reflection - 8

Personally, I do not actually know very much about the time period when the Declaration of Independence was written. I actually know quite little. I did not take World History like most other students did in freshman year, and I am not in AP History like some other students are this year. In American History class, we are currently learning about the Puritan Era, and have not yet moved onto the Rationalism period. This is the first time I have read the declaration of independence, and it actually came as quite a shock to me. All I knew of the Declaration of Independence was that it was a document that declared America's freedom. So clearly, I did not have an extensive knowledge of what it was, nor do I still. But upon reading the Declaration of Independence, I have a different perspective on it. I know that many people view the Declaration of Independence as a great document and something that people can look back on as a great literary work as well as a neat historical document and something that we can keep in mind as we look at our country today. However, when I was reading the Declaration of Independence, I did not see any of those things. I am sure why I did not see those things was because of my lack of knowledge of the topic, or something like that, but as blindly reading the document, I interpreted it as quite the opposite. Honestly, when I was reading it, instead of seeing what many Americans see, instead I kept getting hung up on all of the propaganda techniques and errors of faulty logic that the writers of this document used. To me, it seemed like an immature way to write a document. I guess the writers could have been all amped up about America when they were writing it, but I still do not think that gave them good reason to slander other countries in the document that founded our country. One of the first propaganda techniques I see in the Declaration of Independence is the use of a glittering generality. In the second paragraph the writer says "all men are created equal" (Jefferson 120). I believe that all men are made in God's image, but to me things get a little trippy when someone says all men are created equal. Especially when the someone saying it calls the King of Great Britain a tyrant a few paragraphs later. In this time, Jefferson, and other men like him who were founding America were killing Indians so that we could own the land. That is such a selfish thing to do and shows that they certainly did not think the Indians were as good as they were, yet they had the audacity to claim that they believe all men were created equal. And the fact that they called the King of Great Britain a tyrant, multiple times in this document, in itself is the propaganda technique of name calling. There are many Propaganda techniques used in this document as well as errors of faulty logic. I do not think that those things cause the document to lose its credibility, but in my book it makes me question the character of the men who wrote it.

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. 120-124. Print.

"Recognizing Propaganda Techniques and Errors of Faulty Logic." Cuesta College. 06 Mar. 2011. Web. 27 Sept. 11

journal - 10

In my opinion, I strongly believe that the vocabulary assignment should be due next class. I am not saying this out of laziness or because I simply do not want to do it, but because I, and many other students in our class, are already quite overwhelmed by the amount of homework that we already have. Personally, I am already so far behind on all of my blogs, and by simply adding a vocabulary assignment on top of it all, makes it even more overwhelming. I have been sick for about a week now, and last week I missed a day of class. I am still behind from missing class, and am really struggling to catch back up on my work. It is not that I am not willing to do it, but so much of it is extremely time consuming, thought provoking, and even difficult to understand, comprehend, and respond to, that it is just too much right now. To be honest, my life is just crumbling in on top of me right now. I feel so far behind on things and I really need time to catch up on all of my school work, cleaning my room, Bible reading, and I need to take time to just relax so that I can get mentally prepared for the week to come. I am physically and mentally exhausted at this point. What I am striving for right now is to make it to the weekend. I could totally use a weekend to catch up on things and to feel prepared for life. The past two weeks I have been out of town, and have therefore not been able to catch up on all of the things that I need to do. As you can see, my life is clearly stressful right now and things are just crazy. A few things that I am trying to do to combat that is memorizing scripture, staying in God's word, and staying in a constant dialogue with God. Those things are very helpful to calm down the things in my life that I have not control of. But with my homework, I cannot help it and I simply have to do it, just like the vocabulary, if you make me turn it in this class.

reflection - 7

how patrick Henry's speech exemplifies the Rationalism writing style

The Speech to the Second Virginia Parliament by Patrick Henry is quite a fired up speech and I can feel the power in Mr. Henry's thoughts as I read this. This writing most definitely reflects the writing of the Rationalism period. It is incredible to see the immense difference between the writing style of the Puritans and the writing style of the Rationalism era. There is a huge difference between the two and they take place so close in time to each other! In the Puritan era, the people fully believed in God and believed that he had a plan for everyone, his hand was completely interfering with the way people lived, they all thought obeying him and his commands and having faith in him was the sure way to salvation. They also never questioned God's authority, or any authority above them, for that matter. They believed that God was with them through everything and that his providence would help them through life if they had faith in Him and were living for Him.

As the reader begins reading this speech by Mr. Patrick Henry, you see him set the stage for his speech by setting a tone of what his speech will be like and basically prepares the men for what is to come in his speech by indicating that they will be offended but they should listen to his standpoint because he believes he is raising many good points. In his opening two sentences he states "And in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country" (Henry 112). This statement was certainly a lofty one, at that! The Puritans believed that God was the one who held the truth and He was the truth. For Henry to suggest that debate is the key to finding truth, is an immensely bold move, and frankly a risky statement. For him to boldly make this case is a sudden indication of the difference in the Puritan era and the rationalism era. Henry knows that people will disagree with his claim of debate, so he then says "Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason toward my country, and as an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly things" (Henry 112). The Puritans would commonly keep back their opinions, for they believed it was not their opinions that mattered, but God's. However, Henry is saying that for him to keep back his opinions would be committing treason to his country! This I'm sure is used to get the attention of the people listening to his speech and to get them thinking about it. And then on top of that, he says that it would be disloyal to God for him to keep his opinion to himself. This now makes things interesting, because he is combining reason and religion. The people are not used to this, for Puritans only followed religion, not reason. Henry's speech puts the people in an interesting position. The people had thought always that religion was correct, but Henry's case was so logical and rational that they could not discard what he said, even if they wanted to.

As another act of persuasion Henry at one point, asks, " Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation?" (Henry 112). This is a very good persuasion technique, because he basically is asking the people if they should live like dumb people and not question and dig deeper to see what the truth is. He uses rhetorical questions many times throughout his speech. This is another way to show that this is a writing of the Rational era, because he is raising such a point and questioning his authorities, which people never before would have done.

Henry, Patrick. "Speech to the Second Virginia Convention." Comp. Wilhelm, Jeffrey D. Glencoe Literature. AmericanLiterature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 112-113 Print.

journal - 9

a time when someone was emotional and the situation was solved by a rational approach

There are many times in my life that I have witnessed emotional people or people acting emotionally. In fact, I act on emotion quite often, which I know is not always a good thing, but sometimes it can be. Some people are more emotional than others, and some people are more rational than others. I think that in general, girls are usually more emotional than guys are. And as far as it goes for me, I think compared to many other girls, I am more rational than most. Not to say that I do not get emotional, because I do. Most things in a girl's life revolves around emotions. Where as guys on the other hand usually are more rational than girls are. However, I have a friend who is a boy who seems to be more emotional than a majority of guys his age. In this journal, I will call this boy Fred, although that is not his real name.

As I said earlier, Fred is more of an emotional guy than most, and I am more of a rational girl than most, so it turns out that Fred and I are a lot alike. Fred and I have always been able to talk to each other about things and and especially have been able to talk to each other about relationships and girls and guys. Being able to talk to each other about things like that, yet solely remain friends and only friends is a rare thing this day in age. I often seek advice from my friend Fred and Fred often seeks advice from me. We both help each other make good choices and stay on tack, as well as remaining good friends and having fun.

One time Fred was texting me about a girl that he liked. In fact, he thought he loved her. He was fairly certain that this was the girl that he was going to marry. Keep in mind that Fred is in high school. He really liked this girl and wanted my advice as a friend, a sister, and a Christian. Fred was acting very emotional and was very caught up in this girl. I however, saw the situation very realistically and rationally. I told Fred that this was not the girl for him and that if he was seriously planning on marrying her, he should reconsider. And this girl had already played him three times before and there's no way she would stick around for marriage. I also told him that I knew his walk with God was not at a strong point in his life and if he wanted a girl who was a christian and wanted a relationship based on Christ, it is not good to start the relationship when he was away from Christ. He took into consideration all of the things that I said and saw that they were very logical points. This was about three months ago that I told Fred these things, and now he already has himself another girl.

journal - 8

Each of the four seasons have their perks. In summer, there is no school, and it is hot outside, so it is fun to do things outdoors. In the winter, we get Christmas break and do not have school for a week. Also, in the winter is Christmas, snow, hot chocolate, snow days, and boots. I also like spring because spring is track season. I run track and spend all year preparing for that one time of the year. Spring is also neat because the weather is finally warmer and the air is crisp and everything seems to get a fresh start. Autumn, however, is my favorite season. There are so many things that are great about autumn. One great thing is the weather. It is not too hot and not yet too cold. The weather is perfect for football games and bonfires. Which brings me to another reason that I love autumn: football. I really enjoy football. My brother plays football, so I have grown up watching football and cheering him on. Football is a very common thing in my household and in America. In fact, it is the only sport designed to be played throughout the entire weekend. On Fridays in the autumn, I go to the Pleasant Plains High School football games. On Saturdays I either go to my brother's college football game, or watch it on t.v. And on Sundays, I watch professional football while I either take a nap, do my homework, or just rest. I like football, and all of the things that come with it. That is the main reason why my favorite season is autumn. Also in Autumn, there are bonfires. I love bonfires. The weather is kind of chilly, and perfect for standing around the fire to bond with your friends. Another thing about fall that I really appreciate is the clothes. Fall clothes are my favorite. For me, there are so many cute fall clothing options to choose from. Autumn clothes are fun. There are so many wonderful things about Autumn, and it is definitely my favorite season.

reflection - 6

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" has many similarities to "The Crucible". Jonathan Edwards, in his sermon, talks of How we are held by the hands of God suspended over the pit of Hell. His entire point to the sermon is that we have no control, God is in control, and that we need to live our lives here on Earth for God. He believes in a direct correlation between our actions and thoughts here on Earth and where we will end up; Heaven or Hell. He states that many of the people in the Church will not be going to Heaven. He is basically calling them fakers. But not just fakers, but more so, lazy. He says that even if people are reading their Bibles and praying every day, they still may not go to Heaven. He does not believe that it has to do with just our actions here on Earth that get us to Heaven, but the motives of our Hearts. He points out that if we are just going through the motions of our faith, we may be surprised to find where we will be spending the rest of eternity. John Proctor also shares some similar views of salvation as Jonathan Edwards does. In the closing section of the book, John Proctor is faced with an extremely tough decision. He must either confess to witchcraft, which is a lie, and his life will be spared, or he must deny whichcraft, which is the truth, and and his life will be spared. John Proctor is a very upright man. He wants to admit to witchcraft, so that he can continue to live, but he knows that if he admits to witchcraft, he is lying. He does not want to have to go back home to his boys as a liar. He knows that he could never raise them to tell the truth if the only reason he was there with them was because he lied to spare his own life. He also knows that if he lies and admits to witchcraft, then he is also condemning his fellow neighbors and friends and then he puts them in the position to either lie or die. John Proctor eventually admits to witchcraft, but shortly after, he changes his mind. He tells them that it is a lie and that he never had anything to do with witchcraft. He told the truth. He told the truth because he, like Jonathan Edwards, believes there is a strong correlation between our actions and our salvation. John Proctor knew that he would already get judged harshly because of the lechery that he commited, and did not want to have another thing to have to be held accountable for in the life to come. He realized that he would rather suffer here in this earthly life tahn have to spend eternity in Hell. Jonathan Edwards and John Proctor hold true to their values, and actually share many similar values about life, death, and eternity.

Edward, Jonathan. "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God". Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. Print.

journal - 7

Bullying is a serious problem today, and has been in the past. In fact, the headline today on AOL.com was about a boy who committed suicide because he was bullied. I hate that. I do not think things should ever get so bad that a person's only option is suicide. That is absolutely terrible and there is no reason for that to happen. Anyone who bullies people has no excuse to be bullying them, and they deserved to be immediately punished. Also, I believe it is not just the responsibility of the bullies to not bully people, but I believe that bullying is the responsibility of others who witness the bullying and/or who know that bullying is going on. People that know bullying is happening are just as responsible for the bullying as are the people that are actually inflicting the bullying. They have just as much power to stop the bullying as the bully does, therefore is held to the same level of responsibility. I hate bullying. It is one-hundred percent unnecessary. I have witnessed bullying before, right here at Pleasant Plains High School. Bullying is gross and disgusting and I wish more people would report bullying or would at least stand up to the bully and tell them what's up. Bullying can have such a serious effect on the victim of bullying. As I shared earlier, people sometimes kill themselves because of bullies. That is serious. If any bully thinks that bullying is not serious, they are wrong. Bullying can be a life or death matter. There is nothing about that, that is not serious. People can be emotionally scared from bullying for their whole life. As humans, we carry emotional "baggage" with us. We have excellent memories, and do not forget the things in our lives that were extremely painful, embarrassing, degrading, or memorable. We just do not. We think about those things over and over again and want to hold the people accountable who were responsible for the pain that we felt. Emotional things stay with us for our entire lives, and bullying is one of those things that definitely can stay with a person emotionally forever, and can have a drastic outcome on a person and can change a person a lot.

reflection - 5

how is human nature expressed in the events so far in the crucible?

Human nature is much depicted and expressed in the events so far in The Crucible, by the characters and how they react, respond, and behave to certain things within the play. A big way that human nature is expressed, is that most of the characters in this play respond to things on impulse. They do not stop to think about things or to thing logically, they simply reply. Most of their responses are on pure emotion, especially Mr. Parris. Mr. Parris even within the first few pages of the book responds out of emotion. He snaps at Abigail, and does not believe the things that she says or even take them into consideration. Later he is very obnoxious and responds to all of the other characters on impulse.

Also, in this play, many of the characters lie. This shows that it is in our human nature to be sinful and to lie. When the characters of this play are under pressure, instead of being honest, they just lie. We see the lying begin with Abigail in the beginning of the play as she lies to Mr. Parris about what the girls were doing in the woods. After she lies about it, so does Tituba, Mary Warren, and all of the other girls. Instead of taking their punishment of a whipping, they continue to lie, which eventually leads them to the courthouse and to jail. Also in this play, the women lie. They blame other women for things that supposedly happened, when really they know the truth that the other woman did not do the things they accuse her of. They lie and falsely accuse each other because they are trying to save their own butts. They do not want to get into trouble or to get blamed, so instead of being honest, they blame someone else in hopes that they can shift the blame from them to the other woman so that people will forget about them and focus on another woman's inequities. Lying is definitely a part of human nature and this play really helps to illustrate that. Another thing that is somewhat incorporated within lying and is covered in this book is selfishness. All of the girls and women that were lying only lied to keep themselves safe and out of blame. They lied for selfish reasons. They were all being very selfish and did not think of others before themselves. Selfishness is a part of human nature. The men and women that were on the board to decide who was guilty and innocent and who should be hung and who should live were extremely selfish. I have a feeling that most of these people were not actually fully convinced that the people they were blaming were actually guilty. The only one of them to ever look at it at a logical standpoint was Hale, and he ended by pleading with people to confess so that he would not feel guilty. All of the other people did not look at it logically. They looked at it selfishly and thought that if they could keep the blame on others, they would not get hurt, even to the point of killing others. It was ridiculous how things went down. If everyone would have just told the truth instead of lying and pretending, nobody would have to be lynched. Instead, everyone would have a better understanding of each other and they could just try to figure things out another way. Telling the truth would have been so much more beneficial to all of the people than lying. The problem was that the lying was an epidemic and it got to the point that if people did tell the truth, there was nothing they could do to stop what was happening because it got to the point that people were in the lies so deep that things would have unravelled if people started to peel back the lies to look at the truth.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. Print.

journal - 6

There are many possible repercussions for blaming someone for something that they did not, in fact, do. However, someone should not even be blaming someone for something that they did not even do. I think people need to step up in who they are and actually own up to the things they have done that are wrong. I do, however, understand that sometimes it is very difficult to take on the responsibilities of your actions, even when it is the right thing to do. The right thing to do usually seems like the hardest thing to do. If someone does not step up and take responsibility for their actions and ends up blaming someone else, I think there are many possible repercussions. One possible repercussion is that people will find out that you did the thing, and then they will find out that you blamed someone else for it. If that happens, people seem to get even more angry and misunderstanding, and often you will get in even more trouble for what you did than if you had simply told what you did in the first place. I think in many scenarios people discover that it would benefit them to just tell the truth in the beginning. Another possible repercussion would be that the other person would receive punishment for something that was your wrongdoing. In this case, the perpetrater of all of it usually feels very guilty and quite often ends up telling in the end that it was them who did it. So yet again, we see that it is often better just to confess and take responsibility for your actions than blaming others, because it is the right thing to do, and because people usually will find out anyway. Another possible outcome of blaming other people for things that you did is that the person you blame could find out, become angry, and seek revenge on you. That is certainly something that people do not want happening to them, and is simply just not worth it. Just tell the truth, it helps make life less stressful and helps you live free of guilt and makes you a more honest and real person.

Reflection Blog - 4

I will start with the character that has the color that is easiest for me to define. I believe Putnam is a gold. He is extremely strong willed. When they are trying to take his wife away, Putnam will not let them. Putnam does not waver in his opinion on that. He does not let anyone else sway him. He knows what is just, and will not hear otherwise. An attitude like that is very "gold", so to speak. He also cares for his family a lot. He is trying to protect his wife, and has great protective instincts. He also cares for his kids. He seems like a man of routines and is somewhat narrow-minded. This is why I believe that Mr. Putnam definitely has some "gold" qualities about him.

I believe that Mr. Parris would show up on the true colors quiz as a green. Parris is a very inquizitive man, and questions everything. Rather than taking his time to listen and to understand Abigail, he instead shuts off all emotion and tries to anylize everything that Abigail says. I do understand how he could do that, considering the very stressful and frightening situation with his daughtor, but Parris was analyzing things so much that it went a little over the top.

I believe that Abigail is a blue. She is very emotional. I am not just saying that she is emotional because she is a teenage girl, buy I think she is very emotional down to her inner core. Everything that she said was geared around emotion. She would not say anything and would lie to cover up for the things she did because she did not want to get into trouble. But doing that seemed to be eating her alive, and she eventually had to spill her guts, which was a very emotional thing to do. Abigail was very soft spoken before she spilled her guts, and that also showed that she was a blue. Blues tend to be very caring and loving and emotional. I think Abigail was all of those things. She also had many emotions tied into Mr. Putnam and she cared for him and was not always rational in her thinking about him, but very much so more emotional.

I think Mr. Hale is a gold. He is a very methodical man and does everything by the rules. He does not jump to conclusions, but instead looks at every possibity before looking ahead. He seems like a very just man and lives very much so by the rules. He was ok with puting the women in jail because he knew it abided with the law. He was also naive and thought that the women would not get senteced and would get let out the next day. I do think that if he knew the reality of the situation he would have been more proactive in helping Elizabeth Proctor get out of it, and he would take a more firm stance and try to stop the injustice that was happening.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. A Play in Four Acts. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. Print.

journal - 5

what is a fair 21st century punishment or what should it be?

First off, I would like to point out that this is not a good question and could be phrased in a better way. Because firstly, what is fair anyway? Fair is not something that can be judged or compated. There is no definite answer when it comes to asking if something is fair or not, and I would just like to point that out to start with.

Secondly, I do not believe that there is a certain format of how to punish your kids. There is no template of punishments for your kids that all parents should follow. I believe punishments should be child specific. This makes no difference if it is in the twenty-first century or not. All punishments should be child specific. What I mean in sayin 'child specific', is that the punishment for all of your kids does not have to look the same. They may look the same, but they certainly do not have to. It depends on each child as an individual. What may be a punishment for one child, may be nothing to the next child. For example, if both of your children were misbehaving and you give them both a time-out, it may not be the right choice. For one of your children the time-out may be extremely boring and the child would learn their lesson from the punishment, whereas the other child may spend his time being useful and use it as a time of reflection or a time to be productive. In this case, the punishment was most likely not actually a punishment for the child, and he probably was not taught a very adequate lesson from this.

Now in the twenty-first century, there are so many new ways to punish your kids that never existed before. For example, parents now have the opportunity to take away from their children the priveledge of modern technologies. For example, if a teenager or pre-teenager has disobeyed, a parent can now take away their cell phone, their laptop, their facebook priveledges, their car, or many other modern technologies. This form of punishment has never existed in the past as it does now, and that can be used as an advantage or a disadvantage.

reflection blog - 3

The book "The Crucible" definitely displays the qualities of puritan writing and puritan beliefs. For the people in the book, their everyday world and their spiritual world were very closely intertwined. In the book, whenever anything happens, the people immediately relate it to spiritual things. One thing that is interesting about this book, which is different than many other puritan writings is that the people in the story usually relate things to spiritual things when the thing is a negative thing. Usually the puritans relate everything good that happens in their life to God and say that they are able to experience those good things because of the providence of God. Whereas in this book, so far the people have only related things in a spiritual way only when things have been going badly. For example, When the girl would not wake up and seemed to be acting strangely, they immediately blamed it on spirit, and the devil and blamed the girls for conjuring spirits. I find it interesting that instead of immediately turning to God to ask what was the problem and turning to him to see what should be done, they started making accusations of their own and trying to fix things by themselves. I feel like as Christians they should have had a different response to how they went about things, but that is just my opinion.

Puritans were a protestant group seeking to "purify" the church in England. The people in this story were definitely seeking to "purify" the church. They wanted what was best and did not want there to be things standing in the way of their town having God's blessing. They minister was quite rude to his niece when he thought they were conjuring spirits in the woods, and he was very quick to judge her and would not listen to what she was saying. The Bible says to be quick to listen and slow to speak. This minister apparently didn't get the memo. He was very quick to judge harshly and needed to work on his listening skills.

It seemed as if the whole town gathered in the bedroom of the minister's house when his daughter was "sick". All of the people wanted to work together to help the town and do things for the good of the people and in God's favor. When they did that, it seemed very much like the puritans. Although they did spend much of their time arguing, they really did want to be there to help solve the problem and to help figure out what was wrong. They were very similar to the puritans.

It was very interesting that Abigail was lying and covering up for the things that she did wrong. It seems like that is not something that the puritans would appreciate, and clearly the minister was fairly upset that she was acting that way. I think it is also strange, as the people were supposedly Christians, and they believed the girl had a demon in her yet did not ask God to call the demon out. That seems very strange that self-proclaiming Christians would not call on the Lord during this frightening phase of their life.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible: A Play in Four Acts. New York, NY: Penguin, 2003. Print.

Journal - 4

I love traveling and going on vacations. I am aware that there are many people that are not too fond of traveling and taking vacations, but I certainly am. Many people do not like the extensive car rides and complain of their joints cramping up. Other people are afraid of flying on airplanes as well as feeling like airplanes are disgusting and unclean. Other people do not like that when they go on family vacations, they actually have to spend time with their family, and that is something that they do not like. All of these things can be set-backs of vacations, but they are only minor issues and are worth putting up with these things for the experience of a vacation.

Vacations are wonderful, in my opinion. They allow you to get away from the stress of life and the craziness that normally goes on. For me, vacations are not a time that I spend touring new places and going to museums, but I spend them relaxing. Vacations are a perfect time to rejuvenate and get a fresh start and a new focus and perspective on things going on back home. When you are on vacations there are no distractions. Yes, sometimes there are small distractions, but on vacations there are not very many people there that you know. People are often a distraction in my life, and on vacations there is nobody to text you and ask if you can hang out, because you are in a different state than they are. Also on vacations, you get to bond with your family. There are many people that do not like to spend time with their families, but I am not one of those people. It is so nice to have time together to get away and get to know each other better and just sit and talk, or not even talk. But just to be in each other's presence with an undivided attention. Family vacations can word wonders in families, and more families should go on trips together, if possible.

Reflection Blog - 2

I think the style of writing in the story definitely reflects the writing style of the puritans. Near the beginning of the story the writer correlates the safety of the men on the ship with the providence of God. Most writers do not do this, yet this author makes claims like that many times throughout the story. That is a definite sign that he is of the puritan era.

When their ship came to land, they realized they were not where they wanted to but. Instead of being angry with God and cursing at him, they thanked God and were grateful that God had brought them to land. They thanked God for everything and always saw things as blessings rather than problems. The story we read was about them coming to America, which also points to them being puritans because the puritans were people that traveled to America and were Christians.

Along their journey, some of the people became sick with scurvy. A few people died and many were sick. The people did not become angry because of this, but instead they praised God that the rest were not sick and that God brought them to land.

When they came to America, they met Squanto Indians. The Indians taught them how to plant corn and grow it. The people were very thankful that the Indians taught them this, yet they still believed that the Indians were lost and did not know the truth. The people that came to America were Christians and only believed there was one way to Heaven, and did not believe the Indians were Christians. Also, the author wrote in a very straight forward manner and this was seen throughout much of puritan writing.

After the people had settled down and the Indians had taught them how to plant crops and after they had places to live and had bee settled down, they had their first Thanksgiving. They all gathered together and with them and the Indians and had a feast together. This was important because it created a national holiday for our country. I think it is neat how the people were all able to come together in fellowship and worship together even though they hardly had anything and they

In "Of Plymouth Plantation", God was referenced many times and even the providence of God was mentioned, as were other religious/spiritual suggestions. In the beginning of the reading it starts by saying God was pleased that John Howland's life was saved. It says that later John becomes a profitable man in the church. It describes in one instance how they escaped the dangers of the night by the providence of God. When the men were brought safely to land, it said they fell on their knees and worshipped the God of Heaven. All of these things are examples that the writing style is very puritan in nature.

Bradford, William "Of Plymouth Plantation." Comp. Wilhelm, Jeffrey D Glencoe Literature. new York, NY: McGraw-Hill Glencoe, 2010. Print.

journal - 3

Being held hostage is not something that I think about very often. In America being held hostage seems like a very rare thing and you do not hear much about it. But in other countries it happens quite often, as well as sometimes in America. One of my best friend's dad was held hostage by people in Panama. My friend was almost two years old when this happened. He got to talk to his dad two times a year by short wave radio for a few years. But he never saw his dad again. He was killed by the people that took him hostage because my friend's mom refused to pay the ransom- and rightly so.

I have no idea what it would be like to be taken hostage. At first, I'm assuming it would be very scary. You would probably be caught off guard and not know what was happening. You would be scared that the people would kill you or hurt you. It would be extremely scary and I would be very concerned. How I would feel and react would also depend on how the people are that took me hostage. I often hear of stories of people that are held hostage that become friends with the people that took them hostage. I am sure that there is a bond between the people that held someone hostage and the person that is being held hostage. I am sure that there is a bond, and that it is one that we, who have not been held hostage can understand.

It would be really hard at first to be held hostage because I would want to be mad at the people who held me hostage. But I would need to instead be focusing on getting the essential things that I need to survive. Also, if I were to start building relationships with the people that took me hostage, I would be able to make the most of my time and would also probably get more benefits. I think if I was held hostage, that is what I would do. I would try to become friends with the people that took me. It would actually probably be morel like becoming family with them than it would be like becoming friends, because you would be doing everything with those people for a long period of time. I would try to be like the woman that we read about if I were held hostage.

Reflection Blog - 1

Many of the Puritans had much self reliance and were very industrious. We see that very clearly in the story by Mary Rowlandson. The Puritan people stayed at the ministers house and were staying to stand their ground and fight off the Indians. Many people would have fled, but not these Puritans, they stayed to fight. At one point in the story, there is a quote inserted by Mrs. Rowlings, saying that she would rather die there in her house by the Indians, than be taken hostage. That shows the industrious view of the Puritans, even though she later changed her mind.

Many Puritans also used writing to explore their inner and outer lives for signs of God working. We see this done by Mary Rowlandson who published a book of her experiences with the Wampanoag. In her book she told her story, and related it to how God was entwined with her life during that time period. The Puritans also emphasized education for the sake of people being able to read the Bible; for they believed it was the literal word of God. We see in the story that Mrs. Rowlandson is revived by receiving a Bible while being held hostage, and this is one of the only things that keeps her going. That shows how she valued that she could read the Bible, and could also lead to mean that she thought what she was reading was the literal word of God.

In "Upon the Burning of our House", the reader can see many of the Puritan values holding true in the life of the Puritan author. The Puritans believed that the everyday world and the spiritual world were closely entwined. And through reading this story, the reader gains perspective on how that could be so, to the lives of the Puritans. The reader, however, gets a great view of this by reading "Upon the Burning of our House". The author of the story relates everything that happens in her life to God. The instant this woman's house was on fire, her thoughts went to God. While it was burning, she spent the time talking to God. After it was burned down, she trusted that God would provide for her. The way she was always talking to God, gives the reader a glimpse into the life of a Puritan and how they entwine God and life.

In Puritan writing, the Bible provided a model of how to live their individual life as a pilgrimage to salvation. Through The poem "Upon the Burning of our House", we get a glimpse into the author's though process and how she lives her daily life as a pilgrimage to salvation. Everything she thought and did related to God and could be something that helped her through her pilgrimage to salvation.

As we see in the two literary pieces, the Puritans did indeed live their daily lives for God and believed it helped them in their journey to salvation and they were wholeheartedly committed to the Lord.