~The House of the Seven Gables~

The Salem witch trials left a huge impact on the world of religion in America in 1692. It all started with Abigail Williams and her cousin Betty Parris trying to cover up dancing in the woods with Tituba, the slave of Reverend Parris, Betty’s father and Abigail’s uncle. But there are also many things that many people might not know about the witch trials.

For instance, the Pyncheon family in The House of the Seven Gables were real people and were ancestors of the American novelist Thomas Pynchon. Also, the house in the story is stated to be completely fictional and not based off of any actual house in real life, but Hawthorne had a cousin who owned the actual House of Seven Gables and Hawthorne had been there many times as a child.

The Puritans who founded Salem and were involved in the Salem witch trials were actually made up of groups that formed and identified with various religion groups that had the same mindsets that they had. For instance, the Puritans would have probably been identified as Calvinists because of the Reformed theology that they adapted into their lives. They were, in short, radical believers, which is what enabled such things as the witch trials to get blown out of control and spiral outward until it had consumed the town whole.


To make a great book, one has to compile much information from many different areas. Without all of the things that happened, from the tragedies to the successes, a book is written to include them all.

~The Moment I Knew I Was An American~

The moment I knew I was an American was when I was seven years old. My grandpa, who died almost fours years ago, gave me an American flag sticker and an actual flag and asked me if I was an American and I said yes, I am an American. This moment was very special for me because I never really got to know my grandpa too well but the few memories I have of him are some of my most treasured things.

My grandpa fought in World War II and was a very patriotic and passionate person. He absolutely loved his country and was willing to die to protect the ones he loved and the country he so cherished. He even went skydiving for his fiftieth birthday and wore three pairs of underwear dyed red, white, and blue. I always looked up to him and thought the world of him. Since I never knew my grandpa on my father's side (he died three years before I was born) I made sure I could get to know my grandpa on my mother's side.

I remember spending time at my grandparent's house a bit when I was younger and I always would ask my grandpa to tell me stories about how he used to fly in planes in WWII and everything that he did when he was younger. We would sit together for hours and he would tell me story after story about anything and everything. But my favorites were his stories about the planes he flew and what being an American fighting for your country meant to him. He never made the stories scary or anything like that, but he wouldn't "clean" them up either. He understood that I could comprehend what war was and that it is never something to take lightly.

So when he asked me if I was an American that day, I knew right away that I was. Not just because I loved my grandpa and wanted to be just like him, but because I knew that I felt the same way about this country that my grandpa did. I really miss him but I will always have the wonderful memories that he left me with and his patriotic spirit.

~Us vs. Them...Us and Them~

I'm not honestly sure just what pushes people to do the things that they do. But it's not hard to see why they do the things they do. For instance, why would the girls in The Crucible lie like that? Simple: they needed to get out of a snag so they conjured up this great lie that everyone believed. And tons of lives ended short because of them. They put their own motives and wants first and it cost people. I guess that's probably why most people do the things they do and because of this, many people suffer and even die. That's usually what happens when wars break out.

Our country has been in so many wars over the course of its existence. We've also lost countless numbers of people to them. Personally, I wish that war never existed. It's stupid, land is destroyed, and people die. Sometimes, a war can be over something really unimportant. The Crucible is a form of a verbal war that went on between the citizens of Salem and the girls, particularly Abigail and John Proctor. And it happened because the girls didn't want to get in trouble for what they did. But once they got themselves into the mess they had made, it would've been too hard to get out, as evidenced by Mary's testimony that went horribly wrong. And I don't even think that for a second Abigail wanted to back down from what she started after she saw just how much power and attention she was getting from this. Plus, she was able to manipulate the whole town and hold their judgment under her finger. She enjoyed her power and nothing could stop her from getting exactly what she wanted.

But in the end, Abigail didn't get what she wanted. The man she loved was condemned to hang as a witch, and he did. She never managed to get Elizabeth condemned or killed, and she had to resort to running away because she probably figured that she would have been found out sooner or later and hung because she had lied along with the other girls. And that's usually the case with so many other problems in the world. Something horrible comes about because people just have to get their way and will stop at nothing to get it, no matter what the consequences. Even if it means innocent people will die because of selfish wants.