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.