Crucible Essay Draft Refelction

       I thought researching the for the draft was a bit of work but very rewarding. When I was writing the draft I was confindent in what I was writing and finishing the draft felt like a succcess. I had a bit of trouble with the citations because many of them were hard to find information on.
       The pre-writing activities helped me narrow down what I wanted to research for the draft and write my paper on. In future essays instead of using a bulletted outline I would use a different type of outline. I think in the future I would use the grapic organizer instead because it provides more room for information and everything is all in one line together.
       The peer editing helped me organized my paper and learn where to make paragraph breaks. I learned a lot from reading someone else's draft. Although they did the same prompt and same event for the mass hysteria it was structured differently and had tons of great information. I used the peer editing sheet profusely when I was editing the draft, the adivce they gave me helped me see what I needed to touch up.
        I think the strengths in my essay are the similarities to the unfairness of how the trials of the Salem Witch Trials and the Holocaust were conducted. Both groups of people suffered much of the same injustice yet they place nearly 200 years apart. The weaknesses of paper are not being specific enough in some parts and not having good enough transitions between paragraphs. In my next revison I will focus on being more specific and having better transitions between all of my paragraphs.

Into the Wild

     I think that if you only carry enough on your back at a dead run you  distance yourself from everyone around and become an outcast in society. The value of a minimalist lifestyle would be that if danger came you would be able to get away quickly.  Such as when Alex was caught on the trains and when he was caught hitchhiking. Also living a minimalist lifestyle would be beneficial to you if you were trying to distance yourself from others and your old self. You could change your name like Chris did and get rid of everything you own so people couldn't track you. You would also be able to lead a life of solitude so you can do whatever you want whenever you want. It also lets you do whatever deep thinking and philosophical ways that may inspire you. 

      I don't think I would be able to do this in today's society because I am to materialistic and I wouldn't be able to leave my family like Chris did. Even if I would take some material things with me I feel I wouldn't be able to cut out the technological ways I have been brought up in. My family is a huge part of my life and I wouldn't be able to leave them because they are my rock through all of my troubles and I their rock through their's. I think it would be fun to try and live like that but it would take to much of an emotional toll on my and myself.   

Nature's Story

     As I step outside into the warm baking sunlight the birds sing their songs to one another. The birds' songs provide a sweet melody. It reminds me of a time when I was on the beach relaxing all day and the birds' sung their songs all day long. Although I have disturbed their peace the birds proceed as if no one has entered the world.  They fly into the ocean deep skies covered with cotton candy clouds only to swoop back down to the ground.
     The lush green grass provides a nice place to sit and observe what the day has become. The beautiful day calms and relaxes me like any beautiful fall day does. The crisp breeze blows the leaves around me and the thick trunks of the trees. The vibrant evergreen trees paint the horizon with spurts of green and the yellow leaved maple trees provide an excellent contrast. Nearer to where I sit a fiery red bush adds its contrast to the landscape in front of me. The scenery looks like a painting that Claude Monet would paint.
     The breeze blows again rustling leaves and leaving the smell of fall dangling in the air and good childhood memories. The leaves dance across the street and into the clean lawns of the quiet houses on the street. No one comes or goes from the houses; they sit as patiently waiting for the owners to come home much as a dog would. A car drives by disturbing the peace that filled the air.
   

Character Analysis

    Elizabeth Proctor is an antagonist in The Crucible. I consider her an antagonist because Abigail is a protagonist who is setting the whole story in motion. Abigail accuses many people she despises of witchcraft so naturally Elizabeth is despised by Abigail because Elizabeth is married to John. I would also say Elizabeth is a round character we see her an accusing wife and a loving mother. In the beginning of act two we see her and John fighting over his affair with Abigail, then when Elizabeth is accused she is more of a loving mother and telling Mary Warren how to keep the house in order and keeping her family in tact. So far we haven't really seen Elizabeth change much in the story so I would say she is a static character.
    Elizabeth is quick to assume she is being lied to. She has every right to believe she is being lied to because her husband cheated on her with Abigail and is still lying about seeing her even after the affair happened. Elizabeth is also very protective of her family, we see how she makes sure her family is taken care of before she taken into custody. She makes sure that Mary Warren knows that there is bread for the morning but will have to bake in the afternoon and she makes sure that her children don't know how severe her situation is right now. Elizabeth chooses not to tell the children where she is right now because she doesn't want to frighten them.
     Elizabeth deals with whether or not she can trust John again after he has lied to her and keeps lying to her.   This is both internal and external conflict for Elizabeth. She can not control when John lies to her and how often he does. She is also battling against herself deciding if she can trust John again but time and time again he shows her she can't. Elizabeth stays with John to show how strong her love is for him and to keep their family together.  Elizabeth also faces and external conflict of the protagonist Abigail. Elizabeth has done nothing wrong yet Abigail wants her gone and out of the way. When Elizabeth is accused of witchcraft she takes it well and stays strong for her whole family so they can get out of the mess they are in.

Sinner's in the Hands of an Angry God

     Today's sermon was a bit harsh. Growing up with him as my best friend I always knew he was a bit cynical. As a fellow pastor and good friend I feel that he was demeaning and rude about his wording of the sermon. He should of used "wrath of God", "pit of hell", "angry God", and "gone to hell" less frequently in his sermon. The phrases may have offened some of the congreagation and they were unusally harsh. Pastor John said that "The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one hilds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you... his wrath toward you burns like fire; he looks upn you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire" he offened some of the congregation they might not come back because they now feel that God hates them and they feel worthless in everything they do for him and in him.  God is not angry with you, he forgives you for any wrong doing you have done to him or others. God praises in every breath you take you are his creation and he takes pride in that.
        If Pastor John's point of the sermon is that you have to personally experience some sort of change in you before you are allowed to go to heaven he may have needed to try to get the point across differently. He could have told them about the time he had a transforming time when he perosnally experienced God's grace.            Like a time when we were younger, we were sitting in church together as our families usually do and we were praying. After the prayer was over he looked at me and said that God had told him to become a pastor  and to help the people in a time of need. I'm pretty sure he didn't mean by telling them that God hated them for sinning all the time. God meant for John to give loving and inspiring sermons to encourage the people to come back to church, he didn't want him to give frightening sermons that made people feel inferior about themselves especially after the trials. I hope when we meet later today we can talk about how he could help inspire the congregation more.
   

Writing Views

When writing I always have trouble with what I am trying to say. I enjoy writing papers that are more scientific or persuasive. I do better with writing about facts than having to create stories.  I feel like I can never put what I want to say into the correct wording or it just doesn't sound correct when I am trying to say it. With long term writing papers I try to keep myself on task and finish my drafts by certain deadlines I give myself but that usually doesn't happen because I am not very confident with what I write.   I would mainly like to improve upon the ability to keep my paper flowing together nicely in my writing. I feel that my strengths are having a large vocabulary and good sentence structure though I would also like to improve upon that as well.

For the portfolio will we only put final products in it?  How will the portfolios be graded? The units I am the most excited for are; realism, naturalism, and racial issues in america and modernism, post-modernism, and the 21st century. I am looking forward to these units because they have to two novels I have been looking forward to reading. The unit I am least excited for is the poetry. Poetry doesn't appeal to me because I don't like how the poets hide the meaning of their words. I think I will do well on most of the units the only thing I am worried about is the poetry out loud I don't recite things well in front of a class.