Thoughts and Reactions to the Moron, Tom Sawyer

Tom Sawyer. Thought to be a independent and intelligent child proved us all wrong with his uncalled for actions and the end of Huckleberry Finn. What was going through Tom's mind when deciding to abuse Jim just to have his own adventure? Even though he claims he wants to mimic his adventures from famous stories, does he really just want to abuse a slave? This constant thought kept occurring in my mind during Tom's adventures near the end of the novel. His plan was excessive and unnecessary and Huck and Jim knew that. All Tom wanted to do was to go on a harmful adventure.

   
When Huck and Jim tell him that his plan is way too excessive, Tom retorts, "It don't make no difference how foolish it is, it's the RIGHT way—and it's the regular way. And there ain't no OTHER way." The irony with this quote is that Tom says that his plan is foolish yet his dialect sounds foolish because of his accent. Besides that, Tom comes off to be a selfish leader who acts similarly to a dictator. In my eyes, his dictator characteristics have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the ending of the novel. If Tom was not included in the ending of the novel Huck and Jim would probably escaped a lot sooner and would have had a happy life together. Considering that Jim is the closest thing to a father figure to Huck, this ending would have pulled even harder at the readers emotions. Therefore, the ending of the novel would have been much better if Tom was not in the picture. 

Scooby-Doo Parody of The Crucible

Once upon a time, Scooby-Doo and the gang were traveling to Salem, Massachusetts for an award ceremony to recognize their achievements. The gang was so excited to finally be recognized for their greatness and they were planning to do so many fun things together in Salem. After that long car ride in the Mystery Machine, Shaggy suggested to stop at a gas station so that he could get some food. So Fred stopped the car and the gang went into the gas station to get some food. Nothing unusual occurred at the gas station until when the gang was checking out their food to pay and the cashier warned them of the dangers of Salem. The gang just laughed and returned to their car and drove directly to the award ceremony. When the gang arrived they sat in their assigned seats and waited for the speaker to begin speaking about the schedule of the evening. Just before the speaker began to start his presentation, the lights went out and a person inside began to cackle like a witch. Everyone inside the award ceremony began to scream to an extreme. All of a sudden the lights turned on brightly and the speaker, John Proctor, has gone missing. The gang knew that they had to solve this mystery of who captured John.


Immediately Fred told the gang to split up and look for clues. Everyone began to interview everyone who is still in the awards ceremony. People the gang interviewed were Abigail Williams, Rebecca Nurse, Reverend Parris, Tituba, Mary Warren and Elizabeth Proctor. After listening to all of the suspects, the gang concluded that whoever captured John must have been influenced by witchcraft. There was no person who could have been identified from the interviews so the gang split up and began to search around the large dining hall. After a while searching the place Shaggy began to notice a chained up room with the words, "DO NOT ENTER" written across it. Obviously, Shaggy and Scooby breached into the door and discovered John Proctor locked up in chains with tape across his mouth. After Shaggy and Scooby released him from the chains, he told them that Abigail Williams did this to him. Therefore, the gang arrested Abigail without testing anyone else. Abigail's last words were, "I wanted to open myself.. and free myself from god.. I wanted to dance with the Devil" (iii). Shaggy was quite confused by what she was talking about but he does not ask questions. So Abigail was arrested and the gang finally got their award of recognition.

Is the practice of McCarthyism the reason for chaotic actions presented in Act One of the Crucible?

Witchcraft. Is it real? How is it used? Who uses it? These questions are hard to answer correctly in the early 1900's. People at this time tend to turn on people for being a so called "witch." Sometimes claiming a person to be a witch could solve many problems in society at the time.

The topic of witchcraft is correlated to McCarthyism. McCarthyism is the practice in the United States of making accusations of subversion or treason without proper regard for evidence. In Act One of The Crucible, witchcraft and the practice of McCarthyism was evidently shown through the actions of most of the characters. Even though it was clear that both witchcraft and McCarthyism was used in Act One, was McCarthyism really the reason for the paranoia that was spread throughout the community? 
In both the play and the film showed in class, the practice of McCarthyism was the main reason for the people of the community in Salem to act paranoid over witchcraft throughout Act One. People of this community justify the process to find witchcraft and destroy it can be shown through the quote, "The witch-hunt was a perverse manifestation of the panic which set in among all classes when the balance began to turn toward greater individual freedom" (I.5). Considering that people of the Salem community justify the horrific actions of exterminating people who are claimed to have a relation with the devil, these people are very scared of witchcraft without there being any proof that it even exists. Since, McCarthyism revolves around the idea of making assumptions about people that have not been proven to be true, this is very similar to the disgusting accusations made in Salem that has harmed many in their community.

Christopher Columbus? More like Christopher Fungus

Why compare Columbus to a fungus you ask? Well, a fungus in the urban dictionary is defined to be "used to describe something that has appeared or grown rapidly and is considered unpleasant or unattractive."  To most, the tradition of Columbus day is not celebrated much except for schools. I am pretty sure if I did not go to school, I would have no idea what Columbus day is even about. Despite not knowing much about Columbus day prior to last week, it is evident that the indigenous people have been wrongly done. I am pretty sure that when Columbus over took the indigenous people's land, the Native Americans began to feel unpleasant just like a fungus. Columbus day also relates to the functions of a fungus because over the past 50 years Columbus day has began to be celebrated more than ever before, just like how fast a fungus can appear.                         
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Sherman Alexie, writer and filmmaker of the lives of Native Americans, states that he writes about Native Americans "to tell the truth about their struggles." Alexie does an excellent job of explaining the struggles and stereotypes that all Native Americans face every single day. Personally, Native Americans have been stereotyped because of how poorly Columbus treated them.  From this, Native Americans were clearly treated unfairly by Columbus and therefore other people began to mistreat them. In return for their mistreatment by Columbus and his crew, I believe we should celebrate indigenous day to celebrate the true discoverers of America, the Native Americans.