The Crucible Post 1

The Crucible Post 1:How has the Balance of Power Shifted?

            After act one in the crucible, the power in Salem has shifted. In the beginning of the book, the most power in the town was held by Parris. He was the preacher. Since he ran the church, and there was no local government, Parris was the leader of the town, which is exhibited by the line, “There is a faction sworn to drive me from my pulpit…” (Miller 10). Parris is shown to be in power by the fact that there are factions trying to remove him from it, his power is implied. The rest of the power lies with the Putnams, the wealthiest family in Salem. They had the most land, and Mr. Putnam was highly involved with the town, in that he seemingly had a grudge against everyone there. With the actions of the children, however, things began to change.

           

            When Betty, the daughter of Parris, falls ills with no explanation why the town begins to get agitated.  Ruth, the only surviving daughter of the Putnams, seems to be possessed by the devil,  “…she waked this morning, but her eyes open she walks, and hears naught, sees naught, and cannot eat. Her sole is taken, surely…” and Parris starts to worry his daughter is possessed. He summons Reverend Hale, a specialist of finding witches. While he waits Mr. and Goody Putnam visit him, and they start to convince him that his daughter is bewitched. After Hale arrives, Abigail, Parris’s niece, admits she and Betty danced, and that Parris’s slave, Tituba, summoned spirits. Reverend Hale convinces them that if they repent and tell who else is doing the devil’s will then they will have salvation. Thus the power changes to Abigail and the other girls of the town. They can now accuse anyone of being a witch, and the person must either admit they’re a witch, or be hung.

"Sinners" Follow Up Post

       People reacted with fear in the time when Jonathan Edwards was preaching. People's reaction today would be much different. The way our society views God is as a loving, forgiving God that loves us enough to sacrifice his son for us. I think that many people that strongly believe what they believe would disagree with the view of an angry God ready to kill us at any moment. Edwards would probably be labeled a radical, and would not be taken seriously by many. Not only is our view of God different, but in America today there are many people of other religions, and even atheists, that wouldn't care about what some Christian preacher says. Today's society is more stable, and all the "acts of God", like stopping a man's heart, is now easily explained, and Edwards' argument would be less compelling. Today's society would not be very affected by a speech like that.

"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" Post

 “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”

                This is a video that gives background on a sermon that was made in colonial-time America. It was made by Jonathan Edwards, who was a preacher in New England. It talks about Edwards’ background, he was a kind, generous, and loving man, and a faithful husband. But in this sermon he inspired such great fear in his followers that it started a religious movement in the colonies. He was a good speaker, and he used imagery with great effect. The sermon would become known as the “sermon New England never forgave him for”.

                From this video, it seems that his speech was one about salvation or Hell. It looks as if he used imagery to paint a vivid picture of how awful it would be to go to Hell. His speech probably contains imagery about a scorching, fiery wasteland filled with eternal torment. He probably used images like these to scare his followers into living a religious and pure life, so they could get salvation. I imagine he also speaks about heaven as a miraculous place of wonder, but that it was only a small part of his speech. Most of his speech was likely spent describing Hell and what a person could do to either avoid it, or what they were doing that would send them there.  In the colonial times, many of the settlers held a fear/reverence attitude toward God, and this would paint an unmerciful picture of him, unless you lead a good life. The sermon is probably religious propaganda aimed at making its followers lead a better life.

Descriptive Post

http://www.pacificenvironment.org/article.php?id=245



     In this picture there is a river, running through a green countryside. The river is a grayish-blue and wide. The river is also bendy, and dissapears part way through the countryside, blocked out by the green hilly area next to it. In the foreground, on the right side of the river there is a sparse forest that thickens as it moves away from the river, and in the background there is a steep mountain, the same color green as the surrounding landscape. The sky is not visible on the right side of the picture, because the mountain is much taller than the surrounding landscape, but the sky over the middle of the picture is a brilliant, bright blue, with some clouds farther in the distance. The left part of the sky is almost only clouds. The clouds are grayish white, and puffy. In the middle ground of the middle and left part of the picture there is a mountain range in the distance. The mountains are green  the same green as well, except for near the top, where they are brown. In the left foreground is slightly hilly, before turning into a flat field the stretches to the mountain range.

Expectations

Thesis: Honors class students are expected to live up to certain standards.

       One of the things expected of an honors class is a respectful attitude to their teacher. An honors cass should be polite, and listen. Honors students should not talk while listening. Students should raise their hands, instead of just shouting out answers, so that their peers get a chance to answer for themselves. Students should follow instructions their teacher sets for them. Students should do their homework, and not make excuses unless there was no way they could have possibly done their homework. Students should meet deadlines set by their teacher because the teacher can't, and shouldn't, wait on one person. If a student misses class it is up to them to use the resources given, the blogs, to learn what was done in class, and not seek out their teacher. The student-teacher relation is essential for a school to function, and should be respected.

       How students interact with each other is also important. Students should be respectful of each other. Students should help each other if a nearby student needs clarification. Students should be quiet when a teacher is talking so that their classmates don't miss what the teacher has to say. Students should not talk while another student is speaking for the same reason. Students should not be distracing when it is time to work. Students should not shout out answers so their classmates get a chance to think about the question. Students should be respectful of each other's opinions, even if they disagree. The student-student relationship is essentially a workplace relationship, and is vital for school to work.

       As an honors class, academics is one of the most important standards students need to meet. Students should always do the work they are assigned. Students should always complete the work, and not make excuses for unfinished work. Students should be productive in class work time. Honors students should maintain an average of 80 or higher. When a student cannot meet that standard, they should no longer stay in the honors class if they are unable to raise their grade sufficiently. Students should get themselves caught up without needing the help of the teacher. Honors students should live up to certain standards.

About Me

Hey, my name is Andrew. I was born in Virginia, and lived there until the age of five, before I moved here to Michigan, where I have lived since. I have two siblings, both younger, one brother, James, and one sister, Kate. I am a huge dog person, and I have two dogs, Juliet and Ranger, both Australian Shepherds. I also own a cat named Charlie, that used to be my Aunt's, but he is not very fond of me. I am also a huge sports fan, and I play soccer, and I used to play hockey and baseball.

My Family. My little bro, James, is a very unique person. We spend half of the time getting along amazingly, while the other half of the time we can barely stand each other. He is tall for his age, taller than me by an inch or so (Doc says he's done but I haven't hit my spurt yet) and he is also a lot less mature than he seems. He is a young boy in the body of a teen-ager, very smart, but fun-loving. He is going to be starting at South next year. My even younger sibling, my sister, Kate, is still in Elementary School. She is tough, charismatic, and smart. She does Tae Kwon Do, and is already a brown belt after only a year and a half. She has a lot of friends, especially on our block, and the door bell rings for her between 3 or 4 times a day during summer time. My Dad works in economics, and is often on business trips, mainly to Chicago, but also to Boston, New York, and Washington DC. He is a huge baseball fan, and he loves the Cincinnati Reds. He also enjoys hiking and kayaking in the upper peninsula of Michigan. He is also going through the process of getting ordained. My mom is an amazing cook and a notorious knitter. She used to work as in management for Nera, before she quit to spend more time with me and my,at that time, baby brother.

Academically, I am pretty strong across the board. While it isn't my favorite subject, math has always come easily to me, as I find with most subjects. I love to read, but usually I dislike books outside of the genres I enjoy, comedy and adventure. English is usually an interesting class for me, because I do like to read, but I do not like writing all that much, which is usually do to the choices of topics, which I usually find restricting and hard to connect with. Science is probably my favorite subject, especially biology, which I took last year. Science is interesting and the information is such that I think it may be useful outside of a classroom. History is my next favorite subject, mainly the wars. The conflicts throughout history make it interesting and how they affect the world is too. I also take Spanish, Mythology, and Music Theory.

I am a huge fan of sports. Football, Baseball, and Hockey, I follow them all. I follow the Lions and Red Wings from Detroit, but my baseball team is the Yankees. When I was a kid in Virginia there was no baseball team. The closest team was the Orioles, but I never liked the Orioles. My favorite baseball card was a player for the Yankees, and so I started to follow them. As it happened, my favorite tiger, Curtis Granderson, was traded to the Yankees, and he is probably my favorite baseball player.When I moved to Detroit I was exposed to hockey and football and I started to follow the local teams. I am a huge Red Wings fan, and I usually go to three or four games a year, and my favorite player is No. 43, Darren Helm. I play soccer, and I used to play little baseball and roller-hockey, I was never a good skater. My position is a striker, I'm not very fast but I have a good shot, and I played 3rd base in baseball and left wing in hockey.

My free time is probably one the things I love most about summer and hate losing when school come around. In my free time I like to hang out with my friends, but when they're not around I amuse myself with other things. I have an X-box, and like to play a mix of different games. My favorite games are probably NHL 12, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. I usually play a little each day after school. I also like to watch TV. My favorite program is Sportscenter, which is a nice way to stay in tune with the sports world. My favorite TV shows are Fox's House, Spike's Deadliest Warrior, and USA's Suits.  

Well, I hope you have learned a little more about me,

Andrew A