Sophie M.

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Rebellion

Is rebellion ever “justified?” In my opinion, rebellion is justified under very few circumstances. Rebellion can be civil, such as “disobeying” or it can be more brutal and gory. In saying this, rebellion is rarely ever “justified”and this is debatable but I think that if someone invades a foreign country to cause harm, religious persecution, if you’re being harmed, and other inexcusable scenarios, it’s justified. Though these are super secular, in the Bible, rebellion is not justified, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's.” Matthew 22:21.

Personally, I think the colonist’s philosophical ideas on why they broke away, were not shocking because they wanted to be treated like they had a say in something. Some of their ideals include; religious independence, they wanted to be treated fairly, “life liberty and the pursuit of happiness” and they wanted to just feel like they had worth, because the king took away most that. To conclude, their ideals were what I saw as the “most important” reason.

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The Crucible

In the play the Crucible, there are several conflicts that do correlate to life today. The most prominent one however, in my opinion is the entire conflict between Abigail and Elizabeth. Abigail has previously worked for John Proctor but obviously as the wife of John, Elizabeth wasn’t comfortable with this arrangement and fired her. Abigail is upset because of this and when John told her that “the affair was over” she was even more mad. She had the mentality that if she (Abigail) can’t have John, then why does Elizabeth get to, so she does everything in her power to make sure she doesn’t “get” him, even to the point of John being killed at the end of the play. Now, I know vengeance and jealousy are really bad things to partake in, they are very natural for us. Someone upsets us, we instantly think how can we “get revenge” on them, and we act on it. Jealousy is very common, and can come in many forms and sometimes without us even realizing we’re envying someone’s possessions, or a relationship in this case. To conclude, I think this story resonates well with problems people in the 21st century still encounter, with jealousy and vengeance being the two “primary” issues I chose to address.

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Coyote and the Buffalo

In the story we read, “The Coyote and the Buffalo” which was retold by Mourning Dove is a story told in the Third Person omniscient P.O.V. It’s omniscient because we know both the thoughts of Coyote and Buffalo Bull. The narrator tells the story and events by describing the events as if it was a story unfolding in front of their eyes. They use pronouns such as “He” and “They” to describe both characters. The narrator knows the thoughts of all the characters.

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Olaudah Equiano

After reading the story Equiano told, I feel I had a deeper insight on slavery. We have read about slaves for years in our History books, and this story really put it into perspective. In the beginning of the story, Olaudah and his sister were kidnapped from their village while the adults were working. They were forced to travel for about a week and then him and his sister were split apart, and even after this he was still sold several times until he finally was taken to the slave ship. When he first got on board, he was convinced he was going to be eaten alive by the white men on board. Soon after this, he realized that this was the least of his problems and one of the least painful things he had to endure. He saw quite a few black people chained up, which gave him some hope, but they looked sad and sorrowful. His hope didn't last too long though. The slaves were starved several times, and many slaves died. He was then shoved in a small “cabin” underneath the decks with many others. It was hot in the cabin and there was barely enough room to turn their body, not to mention the many repulsive smells, and many of the slaves got sick and died, so imagine how disgusting that was. ”For two months, Africans lay chained in storage compartments with hardly enough air to breathe.” (Background on pg.77). They were taunted with fish (some food they'd love to ingest), and when people from his country tried to get some that had been thrown in the water, they were beaten. Once he got to shore in Barbados, he and the other surviving slaves were taken to the slave yard. Families of slaves were split apart and were to never see each other again. He was bought by Michael Pascal who took him to sea. Equiano spent many years fighting for Britain, but instead of being freed, he was sold again, this time to a Quaker. This slave owner, trained him in business and in 1766 (21 years after being a slave!) Equiano chose to buy his freedom back. He then moved to London and soon after that he started his career in business, and in the late 1770’s, he went back to London and became a Christian and he got involved in many antislavery efforts. Sadly, he didn’t get to see slavery abolished, as he died in 1797, just 10 years before Britain abolished the slave trade.