There is always depth when it comes to an innocent face. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe and The Crucible by Arthur Miller all have characters that present innocence. Furthermore, this innocence is profound because it is a result of the social pressures put on these characters to behave in a certain way. Innocence is featured as a concern to a large extent in all works studied because the characters in the works are subjected to social obligations. In the novel The Things They Carried, innocence is featured as a concern to a large extent because Jimmy Cross has his innocence manipulated as a result of his role in the war. Jimmy Cross recounts the story of when he visited Martha after the war to O’Brien: …show more content…
When Nwoye was reflecting his conflicting thoughts he thinks: “Nwoye knew that it was right to be masculine and to be violent, but somehow he still preferred the stories that his mother used to tell…” Nwoye was thinking about how he preferred his mother’s stories to his father’s. However, his mindset says that he believes the masculine stories of his father are superior to those of his mother. Nwoye’s masculinity is not valued in society. Therefore, the innocence that surrounds him is due to his lack of understanding of why his nature is being subjected to pressure by his society. Innocence is featured as a concern in the novel because the social pressure put on Nwoye by society to behave in a certain manner. In emphasis, Achebe wrote this novel in response to the literature of the time that illustrated Africans as savages. Achebe shows the complexity of Igbo society by showing the intricate nature of society because of the pressures put on people in the …show more content…
When Abigail feels pressured to give names or else suffer consequence she does: “I want to open myself! . . . I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him, I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” The strict rules of Puritan society does not allow individuality to thrive. Abigail decides to “confess” because she does not want to suffer the consequences of society. Abigail is seemingly innocent. However, she is one of the masterminds behind the hysteria of the Witch Trials. Innocence is featured as a concern in the Salem trials because Abigail Williams was seen as an innocent victim of witchcraft. On the other hand, she was able to use this to accuse others of witchcraft to further her own agendas. This questions the supposed innocence of members of society. Arthur Miller wrote the novel to criticize McCarthyism. Miller does this by connecting the fictionalized drama based on a real life situation to another situation,
When Abigail was being questioned as to what happened in the woods, she lied about it and forced the girls to join in. This gave her authority over them because she could decide if they got in trouble and accused or not. When the girls tried to talk about what actually happened in the woods, Abigail threatened them, “Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you” (Miller 144). She threatens to terribly punish them if they say anything about what actually happened. By Abigail doing
Prior to the early action in the play the only besmirching of Abigail’s name are the rumours of her secret relationship with John Proctor and this sparks conflict between her and Goody Proctor. “You are now seven month out of their house, and in all this time no other family has ever called for your service.” (Reverend Parris Act1 P.20) The conflict between her and Elizabeth destroyed her reputation as a house maid. This expresses how much a good reputation is for this time as one mistake that may not even be true can “soil” (Reverend Parris Act1 P.20)
The Crucible by Arthur Miller is filled with fear, betrayal, and mass hysteria. The witch hunts that took place in this book were merely a domino effect of fear brought on by accusation of witchcraft. This ‘theme’ is commonly known as ‘scapegoating’ and, in this book, is commonly used by Abigail. Abigail perfectly embodies the theme of scapegoating by betraying friends and family to slip under the scrutinizing eyes of her town.
It is a horrifying to be Since the beginning, Abigail has told lies that are excruciating. Abigail screams out “I want to open myself! I want the light of God, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil!
Abigail is extremely concerned with her well-being and reputation. In Act One, Reverend Parris confronts Abigail about dancing in the forest, and, instead of confessing, she begins denouncing others. This illustrates how she is willing to allow others to be harmed because of her extreme fear. One example of this is when Abigail states, “Not I sir—Tituba and Ruth” (Miller 15). The character of the residents of Salem is not exceptional.
In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, Miller demonstrated that it was Abigail William’s flaws: lust, vengeance, and jealously that led her to be responsible the most for the tragedy of the witch hunts in Salem. Abigail Williams started the entire suspicion of there being active member of witchcraft throughout Salem, Massachusetts. She did this for her own benefits and used trickery to get what she wanted. Abigail was corrupt and only cared for her own desires. There are many reasons that these flaws are crucial to the outcome of the play.
During the play Abigail's bad decisions leads to a lot of commotion. She tries to fix her mistakes but ends up getting into more of a mess than she started with. “I want to open myself…I want the light of god, I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced with Devil; I saw him i wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss his hand. I saw sarah Good with the devil, I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil!
Abigail exclaims of her passion and love for God when in reality she is filled with sin and lust. Opportunity was given for honesty throughout The Crucible of which
I believe these sentences was a good example of how Abigail is a liar and theft and only ran away to save her own self from being hanged or
Abigail and a group of girls went to court and blame 200 people. Abigail went to court, and told them that Elizabeth Proctor was practicing witchcraft, and got her arrested. When John Proctor went to court, the girls pretended that he was the devil. Giles tries to explain to the court how Abigail is pure evil, and trying to get revenge: “Aye, how she is solemn and goes to hang people!” (3.1.875).
For instance, she says " I saw Sarah Good with the devil." Abigail thinks that she can just blame someone else and she will get out of trouble. Abigail is the villain for blaming other people instead of saying she lied to try and get what she wanted.
said,”When you were with the devil who did you see with him”(1-143.144). At this point, Abigail William is speechless, but then she starts to blame people. Also it doesn’t matter what Abigail says, because she is a witness of witchcraft, so she will save her own tail besides saving others. Reverend Hale is asking specific questions, forcing Abigail to lie. This is wrong because Reverend Hale is refueling Abigail Williams thought process with lies.
Ambiguity Lingers On Edith Wharton, who is an American author, states “The novelist must rely on what maybe called the illuminating incident to reveal and emphasize the inner meaning of each situation” (Wharton). Tim O’Brien uses illuminating moments to show how war makes guilt ambiguous. By examining three specific moments, the reader discovers how difficult it is to deal with the ambiguities of guilt. Lieutenant Jimmy Cross suffers from the ambiguity of guilt about Ted Lavender’s death.
We were amused at his foolishness and allowed him to stay. Now he has won our brothers, and our clan can no longer act like one. He has put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart.” In which achebe’s purpose was to condemn the white colonists for altering the Igbo culture, religion, "Igbo." - Introduction, Location,
Innocence is a word used to describe someone 's purity. Children are prime examples of innocence, as they don’t have judgments and don’t understand mature topics. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the reader can interpret innocence as the growing up of the children. Specifically, Jem Finch showed a loss of innocence as he grew up. He showed his loss of innocence by not playing games, his more mature use of words and body language, and his different view of the world around him.