather conditions to write his novel. On the other hand, The readers that do know about the 16th century, or evolution, or the storm can agree with or dispute the author or dispute him or her.
In Hope Leslie, Sedgwick tells a fictional story about a puritan family's tragic separation caused by an Indian family during the historic colonization of the New World. She presents her story line from the puritan's point of view. Sedgwick has one of her puritan characters say, "I had rather meet a legion of Frenchmen than a company of these savages. They are a kind of beast we don’t comprehend-out of the range of God’s creatures-neither angel [or] man..."(42). The Indians are made out to be savages and evil beasts. The uninformed reader that reads Catherine Sedgwick's novel is convinced that this lie true and becomes angry towards the Indians. He is overcome by Sedgwick's persuasiveness and completely agrees with her that the Indians were savages and had no right to murder the Fletchers. In reality, both sides are equally cruel to each other. The Indians kill and separate the puritan Fletcher family only because members of their tribe and family had been killed and separated from the rest of the tribe. An informed reader knows about the tragedies that both the Indians and puritans endured during this time. He can read Sedgwick's novel and agree with her, or dispute her. Obviously, she has researched the sixteenth century and knows both sides of the story. However, Sedgwick only tells the reader about both families' tragedies in such a way that it seems justified for the puritans to have killed the Indian family, but bloodthirsty for the Indians to have killed the
... She could not even explain exactly what happened at that time; rather, she kept saying ‘I do not know, but they raped me anyways.’ Besides, the medical evidence showing that they did not rape her and Bates should have been regarded as important proof, but it was useless to prove their innocence. Even the juries were all selected as the Whites, and there were some juries who were illiterate. These circumstances sound obviously unfair and tragic in that the unfair trials led all Blacks to being imprisoned.
Sympathy is unfair. An alarmingly large number of people are treated apathetically when they make certain decisions, such as those made by Mayella Ewell in Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird. A common trend in society is to pass judgement on others without giving heed to the situationality of circumstances. When looking at whether or not people deserve sympathy, the specifics of a situation have to be considered. Thus, one must do the same when deciding if Mayella Ewell is deserving of sympathy. The actions she took — specifically, framing a negro man named Tom Robinson for rape — are met with intense scrutiny and criticism. This is, of course, done without considering the rationale of her thought process. On one hand, Mayella can tell the truth
Gretchen A. Adams, the author of the journal, describes how the stereotype and image of colonial puritans were portrayed as hasty prosecutors, and victims to mass hysteria. “In fact, Salem’s witch-hunt…operated under the influence of “hysteria, witch hunts, or vigilantes”, this excerpt talks about how even in the mid-20th century people were using the Salem witch trials as an example of hysteria and prosecution (Adams p.24). In ‘Escaping Salem’, Godbeer talks about how even the people of Stamford also went into a panic, “Once the Wescots…had to be willing to speak out” (p.10). This shows that even when Stamford witch hunt was mild compared to the Salem hunts, people still can assume the worst when a conflict happens. The article later mentions how Americans in the 19th century were exaggerating the witch trials as a means of propaganda against the northern politicians, “In the 1850s… uniquely suited to derive the maximum emotional reaction from its intended audience” (Adams
In the beginning of the late seventeenth century a sense of fear and panic was sweeping throughout the colonies of North America this fear began in a small town in Massachusetts called Salem and would lead to the death of nineteen people. This fear was caused by young Puritan girls who started randomly convulsing and accusing people of being witches many of the accused were women many single or widowed who owned land and this event was titled The Salem Witch Trails, but another smaller very significant event also took place during this period of time that event is the attempted hanging of Mary Webster. Both of these events are very significant in the fact that they would become a basis of American literature and would bring about a very big theme even in today`s literature that theme being “A majority does not always make the right decision.” Both of these events would lead to the writing of two significant pieces
Breslaw was a Professor of History from Morgan State University and is now an author and speaker. In her essay Tituba 's Confession: The Multicultural Dimensions of the 1692 Salem Witch-Hunt Elaine focuses on the cultural aspects of a certain individual named Tituba. Her confession, blending elements from English, African, and American Indian notions of the occult, was of key significance in the shaping of the bizarre events at Salem.8 During this time period people believed that magic and Satan coexisted. When Tituba was accused of being a witch rather than denying it, she accepted it and confessed. Tituba used her cultural background as a safe zone and made the Puritans believe in her being a regular slave trapped by forces out of the human realm.9 When this was happening there was not enough records to prove that the cultural background of a slave. By looking at the multicultural background of a single person shows that people did what they had to, to survive this chaos. Another author Isaac Ariail Reed writes Deep Culture in Action in order to further explain the sociological culture. Salem Witch Trials was considered moral panics which were built up out of resignification, a specific kind of public, communicative work that achieves its ends via Synecdoche and metanarrative.10 The Salem Witch Trials were a disproportionate response and by far the largest, the deadliest, and the most emotionally charged event.11 The trials occurred during a time of high anxiety
Many people assume that science is persistently correct in numerous ways because of its research and innovation provided in today’s society. However, in the stories The Harvest and Going written by Amy Hempel, the author compares the distraught characters to scorpion like tendencies to attest that humans resemble animals, unreasonably more than science text books have lead us to believe. Conversely, it has become common today to dismiss this argument due to Hempel’s intricate writing style.
The author behind the influential and famous novel To Kill A Mockingbird is a woman by the name of Harper Lee. This ingenious woman made magic with only her inventive mind, creative imagination, past experiences and passion for kindness and equality. She was born and raised in a time of prejudice and racism but she always found a way to keep her goodness intact. She never let herself get corrupted or influenced by frivolous and uneducated people. Harper Lee’s influences as a child and views of society as an adult inspired her to fight against the world’s prejudice outlook on life by writing To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel that argues against society’s biased views toward racism.
The book gives specific examples that can be found in primary sources that came directly from the courts. It paints a picture of how certain events such as the smallpox epidemic and Native American raids on the settlers of Colonial America impacted Salem and its surrounding towns. While not everything in the novel could be considered historically correct, there is enough accuracy to use the book for educational
During the pioneer developmental stages of the United States, early colonists traveled and endured through prolonged distances from England to the New World in order to escape religious persecution, rooted mainly from Protestant beliefs. These early colonists were deeply embedded within their Puritanism and surrounded their overall livelihood based on the teachings of the Puritan Bible in the unchartered British colonies of North America. However, these Puritans were not the only living cultures in the New World as they eventually discovered the Native Americans within their mist. Throughout this early time period of American culture, these two cultures of Puritans and Native Americans clashed and waged war upon each other to take control of the western plains of North America. Evidently, the carnage ceased with the victors, those of English descent, recording history from a bias perspective. Therefore, the ideology from the contrasting juxtapositions of right versus wrong, good versus evil, and light versus dark are predetermined by the religious dogma the colonist faithfully followed. However, there are a multitude of consequences for blindly following strict ideologies from a gospel as criticized in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s romantic novel, The Scarlet Letter, which demonstrates the inane degrees of which society or people try to ostracize sinners through cruel and unusual punishment which stems from hatred when the irony and reality of the situation reveals that no one is perfect enough to sit upon a high pedestal, that mistakes or errors made are a natural process of human capabilities, and that forgiveness is a quality that provides a person humanity rather than expediting punishment. Hawthorne utilizes visual symbolisms to spec...
This scandalous case centers on a woman named Katherine Watkins. On Friday, August 18, 1681, Katherine accused a slave by the name of John Long, also known as Jack, of rape. There was some evidence of violence, but there were also outstanding questions about her character and conduct. Those who testified, however, painted a different picture about certain events preceding the crime. They were John Aust, William Harding, Mary Winter, Lambert Tye, Humphrey Smith, Jack White (Negro), Dirk (Negro), and Mingo (Negro). Whether these individuals were so inclined because Katherine Watkins was a Quaker, rather than an Anglican, we can never really know. That certainly fueled the fire, though. The day in question involved an afternoon of cider drinking. Several of the witnesses in the testimonies recounted Mrs. Watkins sexual advances to multiple of Thomas Cocke 's slaves, particularly, a mulatto named Jack. John Aust pleaded that Katherine, at one point, had lifted the shirt of one slave and announced “Dirke thou wilt have a good long thing” (Sex and Relations, 53). She allegedly had thrown another on the bed, kissed him, and, “put her hand into his codpiece” (Sex and Relations, 53). The most interesting piece of evidence that Aust brings forward is that Jack was actually avoiding Watkins at the party, an apparent attempt at avoiding any intimate entanglement with her (Sex and Relations, 52). Finally, he reported that Watkins and Jack had gone into a side room (Sex and Relations, 53). Later in the trial, Humphrey Smith seemingly referred to Aust 's testimony. His deposition suggested that he and Aust had some reservations about Jack 's guilt (Sex and Relations 54). Clearly, the character of the plaintiff was considered important evidence in the trial of a slave for rape. The reasonable extenuating circumstances of the case might have granted the magistrates leave way
...d by the two families show that behind the civilized persona, the true actions of the feud reveal their dark human nature. This darker nature is mob mentality in which the basis of their family feud is a basis of none that can be remembered, causing the feud to be a meaningless struggle between the two families. Through these ironic actions of the Shepherdsons and the Grangerford families, Twain reveals the darker sides of the human nature.
The popular classic book “The Scarlet Letter”, A place in the Puritan world, which outlines the effect of injustice in a variety of methods. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story of “The Scarlet Letter” disputes between originality and conformity by using Hester Prynne to represent those who oppose hope as intact. Arthur Miller explores a comparable domain to the book “The Scarlet Letter” since in both book’s characters are discriminated against the region. The characters who include the devil, or act of adultery their punishment would be led to death. Arthur Miller’s purpose to indicate the cause for the Salem witch trials and the hysteria that we lean on to misplace our minds when it comes to fear.
Singleton’s film, Rosewood displayed the hostility, misconceptions, and stereotypes against African Americans. In the film a white female Fannie Taylor falsely accused a black man of raping her after her secret lover beat her. After, she made the accusations the white mob went to a random black man house and brutally beat him. Ellis a man who knew Fannie Taylor for several years didn’t believe her, but he did not speak up either and say otherwise until the end of the film. That’s where the attacks and many deaths of African Americans started. I felt like if Ellis would have spoken up and said Fannie Taylor was lying deaths that occurred would have not happen. For instance, the death of Ms. Sarah an African American older woman who help raise many of the men in the white mob. Also, these actions that took place made me frustrated and angry with Ellis personally. It made me ask several questions on why every black person or man in sight was shot at, lynched, beat, o...
...ely to bring only a puzzled smile to the next” (Miller 1). In the 1950’s the Witch hunt seemed unnatural and silly, but now-a-days, the Red Scare and hunting down communists seems silly and unnecessary. A parallel to the play is when Miller states in his article, “The more I read into the Salem panic, the more it touched off corresponding images of common experiences in the fifties” (Miller 4). It is also stated in the article that “naturally to turn away in fear of being identified with the condemned. As I learned from non-Jewish refugees, however, there was often a despairing pity mixed with ‘Well, they must have done something’” (Miller 4). This frightening time in American history when neighbors turned on neighbors was documented in the book. When Rebecca Nurse is charged and Elizabeth claims that is outrageous, Hale replies, “Women, it is possible” (Miller 64).
“The wretches have proceeded so far as to concert and consult the methods of rooting out the Christian religion from this country, and setting up instead of it perhaps a more gross diabolism than ever the world saw before.” (Mather 153) Perhaps the “gross diabolism” that he refers to is a world where women, similar to Martha Carrier, are not easily silenced or controlled by the authority of white, Puritan men. While Mather claims to be a historian and not an activist, and tells the reader that he was not there so he could not form any prejudice against those convicted. Despite this, he contradicts himself by slipping in extreme sexist comments towards Carrier, referring to her as a “rampant hag” (Mather 155). Through this, he assumes the role of the unreliable narrator because he is unable to keep his writing