Matt "The Situation"

Reading back through both acts 1 and 2 in The Crucible I feel that one of the most important parts is the relationship between John and Elizabeth Proctor.  I know there are a lot more important parts of the story, but I just keep coming back to this one.  When I was doing the 5 themes homework I asked myself a question.  Why do I have only one theme that can possibly be related to Parris (who I thought was the protagonist at the time) and three (I probably could have thought of more) that relate to the situation between John, Elizabeth, and Abigail? 

          I feel that it is wrong to cheat on a boyfriend or girlfriend.  I also know it can possibly be hard not to want to be with another person while you are with someone else.  I was put in a really awkward situation when I got a girlfriend at camp this summer.  There was one girl who I liked at camp.  I liked her, but I didn’t know how to go about asking her out.  One night a kid who I considered to be my best friend at the camp and one of the girls there hooked me up with a girl who I hadn’t met before (even though we were both there for 4 weeks before) and who I actually started to really like.  She was my first ever girlfriend.  Maybe ten minutes after I got hooked up with this girl, two other girls came up to me and told me that there was a girl that really liked me and they tried to force me to ask her out.  This person who really liked me just happened to be the girl who helped hook me up with my girlfriend.  The girl who liked me was a pretty good friend and we joked around all the time that we were brother and sister because we have the same last name.  I never knew that she liked me and I feel bad that I found out right after she hooked me up with another girl.  I could have just asked her out, or found a way to ask out the girl I liked from the beginning of camp, but the best option (and the one I picked) was to just stay with my girlfriend.  After camp the long-distance relationship ended up not working out.  I hate guys who break up with their girlfriend over text, but I had no other choice but to be that guy.  However the point is at camp I made the decision that I would not leave my girlfriend for someone else.

It is especially wrong if you marry that person and then you decide to cheat on them.  The whole point of a marriage is supposedly you want to be with this person for life.  If you are married and cheating then you don’t really want to be with the person you married, so why did you get married in the first place? I know that Adultery is a sin but John Proctor didn’t. Could that be considered both situational and dramatic irony?  I feel that it is definitely wrong, but I don’t believe in sins or anything remotely having to do with religion.  I’m not Atheist, because I believe God could possibly exist, but I don’t practice any religion.   

School's open for Busyness

Mr. Bresnick was not the only teacher to talk about the open house in class today.  There is something that makes this year’s open house different for me than past years.  I can actually say that I went to my own open house.  Now that I think about it, I believe elementary school open houses allowed the students to go, but the difference this year was that I did not go for myself.  I did not go to any of my classes.  I did not even go to where I was signed up to go.  This year I went for the parents and for the school. 

I volunteered after school on Thursday to help out in the hallways to show parents where to go.  Out of the places that were available to sign up for I for some reason decided to pick where E and C hall connect (also called the T).  At 6:30 when I got to school to help out I didn’t know where exactly I should go.  One of the first people I saw was Mr. Welch, and I thought he would know what I should do.  I asked him where I should go, and he had other plans for me.  He told me I would help out with the PTBO.  My first job was to help bring things in from outside.  The best part about it was that it was pouring rain outside, so I was soaking wet after I got back inside (sarcastic). 

Next I had to make sure it was okay with Mrs. Colella that I do the PTBO instead of Hall duty.  By mistake I end up going to the wrong room. Situational irony because at first I signed up to tell people where to go.  Guess which room I went to? The answer is my sister’s homeroom, and of course both of my parents were in there.  Besides being kind of awkward, that was another example of situational irony because I didn’t expect to see my parents at all at open house and I end up almost walking into a room that they are both in.  Finally I make it to the correct room (only one room over), and it was okay with Mrs. Colella that I did the PTBO job.  That job was to sell things in the cafeteria.  While there I also helped parents find where to go.  I saw many parents I knew walking through the cafeteria including my parents multiple times.  I also sold a good amount of items for the PTBO and I feel that overall it was a good experience.

The Puritan Dream

          The Puritans were the people who started the American dream. They came to the new world and had to start all over. They had to have a plan and a dream of what this plan would eventually look like when it was fulfilled. John Winthrop said that “We must delight in each other, make others’ condition our own, rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together.” If anything good was going to happen, the puritans would all have to work together.

          It is misunderstood that all puritans separated from the Church of England. Some puritans such as the ones who founded the Massachusetts Bay colony did not separate. The Massachusetts puritans did eventually form their own separate church, but overall were not as radical as the Pilgrims. There were many types of Puritans, but every type thought that the world could be reformed. The American Dream is all about change, and Puritans believed that the world needed to be changed. The puritans did not leave England for themselves; they left because of their children. They believed that in England, their children would be corrupted. They thought their children would have a better life elsewhere. The American Dream is also based upon the idea that children could have a better life.

          I do not believe the puritans deserve the reputation they have gotten. People have strong feeling against the Puritans, which I do not agree with. The puritans were a group of people who risked a lot by making the journey across the Atlantic Ocean. They did it to make a statement that there needs to be change in the world and the change should start in the English church. There were many different types of people under the Puritan label including a founding father of the United States. Since people hate puritans they also hate John Adams who became the second president of the United States. People are upset at the puritans for the killings of Native Americans. It has to be noted that they were not the only ones to kill the natives; however they receive the most criticism for it. People also called them puritans because they thought they were better than everyone else. In the present day almost everyone thinks they are better than everyone else, and I feel that it was not much different back then.

          The American Dream can be different for every single person. My family, like many others is affected by the American Dream. Some of the aspects of the American Dream that apply to my family include immigration, education, and working for money. My mother was not born in America. She was born in the Netherlands. She has lived in many different countries around the world and eventually came to America with her family. My mother became a United States citizen in Faneuil Hall in Boston.
          Education is also very important in my family. A good education could open up many opportunities for someone in the future. Both of my parents graduated from Boston College, and in a few years I will be in college. I still have no idea where I want to go, but all I know is that I will go to a school somewhere in the U.S. Although it is a lot of work, I am looking forward to college.
          Working hard for money is also a way the American Dream affects my family. Of course a college education helps to get a good job. Both of my parents got jobs after BC and they both still work at those jobs. My father works with computers, while my mother is a nurse. They do hard work in order to make their lives better.