Fitting in is an important part of life because it has almost everything to do with how people turn out in life. When people try to fit in with the people around them, they are forced to change. Fitting in is not easy and sometimes people get rejected when trying to fit in. In the story, “The Witch of Blackbird Pond” by Elizabeth Speare, a young girl named Kit is forced to go sail off the island and live with her Aunt Rachel when her grandfather dies and she finds is difficult to be welcomed and fit in. Kit’s arrival to Aunt Rachel and Matthew Wood’s house was abrupt but after settling in, Kit’s life is turned upside down and she is sometimes getting in trouble but she turns out to be very caring and a very smart person.
Kit tries to fit
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in with her new family’s lifestyle but she gets into some trouble doing so. Kit decides to help Mercy teach some students at the school but things get out of hand. When Mr. Kimberly and John Woodbridge come to inspect Kit and Mercy’s class, they are horrified with what they see and Kit explains that, “(she) was reading a story out loud to them from the Bible, and (she) thought the children could act it out.” (Speare 89). Kit gets Mercy in trouble with the head of the school when Kit comes up with a creative way of teaching the kids goes out of hand. Kit’s style of teaching and learning is very different than how the people of Wethersfield like it. Kit gets into some more trouble when some men come to Matthew Wood’s house and says, “Not disobedience. This girl is charged with witchcraft.” (Speare 200). When Kit first met Hannah, she was very kind to Kit so she became friends with Hannah even when she was told to not talk to her. When townspeople fou nd out that Kit was being a friend to Hannah, they blamed her for witchcraft. Kit was trying really hard to fit in but the stuff she does does not please the people in Wethersfield and gets her into trouble. Though Kit can be a troublemaker she is a very caring person.
When Kit arrives at her aunt’s house, Matthew takes up all of Kit’s trunks upstairs to a room where she will be staying. As soon as Kit opens her trunk and takes out her clothings, she tells Judith and Mercy, “There’s a pair just like mine, Judith, and a pair for you, Mercy. Please, you must take them.” (Speare 40). Kit wanted her cousins, Judith and Mercy, to have some of her clothing without hesitating to give them away which shows how caring she is. Judith wears one of Kit’s clothing and Kit tells her, ”Well, ‘tis yours, Judith. ‘Twas made just for you.” (Speare 41). When Judith tries on the dress, Kit believed that Judith looked breathtaking in the dress and believes that she should keep it. Kit did not care if she was going to miss her valuable dress and only thought about others. Kit is very caring and though her dresses and accessories are fancy and expensive, she doesn’t hesitate to give some to Mercy and Judith, whom she never met in her …show more content…
life. Kit is a troublemaker and very caring but over time she shows that she is a very smart girl.
When the townspeople found a book with Prudence’s name written all over it, Goodwife cruff accuses Kit of casting a spell on her daughter. When the magistrate asks Prudence if she knows who Kit is, Prudence says, “oh yes sir. She is my teacher. She taught me to read.” (Speare 217). Goodwife Cruff didn't send her daughter Prudence to school because she said that Prudence was too dumb to go to school so Kit offers to be Prudence’s teacher. Prudence doesn’t go to school so Kit takes out her own time to teach Prudence how to read and write. The magistrate wanted to see if Prudence could really write so when Prudence prints out her name, Dr. Bulkeley says, “Very proper writing i should say, for a child with no learning.” (Speare 219). Since Goodwife Cruff did not send her daughter to school, Dr. Bulkeley finds is surprising that Prudence can have perfect writing with no learning so that shows that Kit was only teaching Prudence and not doing witchcraft. Kit was teaching Prudence to print her name and read the Bible which proves that Prudence is not as dumb as Goodwife Cruff says she is. Prudence does not have the opportunity to go to school because of her mother so Kit teaches the undereducated child to read and write perfectly in a few
months. Kit felt out of place when she went to live with her aunt so she had to change her ways by doing chores, work, and changing the way she dressed to fit in. Over time, Kit tries to do stuff such as teaching children and being a friend to Hannah to make the people pleased but she only gets herself in trouble. Kit may have gotten herself in situations but she is really caring to others when she gives away some of her accessories. Kit is also known to be very smart when she teaches a child named Prudence who has no learning for a few months and now she is able to read and write. A huge role in fitting in is changing or, in other words, being someone you are not.
We have all heard the tales and seen the movies of evil witches cooking little kids up for supper. For the people of salem in 1692-1693 this was a reality. In the matter of less than a year more than two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and more than twenty were executed. In these historic events author Arthur Miller wrote a play about the people and events in this play there is a man, Reverend Hale is well versed in the study of witchcraft and has come to try and save the girls that have been gripped by the Devil. Miller has Hale change very much throughout the event of this play. In the beginning he believes that the Devil is at work in Salem, how ever near the climactic ending of this play he realises that this witch talk has gotten completely out of hand
By, Elizabeth George Speare. The book took place in the year of 1687. Some of the book takes place on a boat called the “Dolphin,” and then the rest of the book in Wethersfield, in the state of Connecticut. The main characters in the book are Katherine Tyler (her nickname was Kit), Nat Eaton, Uncle Matthew, Aunt Rachel, Hannah Tupper, Kit’s cousins Mercy, and Judith, Prudence, Hannah Tupper, John Holbrook, Goodwife Cruff and Goodman Cruff. One of the problems in the beginning of the book is when she goes to her cousin’s house and was adapting to their way of life; for instance when she got there, they all did not have good clothes and she had really fancy clothes that they would have never worn in their life because they were too expensive. Another problem that she encountered was that she met a lady named Hannah Tupper that lived near Blackbird Pond and she was a Quaker. That’s why she was forced to live there, because no one liked her and she was also accused of being a witch. Kit made friends with her when she bumped into her in the meadow. This jeopardized her life and that was a problem. She helped Prudence read and write and that was a little risky too.
Some people in society are judgmental toward people who belong to a minority. This unwanted prejudice and unfair treatment is, for many affected people, impossible to fully escape. In The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst and A Separate Peace by John Knowles, Gene and Doodle are able to detach themselves from society’s cruel interpretation of unique individuals. Doodle, crippled from birth, retreats to Old Woman Swamp. The secluded swamp is the only place he and his brother can forget the rest of society and view each other as equals, but ends up leading to Doodle’s death. Gene withdraws himself from the death and destruction that accompanies the ongoing war by living in the peaceful Devon School. Gene later experiences disastrous events because he hides from the prejudices. Doodle and Gene escape the constant war of society and inequality in Old Woman Swamp and the Devon School, respectively, but these havens ultimately lead to their downfall.
Rebecca Nurse has the belief that not everyone in Salem has the ability to practice magic. Although, she does her best to convince Reverend Hale that this is true, he does not agree and quickly judges her as well. As Hale spoke to Francis, he mentioned that “though our hearts break we cannot flinch; these are new times [...] the devil is alive in Salem and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger points (854).” Reverend Hale means that they must not go against the court, even if his heart tells him differently. While eating dinner with several important court officials, a poppet stabs Abigail. After witnessing Mary Warren testify that the poppet which allegedly stabbed Abigail was made by her, Hale still “[could not] judge [Elizabeth Proctor] guilty or innocent.” Reverend Hale says that there will be chaos if John Proctor blames the witch trials on “the vengeance of a little girl” (861). Then, as Reverend Hale witnessed Mary Warren confess, he still believed that Elizabeth should go to jail. If Hale was not so stuck in his ways, he would see that Elizabeth is innocent of witchcraft. Hale should not have let the court officials take her to jail. Overall, Reverend Hale’s closed-mindedness keeps him from seeing that Elizabeth is
Every group she names is a clique; she also describes how a person ends up being a part of them. This statement also leads to one example of what happens if one is not part of the right clique: one has the desire to be "in," but is labeled a loser. Sitting directly behind the driver is not the best seat in the world; it seems as if that's the place for people who have to sit where an adult can protect them from getting picked on. Later in the book, she even calls this the "loser seat." Eventually, being a social outcast lead to being mentally abuse by other student.
Many people show their appreciation for things in different ways. Dee appreciates the quilt for being her heritage. She can't express enough how she feels about it. She can't even imagine that the quilt was hand made with every stitch stroked in and out. As for Maggie, Dee believes she can't appreciate the quilt in the same way she can. "Maggie can't appreciate these quilts." Instead, she thinks that Maggie will use the quilt for about 5 or so years and it will turn into a rag. "She'd probably be backward enough to put them to everyday use." "Maggie would put them on the bed and in five years they'd be in rags. Less than that!" Dee doesn't feel Maggie deserves the quilt.
When examining Reverend Parris’s daughter, Reverend Parris claims it was the doings of witchcraft. Reverend John Hale merely states: “We cannot look to superstition in this. The Devil is precise” (1231). Then while questioning the other girls, one of them mentions that Tituba, Reverend Parris’s servant, was the one doing witchcraft against them. In anguish Tituba confesses of doing witchcraft. Reverend John Hale convinces Tituba to go back to God and in this moment Reverend John Hale thinks he had caught a witch and saved the “afflicted girls” and in t...
In a theocratic society, the church is at the top of the societal pyramid. With the church being at the top, they were often the authority of the town or society. Ministers being the head of the church, were the main people to follow the law out. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts there was a discovery of witchcraft. When they began to struggle with finding all the witches in the town, they call upon Reverend John Hale, a Puritan minister and the witch expert, to help. Hale gladly traveled to Salem to help them with their crisis at hand. Hale was not your classic Puritan minister. Along with attempting to “ purify “ the church, Hale was an “ expert “ in witchcraft. He took pride in
They had no trouble believing that, because Parris had called Reverend Hale, (known for his studies in demonic arts), there must truly be witchcraft within the town. The play progresses and certain characters begin to develop; here is a community full of underlying personal grudges. Religion pervades every aspect of life. ' A man may think that God sleeps, but God sees everything, I know it now.
However even though the church cannot be openly defied it can be manipulated, Reverend Samuel Parris uses the authority of the church to place himself higher then others in the community. He makes his own requests through the church, demanding that he should be given golden candlesticks. This shows manipulation on a small scale; on a much larger scale, Abigail and the other girls (who have no power whatsoever in the beginning of the play- eg them dancing is prohibited, young girls are used a maids until they are old enough be married) are able to manipulate people’s beliefs and the law of the Bible. They claim to have seen witchcraft and accuse many people of using it. And because the village is filled with devoted Christians, whose whole world revolves around God, what would expect their reactions to be, to these accusations?
The fact that they want to go beyond her request for clothing and bring her something more gratifying illustrates their desire to offer her some relief. As with their efforts to hide her uneven stitches, sure to be seen by the men as proof of guilt, they commiserate with her through objects that symbolize their commonality. Both of the works tell their respective stories accurately and interestingly. “Peers” uses imagery much more than Trifles, while the latter uses dialogue. Because Mrs. Wright was trapped in a lonesome, cold marriage, she too became that way.
When Beth begins to scream loudly, Putnam is quick to state that she is bewitched while the doctor states that she is ill, and cannot bear loud noises from the church. Putnam affirms: "The Psalm! She cannot bear to hear the Lord 's name… That is a notorious sign of witchcraft!" (Miller 30) Which is responded with: "There is hard sickness here… so please to keep the quiet." (Miller 31). This, and other examples, show that societies will attribute their own ideas as absolute truth inside of religion. By doing this, oppression is created with the justification of religion, when in fact the origin of these understandings often have nothing to do with religion. Parris, a strong influence in the oppression that Salem is facing, is also guilty of this act. His constant oppression, especially towards John Proctor, has some base in distorted religious beliefs. Parris attempts to defend the accusation being made towards the woman by saying: "Cain were an upright man, and yet he did kill Abel." (Miller 95). Proctor replies with: "Aye, God tells us that. But who tells us Rebecca Nurse murdered seven babies by sending out her spirit on them?" (Miller 95). John Proctor plainly affirms that the accusations being made should not be considered absolute truth, and that defending them with religion, as was being done, is incorrect. The belief that any accusation made by one of the girls was inside religion was misguided and oppressive, notably to the victims of the accusations.
Most of the colonists were Puritans. Their religion was their life. Children grew up extremely religious. According to historian Judith Granholm, “Puritan girls and boys grew up in a culture that relentlessly required them to confess their sinfulness….” Some of the younger children who were accused confessed to being witches because they didn’t understand. This is what happened in Dorcas Goods case. Dorcas, along with all the other Puritan children, had been taught her whole life that when someone asked her if she had sinned in some way or another, they confessed and were honest. So why should this be any different? Dorcas was only four or five years old when Ann, Mercy, and Mary accused her of witchcraft. This shows a lack of compromise. Anyone could be convicted, no matter what age. Her mother, Sarah Good, was an accused witch. During Dorcas’s confession, she drew her mother into it, stating that her mother “had three birds one black, one yellow and that these birds hurt the Children and afflicted persons.” Sarah was accused and sentenced to hang, but she was pardoned until the birth of her child, who died in prison. Dorcas was imprisoned for over seven months. The Puritan practices may have made children more likely than adults to believe they were witches. Background also played a large part in this. The colonists came from Europe, where witchcraft was said to be much more common. This background
Can a person’s desire to fit in among society be so strong that it becomes the driving force of his life? Throughout Joyce Carol Oates' "Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart", the main characters are so desperate to be accepted by the society that this very desire molds their decisions and their lifestyle. The longing to be accepted burns so deep within Duke and Persia Courtney, Jinx Fairchild and most importantly, Iris Courtney that their lives are built around it.
Crow Lake is Canadian author Mary Lawson's first novel，which is narrated by Kate Morrison, the second child in the Morrison family. A serious car accident left seven-year-old Kate, her one and half year old sister, Bo, and her two older brothers, Luke and Matt, orphans. Rather than live with relatives separately, they chose to live together and grow up. Luke and Matt made many sacrifices to support their family and they also got many helps from their community. The story took place in Crow Lake, a remote small farming community in northen Ontario.