John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

John Proctor... after long debating with myself, I decided on hero. For a hero stands up for what they believe in and does what is right, no matter the consequence (in this case a hanging). He's deciding to die based on principle, telling the church that this is where it ends w/ the sins, no more lies and this may be seen as his attempt to make up for committing adultery with Elizabeth.

We see a man of reason, he's one of the people we see who tries to see the logic in things rather than to jump to the conclusion that there is witchcraft. Proctor tries to show the community that they have done wrong, to little avail. John Proctor sees the wrong in the church and starts breaking away from religion and in my opinion this must be hard (or damning) for a Puritan to decide to break away from this religious norm, he recognizes that what Parris preaches about religion (hell, eternal damnation and such) wouldn't be the way of god.

Dying on principle seems harder than we think it to be, a lot of people would have rather taken the 'easy way' out and gone on with the lie, because of this, I believe that John Proctor is a hero.

Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God!

A lot of people upon looking at the views of the Puritans might consider them guillible or misguided, but it's sort of like the fantasies our parents feed us when we're little kids and we eat them up right up. The God, Jonathan Edwards depicts in his sermon is very remiscent of the boogeyman, the sandman or that one lady who kidnaps kids in a giant bag. They are used to keep people in line (while using fear as their entrance), people don't want to find out what happens if they're wrong.

Except, in this case, it's a whole group of people who believe these teachings without questions. Their beliefs are primitive, in that they use religion to explain everything, a healthy person might be blessed by God while the sick or dying might be of the Devil or punished by God. We may sit here and call them old-fashioned idiots but in various communities back then (and some today) clergy are looked upon as community leaders and their word is unquestionable.

Arrivals... Here Comes the Neighborhood

When two different communities or a community and a family come together, I believe the more influential party may engulf the other. This has happened numerous times during American history in which the second generation of immigrants assimilate to American culture because they're drained of their own culture. In a family, they may attempt to do what is best for them to fit in and you have to adapt to this new environment, is it safe to walk there? Who can't I look in the eye? I wonder what the other parents think of me?

Christopher Columbus has a similar case, he wanted to fuse the other people into his own culture and given  Columbus' presence and the Native American's passivity it seemed like the right conditions for Columbus and his crew to engulf the Native Americans into his own religion - Christianity.

Introduction

Yo, I'm Derian Avalos, I would describe myself as a nerd with a deep fascination to novels, movies or video-games in the science-fiction genre, who doesn't love a good apocalyptic wasteland? I have a deep interest with video games, and hope to grow up to write for a video game or even write my own and go on to write a novel or five.

My parents are always pushing me to do better so that I can have opportunities they didn't, which they pretty much always let me know. I volunteer at a local food pantry every week and hope to be joining Debate soon.

Being a Dolphin is stressful but nevertheless it's a title I feel proud to hold and that is enough to keep me pushing on.