. the house of the seven gables .

The House of the Seven Gables had such a vague background to me, but while researching information on it and on other things, I was hit with a bunch of really cool information! At first I had first heard of The House of the Seven Gables because we were just reading about it in American Lit., which was written by Nathanial Hawthorne. This book was based on the actual house of the seven gables in Salem, Massachusetts. Nathaniel Hawthorne used to live in Salem, by the actual house. Another really cool fact is that his story was derived from his own family history on the legend of a curse pronounced on Hawthorne's own family by a woman, who was sentenced to death during the Salem witchcraft trials.

This is very much like how Colonel Pyncheon charged Matthew Maule with witchcraft because of him wanting to take over his land. It was Hawthorne, also, who came from a long ancestry of puritans. Puritans were the ones that began the witch trials. They were such a God-fearing people and had strict ways of living so that they can make it to heaven, that they were wanted to get rid of everyone that would upset the strict religious balance. Another motive might have been greed. Like with Colonel Pyncheon wanting the land of Matthew Maule to gain more to his wealth.

They all tie into together, through Nathanial Hawthorne. See, Hawthorne wrote the HSG and he also lived in or near the house itself in Salem. Hawthorne’s background included a grandfather, John Hawthorne, was a judge in the Salem witch trials. Also, how Hawthorne came from a long line of ancestral Puritans.

The second part of this is how the Puritans still have some influence on how we love our lives today. One thing can be some of our laws. Puritans were a strict people that lived by the word of God and these days a few things are still followed. One thing is that homosexuality is not allowed and we see this in how gay people are treated. In California, there is an actual banning gay marriage and people look down on it. Also many people follow the ten commandments but maybe not the full extent that they did. Like thou shalt not kill, or honor thy mother and thy father. People still follow them but don’t take it to the next level!

. i knew i was an American when .

The first time I felt like an American had to have been in the second grade. For all of preschool through first grade, I had been to a catholic school. We said our prayers in the mornings and that’s all I really remember doing. When I left that school, and transferred to James Ward the next year, it was a whole new experience for me. On the first day of school, after the sound of the beginning bell, the whole class stood up and began saying the Pledge of Allegiance. Of course, I knew how it went but I was confused and stumbled into the unison voices. Being the curious second grader that I was, I went to my teacher, very shy and quietly, and asked her why we said the Pledge of Allegiance. She told me that when we say this every morning we show PATRIOTISM and love for our great country. When she told me this it was like a new present was just given to me and it had a life-long use.I felt like an American. I felt a stronger pride for my country, I said my Pledge of Allegiance with a little more pride and when we sang our national anthem at school assemblies, or anything else, I was louder and it had enthusiamism. In my second grade mind, I wanted to grow up and do something to help and make our country better. I wanted to be the president like everyone else did (not anymore but hey you never know)! I know that it only took a few simple sentences and words to really make me feel like an American and to feel that sense of pride, but it never went away. I still am that proud and enthusiastic second grader just all grown up, and I will always be a patriotic American!

. us vs them .

“Conflict is inevitable, but combat is optional.”

- Max Lucade           

            How can we find our way out of a conflict without violence? What is the way we learn how to approach and handle them can better the outcome? Conflict ending in despair or tragedy can only bring more destruction. Death being the worse!

In The Crucible we see innocent villagers, whether they are the town drunk or most respected person, being accused of witchcraft. They were accused by people that had a conflict with them. By finding the best way to get them out of their hair was to say, oh so and so does witchcraft and conjures the devil! so that the person would be taken away. Like the conflict between Sarah Goode and Mrs. Putnam, Sarah Goode being a midwife to Mrs. Putnam at many of her births, was there to see many of Mrs. Putnam’s infants die. In turn, when the idea of witchcraft started going around, Mrs. Putnam accused Sarah of practicing it and that she had killed her babies. Now, this was not true to any extent but since there was a conflict between Mrs. Putnam and Sarah, she wanted some excuse of their deaths. This eventually led to the death of many people, the fact that people believed such foolishness. Death being the only way to end these problems between people.

                Many people see this as an only option because they are afraid if they couldn’t get their way in a situation, then it would ruin them. Death must only bring a slight satisfaction. After so long more people are going to bring the same things that they were scared of in the beginning! What are they going to do, keep killing until there’s absolutely no one left. This would only raise the amount of blood on their hands. Also people on the outside may see these persons as foolish and horrible, that they’re only going to do what best for them! In the end it would make matters worse. Can we come to realize we must see the more peaceful way of solving our problems? That a person’s life is just as equal as our own?

. john proctor : hero or stooge .

John Proctor is a man of two faces. On one side, you see a man living in a puritan-like lifestyle. A man with a loving wife and good, honest opinions, even if they don’t agree with many people of the town he lives in with. A Hero. On the other hand, you can see an adulterer, a sinner. A stooge.

               

John, the hero, is quite a character because he with his strong opinions knows when to stop and see when something isn’t quite right. Like Reverend Parris, who preaches only of the ways you can be condemned to hell and damnation, John says to his face that he doesn’t agree with his teachings and is against the Reverend.  Even when many of the townspeople believe witchcraft is among them and some accuse others of witchery, especially in the case Betty Parris. The Reverend and Mr. & Mrs. Putnam believe that she is under the spell or CURSE of witchcraft. Now John doesn’t stand for this and believes that she is just going through a phase or that there is some logical explanation for her behavior.  He isn’t afraid to stand up for his beliefs and know when something isn’t right.

John, the stooge, can be seen during his time with Abigail. He had affair with Abigail when she worked at his house. When their relationship was found out, it was by his wife, Goody Proctor, soon after threw Abigail out. At this time, only the Proctors and Abigail know. Something John does that is stooge-worthy is he leaving Abigail with the thought he still cared for her, even though he completely rejects her while she tries to get him back. It may be true feelings, but to say this to an unstable girl madly in love with you was mad in itself. This eventually leads to Abigail accusing Goody Proctor of witchcraft, so that she can take her place as John’s wife.

                The Hero or the Stooge, personally I think he is a hero. I mean he stands up for what he believes in and holds true to them. Also he tries to make good out of what he did wrong. Hence the affair with Abigail and trying to stop those crazy feelings for her. It takes a strong man to do what he does and thats what makes him a. . .

                                                                    . HERO .



.sinners in the hand of angry god.

In our world, our faith is what we survive off of. In reading Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards, I’ve come to realize how much a person’s faith can control their lives. This sermon speaks on how God’s Watergates and fury can come rushing onto you, in the fact of a mistake that you made. A mistake against God’s will and that one error in your ways can mean a life in Heaven or a Life in Hell! Oh how strict and how much self-discipline someone must have to do this, and in how much fear someone would be in.

 In certain religions, God is just waiting for you to make a mistake or do an evil deed and squash you like a bug if you do. A person can go crazy from living like that, to always say the right words and act the right way, even dress in such a pure way. If one wrong word and BOOM God has released his wrath upon your head!
 In the sermon Edward point to many things that God can do to strike you down. He says God holds you like a puppet by strings and in one instance after doing a wrong being dropped and killed by him. This is quite a terrible concept. To be condemned forever by just one error. Also that God has his hand covering the waters of wrath and will unleash them gates once a following of his no longer decides to obey.
 I know if now we were in a such a harsh, strict religion especially in this time, many people would not be able to control themselves. We now live in such a free and uncontroling environment, that many of us don’t pay attention to the  rules that were made so long ago. But could you do it? Could you handle knowing at the hands of God, you could be saved or condemned?

.there goes the neighborhood.

Not any two people are just alike, and in that sense they don’t agree on things all the time. There goes the neighborhood is what this is all about. From personal experience, I know how a clash of two people can totally make people wary about how they should react or be around a group of people.

 I used to live in Middleton, TN, which is next to the Mississippi border. A very small rural town, so everybody knew everybody and everything about them. I was in the seventh grade and our campus was on the high school premises. With us seventh grader going to school with the older upper classmen, we knew a lot about the different cliques and groups in the town. One thing we never heard of were gangs, and it was even crazy to think of them. One day, just like any other normal day, my friends and I sat at our usual lunch table and someone said something about tomorrow there was going to be a shoot-out on anybody wearing blue or white. Everybody wore blue or white those were the colors of our uniforms! I mean it was crazy- talk. Gangs! Shoot-out! Gosh, I was terrified to go to school the next day. As I arrive at school, half the people in my classes were gone, and more students were being called down to be picked-up. Thankfully, my father came to pick me and my sister up, me from the high school campus, her from the elementary school. The streets from there to there were completely packed of frantic parents going to claim their kids before anything were to happen!!

 I learned that day from friends, that the people claiming to do this, never did, and were mostly made up of Mexican-Americans. The school was not very diverse in its cultures and no one paid much attention to how people treated each other. In a majority white school, the clash between the two cultures was really huge. Many people treated the other kids badly, like they didn’t meet up to their standards, and I believe that’s why they would’ve started this whole thing. It was to show that, Hey, we’re here too and if you notice me for how I look and  not by how I really am on the inside then notice me like this. It showed me how greatly how a difference in cultures can bring a lot of controversy into a community and a neighborhood.

.my Introduction.

Soo. . This is a blog about me and what I like and who I am, so here it goes. I started breathing on September 14 and hey my birthday is next Tuesday, WOOT! I’m still, for now at least, 14, yes for a sophomore that is young, but everybody isn’t the same. I will admit I’m kinda weird. I remind myself of a Starburst candy, a contradiction. I can be LOUD or quiet, if you notice when I’m around you and I actually talk and be myself, you have most likely become my friend or at least someone I like(; I really seem quite a shy or timid person at first but believe me, when I say you will need earplugs at times when you do experience the LOUD side of me. Im Mexican, American and a whoooole loootta stuff and I am proud of everything I am! I absolutely love to make new friends especially in new places I visit so it seems like I know a lot of kinds of people. Breaking the ice is very hard for me and I’m probably the only one in any class, who actually enjoys the cheesy games at the beginning of every school year. Also, I am like the one person who couldn’t wait to back to school, all 10 years of school. Okay now here are my hobbies and things I love to do. I love music and it’s not just the regular stuff you hear on the radio, I enjoy all types of music. Well except for like heavy metal and metal of any sort. I adore classical music; I feel like I can write a story or picture a beautiful scene when listening just because it’s so smooth and graceful. Jazz is really great too. Sometimes I even sing and makeup my own songs. . . I play in my school’s band (a silly thing I like to think to myself is: I’m with the band. Get it? No? :) and my instrument, my baby, is the Trombone. Go ahead, laugh, get it out of your system, I don’t blame you. I learned to play when I was in the 6th grade and have lOOOOved it ever since. Although, I may need to practice more, like a lot more. Sports are a big thing too for me. I play volleyball, soccer, and football! Ooh and softball. I read, like a lot. Books were introduced young to me and ever since it’s like an addiction but a good one. Well I think I’ve made really made a good intro for myself. Applause, yes?