Reinhold Niebuhr once said “Forgiveness is the final form of love.” When someone wrongs a person how would they feel? In the novel A Parchment of Leaves by Silas House a Cherokee girl named Vine marries an Irish man named Saul. Saul’s brother Aaron who vine saved when he was bitten by a snake ends up liking Vine which turns into an obsession. Throughout the book Aaron becomes increasingly obsessed with Vine to the point that he asks her to run away with him and while drunk rapes her. This leads to her killing Aaron. Vine has to fight to redeem herself and also forgive herself for what she has done. Forgiving someone is one thing but letting them redeem themselves is another. Redemption allows the person to do something to earn forgiveness to themselves and others which is what many of the characters in the novel do.…
Cathy’s inner evil is revealed at birth, and, at a young age, she discovers that she holds powers that can be used to manipulate others. From birth Cathy is foreshadowed to be pure evil, and she “learned when she was very young that sexuality with all its attendant yearnings and pains, jealousies and taboos, is the most…
What hurts my heart most however, is that it may of been my own vanity and confidence which started it all. Through years of training and experience, I had believed that I had grown to be the best witch-hunter there was, and yet here I had fallen for the lies of the true witch Abigail, who led the town by the nose by condemning anyone who opposed her. If I hadn't been so quick to call Tituba a witch, then maybe, just maybe, the process of hanging, of murdering, so many in that town may of stopped altogether and my heart would be at peace.…
Salem Village in 1869 was a small town filled with witchcraft, possession and ultimate fear. For ten months trials prosecuting innocent civilians, 19 resulting fatal, took place. Betty and Abigail Williams, two young girls, were the first in this domino effect that took place; claiming that they had been “ bitten and pinched by invisible agents; their arms, neck and backs turned this way and that way, and back again”. Betty soon began complaining of “prickling sensations and feelings of being choked”. These peculiar symptoms that couldn’t seem to be solved by any sort of medical reasoning are what set off the paranoid phenomenon that took place in Salem. More and more trials began taking place, accusing more innocent people of witchcraft. During these trials the magistrates would use “spectral evidence”, which was a victims account of what they had seen during one of their “torments”. Only the victims of witchcraft could see “the shape of the tormentor”; hardly proof at all if you ask me. This evidence was considered to be “the most damning and dangerous kind of proof”. This kind of “invisible proof” and witchcraft was most commonly known as a matter of maleficium. The possessed were thought to have made a deal with the devil himself in exchange for some sort of magical powers. This widespread fear of the unknown and supernatural is what condemned so many innocent lives. However, several philosophers saw these terrifying violent fits as simply a physiological disturbance. Pediatrician Ernest Caulfield found that “the accused were sick children in the worst sort of metal distress-living in fear for their very lives and the welfare of their immortal souls”. People feared that if they did not plead guilty to being a witch then they would be sentenced to death. This severe mental stress and trauma could have very well led to such outrageous behavior as seen in the trials. Sarah Churchill was victim to these extreme pressures as well. She eventually “succumbed to her…
The grandmother and her family encounter The Misfit and the grandmother immediately starts sweet talking him to attempt to save herself. The grandmother says “I know you’re a good man… I know you must come from nice people,” trying to manipulate him to not kill her. She stays true to her southern class and never stoops down to The Misfits level. On the other hand, Brown falls into the trap of evil. Before being summoned to the dark side, Brown was told “evil must be your only happiness. Welcome, again, my children, to the communion of your race!” Brown did not take a stand against evil, punishing himself into a lifetime of misery. Despite the grandmother’s and Brown’s similarities, one major difference is how they handle evil when it is presented to them.…
Within the pages of the novel Deadly Unna by Phillip Gwynne we are taken on a journey to a highly racist and bigoted town. Through the eyes of a young teenage boy, we see the world how he does and we experience the division and racism in this corrupt town.…
“With ever watchful eyes and bearing scars, visible and invisible, I headed North, full of a hazy notion that life could be lived with dignity, that the personalities of others should not be violated, that men should be able to confront other mean without fear or shame, and that if men were lucky in their living on earth they might win some redeeming meaning for their having struggled and suffered here beneath the stars.” (285)gggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggnce Richard is "no longer set apart for being sinful," his family leaves him alone. Chapter 5, pg. 123…
In 1692 nineteen men and women and two dogs were convicted and hanged for witchcraft in a small village in eastern Massachusetts. By the standards of our own time, if not of that, it was a minor event, a spasm of judicial violence that was concluded within a matter of months. The bodies were buried in shallow graves or not at all, as a further indication that the convicted had not only forfeited participation in the community of man in this life, but in the community of saints in the next. Just how shallow those graves were, however, is evident from the fact that the people buried there were not eradicated from history: their names remain with us to this day, not least because of Arthur Miller, for whom past events and present realities have always been pressed together by a moral logic. In his hands the ghosts of those who died have proved real enough even if the witches they were presumed to be were little more than fantasies conjured by a mixture of fear, ambition, frustration, jealousy, and perverted pride.…
Another example of evil occurs on page 247, when Nathanial recalls his father trying to kill him "Children should be seen and not heard' he said, and his big hand closed around my neck. And squeezed." This could be evidence that an ancestral streak of violent behavior could also be tainting Nathanial's blood. Perhaps this is why Mr. Karle struggles to convert…
Analysis: For years Tom Walker deceived countless distressed and innocent people for their money. However, after many years Tom Walker becomes guilty and paranoid of the potential consequences for his acquisitive nature. Tom attempts to compensate for actions by regularly attending church and religiously carrying a bible out of all times out of paranoia. Despite his efforts to slightly better is depravities, Tom Walker is still overtaken by fear and ultimately seized by the devil never to return…
During the time period of the “Salem Witch Trials” in 1692, there were believes that the devil was present in the small village. The main cause of this outbreak begin with Abigail Williams, a girl with has an “Endless capacity for dissembling” (Bonnet) out of a lust for John Proctor and jealousy for his wife Elizabeth Proctor. Witchcraft in Salem started when Abigail and a group of girls were caught dancing in the woods bye Reverend Parris the minister of the church. Abigail wasn’t only caught dancing but drinking blood to kill Elizabeth Proctor. In fear of rumors and being punished for their actions the girls denied everything, some even acted sick. When accused of their actions they said the devil made them and that they saw other people in the village with the devil. The outbreak begins, in a puritan religion this would not be accepted nor tolerated. Something had to be done, and the way to relieve these problems was to hang people guilty. Witchcraft in Salem didn’t just involve a couple people but it involved a whole town. It was more than the accusations of the devil being present in the village but “A long overdue opportunity for everyone so inclined to express publicity” (Miller). This could finally express there long held hatred for their neighbors and take vengeance on them.…
As individuals seek to belong, personal wants are disregarded in the face of societal expectations. This is evident in the novel The Crucible, where characters in the Salem community such as the flat character Parris, forsake personal desires to feel a sense of belonging. Through Miller's use of emotive language "I have fought here three long years to bend these stiff-necked people to me" highlighting to audiences, to belong, one must conform. Another member of the Salem community which further explores the concept is Tituba. Through Tituba’s idiomatic language “She beg me conjure! She beg me make charm” Miller symbolizes Tituba as the outsider with contrast to the archaic language of the others. Revealing to audiences, that to belong we must be what society expects of us. Through the disparity of Tituba’s character through the use of repetition “Bless him. Bless him... Bless God” Miller emphasizes to the audience how the once isolated and different Tituba, now feels the need to belong and does so by conforming to a religion she does not believe…
Since he originally had intentions on bettering himself it was disappointing to see his morals pushed aside. However, I was able to relate to him since his pain and anger was so understandable. Another character I found interesting was Dr. Miller. He had become educated and wealthy and even respected by some, however he is still treated unequally and still longs to be considered an equal among both whites and blacks. Even though Josh and Dr. Miller were both inspiring and heroic to me, the mulatto character of Janet was the most moral and determined throughout the book. She endures the shame of being outcast from the family heritage that she was entitled to, is repeatedly rejected by her white stepsister, and eventually loses her only child as a result of the savage acts of the whites. Regardless of this, she overlooks it all and acts purely on a moral level of what is the right the thing to do for humanity. She disregards the issues…
VILLAINY or LACK: Brida is the protagonist and at the same time, antagonist of this story. When she went to Wicca, a Teacher of the Tradition of the Moon, what she learned in school about tarot cards was given confusion. Wicca’s ways was far different from what she was taught. When Wicca told her to spend an hour of her choosing to lay down the tarot cards and just let them show her what she needs to know at the moment, she was at first, excited. But when she noticed that it was only her imagination working and not magic. She…
To an extent The Gathering portrays the dark side of human nature. A dark side of a human is the side that tells that human to do evil and bad things. The Gathering is a novel written by Isobelle Carmody. When the main character Nathanial and his mother move to a new town called Cheshunt he realises that something is terribly wrong. He soon finds himself in a group with four other people called the chain, fighting the dark, ancient evil that bruised Cheshunt a long time ago. A long time ago Cheshunt was bruised by an ancient evil which caused bad things to happen there. In Cheshunt, there were people with power over others and their power corrupted them. Mr Karle, a teacher and the leader of the school youth group tried to manipulate people by using their fears against them. Even though The Gathering shows the dark side of humans it also displays the good side of humans.…