Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Steady Hands or Individual Villainy

After reading the first five pages of The Crucible, please select ONE of the two prompts below to respond to:

Steady Hands

"They believed, in short, that they held in their steady hands the candle that would light the world. We have inherited this belief, and it has helped and hurt us" (Miller 5).

What do think this passage means? What is the "candle"? Do you agree that modern Americans have inherited this Puritan attitude?

OR

Individual Villainy

"When one rises above the individual villainy displayed, one can only pity them all, just as we shall be pitied someday. It is still impossible for man to organize his social life without repressions, and the balance has yet to be struck between order and freedom" (Miller 7).

Do you, like Miller, pity the people of late 17th century Salem? Do you think that we will be pitied one day? Do agree that repression is an inherent part of organized social life?

Please remember to read and comment on others' posts as well; the blog should be a conversation rather than a collection of individual responses.

27 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. One light can make a difference and others will follow and will crate a bigger light which is kinda like those Live-strong bracelets one person wears it then everyone does people who wear those should strongly snap it in their eye, but that one candle will light up the darkness though, plus it seems there trying to spreed out there beliefs onto people

    modern Americans have inherited this Puritan attitude question Its kinda half and half for me so I don't know how to answer that question

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  3. I think that the first quote is talking about how the Puritans were a proud group of people and strongly believed that not only was their religion the greatest but in general their way of life could not be surpassed. The candle is their religion, held steady in their hands and able to bring stability to anyone willing to except it. They wanted to expand their beliefs and explain to others that any religion besides the Puritans was wrong and in order to be saved from damnation you must accept Puritanism as your way of life. Modern Americans have inherited the Puritans attitude because even today we think that if we can push our thoughts and ideas onto others than we will be able make those people and the world better.

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  4. I think that the passage meant that the puritans believed that their way of live was what kept god from destroying the world and that they where doing everything that god wanted them to do. The candle that they held was the one bright spot that god cared for the most and that it was the one ray of goodness in the darkness that was the human race. A majority of Modern America has inherited this believe and there are parts that haven't. We judge people for the religion that they choose but in the products they use, the ideas they have, what sports they like and many other things.

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  5. I think in the first passage the candle that they talk about is you soul and its your soul when its clean and has no sin. When they said it has helped and hurt us I think that they meant that the candle has helped certain people not to sin and to live a life of god. When they say that it has hurt us then it means we have thought that what they sa is not true so we dont believe them and we sin and do bad things that would make the candle blow out. I think we have inheritad that candle because some people do not sin and live a life like the puritans and other sin and dont care and make fun of the puritans.

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  6. I think that the first passage is talking about how the Puritans were proud of their religion. It also suggests that their religion could bring strength and stability to its followers if they accepted it. They thought that their religion was the only good in the world and that everyone should be like them and follow it. I think that this is present in modern society because in the present, we try and push our thoughts and ideas on other people and judge those who have different beliefs.

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  7. I believe the first listed passage, steady hands, is referring to how the puritans thought that their religion was the true way to live. They thought what they had created and the path they lived by was the only way to live a pure life. They thought their religion was set in stone as the way the future would follow. The "candle" was the roots of their way of living. They thought that the way they lived would "shine" on the world and show them the way people should be. I don't think the puritan way of living has stayed. Many more ideals and religious practices are in modern America and people tend to live by their own wants and needs instead of by the puritan desires.

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  8. In the second passage, I do pity the people of Salem. They pretty all had to conform to one another and could not really express themselves. They all had to act the same way and believe in the same religion in the weird way they did. I believe we wont be pitied one day because everyone looks up to our society and we will keep a strong society for a long time. There might be some people who believe that but not enough to be recognizable. I do believe that repression is part of an organized society because you have your thoughts and memories that always come back to you and you need them to make you stronger.

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  9. I agree with TrentF11, i also pity the people of Salem. They have to follow a type of life style that they may of may not like. Also since they live in a society where they are in the middle of a forest so the people don't and will never know what life is like outside of their little town. I do think they one day will be pitied by others because they did not have the chance to live a normal life style. their lives were run by a small group of people who said that everyone had to be the same and could do nothing to make God mad which was really easy.

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  10. Steady Hands is referring to the puritan belief that they had the right religion and it was their duty to scare everyone else into believing what they believed. i do believe that americans inherited the puritan attitude. Americans have forever been trying to make the rest of the world believe what they believe. Americans have fought numerous wars to preserve and expand their belief in democracy. Although Americans practice many different religions they still believe that their way of life and government is what the whole world should look like just as the puritans believed that everyone had to believe the way they did.

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  11. The first passage of about a "candle that would lite the world" to me seems a little self centered, that their way is the only way. To me it seems like the candle represents there version of the bible and how they preach it.I believe the puritan ways (strict manured) have made it to our modern day and age through some people but the majority of the population is nothing like this.

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  12. I do pity the people of Salem, because they couldn't really live their lives. They didn't appreciate the little things because they couldn't. I do think that repression is a part of every day life, after all, we have laws preventing us from going out and doing whatever we want. We can still do a lot of stuff, don't get me wrong, but we can't just do whatever we want. I don't think that we'll be pitied, because we're a very advanced society. I think it will be a bit like how we look back on the Renaissance era, we realize they weren't as advanced as us, but they had some very good things happen, like the Renaissance artists.

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  13. I believe that the quote about the cradle of life means that there is no society better or for that matter even comes close to their society when it comes to perfection. Maybe the cradle is symbolic term for saying that the puritans are god and in their arms is a baby infant which represents the world and to calm that world they must speak their words of wisdom and cradle it so that it doesn't become disrupted and aggravated. I agree that Modern America has inherited many main factors from the puritans such as there belief that they rule the world and no one is better than them as well as their belief that everyone around us (other Countries) must be taught the ways of our society to even make a far stretch towards being even close to our society.

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  14. I think the candle that can light the world is them trying to say that their way of life is better and everybody should join themin their beleifs and in their prayers.

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  15. I pity 17th century Salem because of the fact that they need to accuse someone of being a with in order to talk about the “forbidden” topics in their lives. They can’t admit openly that they have sinned, otherwise they will be shunned from the group, so they cry witch and blame it on an uncontrollable evil. I think that sometime in the far future, our society will be pitied too, for its hypocrisy and bureaucracy. Hopefully, future civilizations will be able to look back on our society, and try to live a more honest, down-to-earth life.

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  16. I think that the "candle" is religeon and we have it passed down to each other through our parents, and we should always treat it with steady hand so we dont ager god, at least that would be the puritan way of seeing it.

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  17. The cnadle that the they hold is justice. It is what they belive to be right. They were using their hand to despence justice in the way that they thought was right. The founding founders did the same thing when they interprited what justice was, when the wrote the constatoution. The rules were the candle that the founders held in their hands as they created the nation.

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  18. I also pity the people of Salem because they are living theirs lives in fear. They are afraid of being ungodly because in their beliefs if they are ungodly they will be throne to rot in hell. This fear causes them to live “false lives” meaning they are not really living their lives they way they should be like laughing whenever they feel like it and not having to run into the woods to have some fun. I also pity them because their doctors were not advanced enough to come up with a simple medical explanation for the little girls “sickness” so they have to blame it on witch craft and because of that 20 people died.

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  19. I think that in the steady hands quote it means that the puritans believed that their religion would one day be the one that the world would follow when it says, "the candle that would light the world."

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  20. the candle represents a goodness of the world and only good people can take it. I think most puritans still keep to the old ways.

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  21. The steady hand quote does relate to our society today; America, as many other modern countries, has a rich society and a belief of superiority to the rest of the world but, different doesn't always mean better. We as a society are close-minded to "outside" culture and the Puritans were custom to their way of life and anything else was sacrilegious which is why they over took Native American land which leaves them as a target in the eyes of those whom they look down upon.

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  22. "Steady Hand"
    I also pitty the lives of puritans, the lack of laughter would be suffocating the lack of culture and acting uniform is just wrong; there is a quote that goes, "If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn't thinking."~George S. Patten. In the society of 17th centuary this couldn't be more true, everyone wasn't doing what they believed out of fear so they let the priest and higher powers think for them. I do believe that one day our society will be pittied, they will find some great new thing that will become the norm of the future, and looking back even our free society will look restricted, there might be a new form of government estabolished that furthers peoples rights and orginizes society in even better ways; ther really isn't any way to fully tell. In any social life there are things that need to be spoken and things that should be kept to ourselves, if we didn't repress certain thoughts nothing would end well cause as much as we all strive for an unbiassed and judgemental world it'll never happen, it is a part of human nature but it is also human to understand moderation, when to stop, when to repress certain thoughts.

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  23. Second Question:
    The passage means that each person should always try their hardest to be the better person because there will always be a villian in the world. But, sometimes it will be you that is the villian in a certain situation. It is completely impossible to be perfect all the time. I do not pity the Puritans because they chose to live that way and for the most part they seemed quite happy with their choices. If they were not happy, they could have changed it in an instant. I think they will be pittied one day because since their society was so long ago they did not know to incredable possibilities out there. They most likely wouldve not reverted to witch craft for the cause of the girls sickness either so yes I think one day they will be greatly pittied. Lastly, I agree that it is a part of everyday life because people are aways comparing each other with themselves and if they do not have as much people pity them.

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  24. Like what andy said I think that the candle is their way of life and the light is them attempting to spread the word of the religion.

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  25. In response to steady hands, i think that the candle represents their way of life and their steady hands mean that they are being so careful not to abuse or hurt the stereotype of their lifestyle. The light that they shine is the way they behave and it can hurt them by secluding them so much that they can not process or learn. it can help because they are obeying god.

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  26. Responding to the second prompt, the puritains are pitied. They had made such horrid choices and treated eachother with no Godly love. They were under the impression that they were doing good, but they were blinded.
    Today, i beleive we are already being pitied. Our decisions in iraq, our national debt and our choices in leadership.

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  27. I think that the candle is the puritans way of life and the light from the candle expresses their religion. But the light is also a fire so, could it be that the religion will help you till you get to close and then it hurts you?

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