Puritans

Painting A Portrait of A New World

The true portrait of our society and us is revealed in the movie, The Crucible. Our worst traits are exposed and the realities of the nature of America's morals come through in this movie. The puritans influenced America as we know it today, and beliefs live on in us.

First, the Puritan's believed that successfulness and wealth were a sign that you were a good person and were going to go to heaven. In the movie, Reverend Parris was only concerned about himself, his reputation, and how much money he had. When Parris found out that Betty wouldn't awake, he was quick to blame Abigail and was more concerned about what the village would think of him than the well being of his daughter. Also, John proctor didn't like Parris because he wanted gold candlesticks in the church and was very greedy. Greed and the power of money are very evident in our society. The people with the most money have the most status in the community, and are considered above everyone else. We continue to base ourselves on how many material things we have, and tend to shut out those who are less fortunate.

Secondly, the Puritans based their whole life around God and the Bible. Whenever an event occurred that didn't seem to be the ultimate work and purpose of God, the Devil was the cause and someone was blamed for working out the deed through Satan. Many of the accusations were false and had nothing to do with the Devil or God. Many occurrences blamed on the Devil were things that happened due to the times and lack of knowledge and resources. In the movie, Rebecca Nurse was blamed for the "supernatural" death of Mrs. Putnam's seven babies. In reality, there was a very high infant mortality rate of that time and had nothing to do with witchery. We are still quick to blame false causes for things that happen in our lives. Many Christians today believe that violence in music and television plays a big role in teen suicide. If a teenager who commits suicide just so happens to listen to Metallica, their death is blamed on the band. Society likes to point fingers and cover up their faults by blaming others instead of looking deeper into the matter to find the real reason that the tragedy happened.

Lastly, The Crucible was very realistic and gave a good impression of Puritan life. The Puritans believed that everyone should be well educated so that they could read the Bible. This was evident in the movie when John Proctor was sitting at the table with his children reading the Bible. Also, everyone in the community attended the same church and was shunned upon if they weren't there every Sunday. When Mr. Hale questioned John Proctor, Mr. Hale