Perfectness in the Imperfect

Nature has a way of soothing people. Through running cross-country, I have gained insight into why the idea of Romanticism begun, and why it proliferated. The perfectness of nature when it is imperfect is the cause of the beauty it holds. The other day while running a race in cold, rainy, and muddy weather, I questioned myself, asking if there was a reason why I run. I realized that even in these weather conditions that society has termed horrible, there lay a refuge inside of it all. Any worries of the modern world were erased during those 16 minutes of the race. Covered in mud, and in pain from running, there I was actually having fun. Even in The Scarlet Letter it is suggested, using the example of the rosebush, that nature is an escape from, in this case, a life of condemnation. Besides purging many worries, when nature is at its best, it has an aesthetic beauty to it also. From seeing the Northern Lights in Alaska, or watching the sunset on a beach nature is truly inspirational. Also, nature has a major influence in most people's lives. For example, temperature influences what we wear, seasons influence activities we do, and so on.  The major role that the environment plays in our lives, from being a refuge, an inspiration, or just a factor of our lives, is the reason for Romanticism.

Footprints on the Sands of Time

So far in 11 AP we've focussed on important literary moments in American Culture. These have been "footprints on the sands of time" as mentioned by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and they have shaped American Culture into what it is today.

We started by looking early colonial influences of literature, and found that religion played a major part in molding this country. It has had some consequences when taken to extremes such as the Salem Witch Trials, shown by the play The Crucible. However, the "footprints" of religion left by colonists also gave us strong morals and systems of education. We've also looked at the battle against racism and slavery through our analysis of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and the battles soldiers had with themselves after Vietnam through The Things They Carried. These are all major footprints in time, and now we are starting to learn about more recent occurences in history(excluding TTTC).

This week, we looked into the women's suffrage movement, and learned how through clever speech writing, such as mimicking the Declaration of Independence, people such as Elizabeth Stanton have made their impacts on history. A recurrence throughout most of these major events show the uses of appeals to strengthen their points in history. The Declaration of Independence and of Sentiments both include a variety of appeals, even Abigail in The Crucible made appeals to emotions of the people of Salem and of association to other girls of the village. Another recurrence in these events is that most were part of some kind of reform. So if society is always changing, what will happen in our generation? What will be our footprint in time?

Shutter Island Psychology in Salem

In the movie Shutter Island, a man named Teddy Daniels arrives at Shutter Island, a mental hospital, to investigate the disappearance of a patient and also to find the murderer of his wife. As the movie progress it is revealed that he is actually the murderer of his own wife, and to cope with is, he has essentially gone crazy. He is able to convince himself that he didn't commit the murder, and convince others that he only did it because he is crazy. Being crazy, he is able to shift the blame of the murder off of himself and to keep his old reputation safe(before going crazy).

This can be related to the judges of the Salem Witch Trials, who have often been regarded as horrible people, even monsters, for allowing for the false accusations to continue after the lies began to be exposed. However, I don't believe the blame is on the judges, but rather on human nature. Given the choice between believing that they were saving the village from witches or killing innocent people, the judges naturally chose to believe that they were saving people-as would most other people given the choice. They chose to live as good men in their own minds for as long as they could. However, eventually they had no choice but to admit their mistakes due to all the proof given to them(when the girls run away). Shutter Island can also be applied to those in the trials that didn't admit to witchcraft. They had the choice to admit to being witches and live, or to not admit and die with their integrity. In this case, there were some who admitted to witchcraft to live, however important characters, such as John Proctor, chose to die as good people.

Besides choosing the option that allows them to remain good people, in all these cases, the choices the people make protect reputations. In Shutter Island Teddy is able to safeguard his reputation by blaming his murder on insanity. In The Crucible the judges protect their reputations for as long as they can by allowing there to be no question of witches in Salem. Finally, Proctor protects his reputation in the eyes of the most important person to him, Elizabeth. Even though others of the village will have seen his death as his refusal to admit that he was a wizard, Elizabeth sees it as Proctor finally clearing himself of sins in front of God. That is what Proctor believes is protecting his reputation. "Which would be worse - to live as a monster? Or to die as a good man?"(Shutter Island)

Salem's Syndrome

False memory syndrome is defined by Paul R. McHugh as a condition in which a person's identity and interpersonal relationships are centered around a memory of traumatic experience which is objectively false but in which the person strongly believes. Note that the syndrome is not characterized by false memories as such. We all have memories that are inaccurate. Rather, the syndrome may be diagnosed when the memory is so deeply ingrained that it orients the individual's entire personality and lifestyle, in turn disrupting all sorts of other adaptive behavior...False Memory Syndrome is especially destructive because the person assiduously avoids confrontation with any evidence that might challenge the memory. Thus it takes on a life of its own, encapsulated and resistant to correction. The person may become so focused on memory that he or she may be effectively distracted from coping with the real problems in his or her life(McHugh 66-67).

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, the character Mary Warren is victim to this syndrome and she serves as an exaggeration to the mob-mentality being exhibited by Salem. The town is in hysteria. Following everything the "bewitched" girls say, they form a sort of mob. Parallel to this, Mary cannot stop herself from believing the witchcraft to be true. To stress the mentality of the village, Miller adds the false memory syndrome to Mary Warren as its comparison.

Mary Warren also serves as another comparison to the people of Salem. She attempts to address the truth of how the girls were acting in pretense, but she finds it very difficult to acknowledge(part of the False Memory Syndrome). This leads to her regressing back to believing that the witchcraft is actually true. This compares to the people of Salem because, they are also finding it very difficult to believe that the girls can only be acting in pretense–partly due to the reason that the court doesn't want to acknowledge the errors made. Parallel to the mentality of the people of Salem, Mary Warren's actions serve as a symbol of the town's mentality.