Journal #11

If I was to make a list of virtues to live by, I would include: integrity, loyalty, charity, and respect.  In today's world, you see some of these virtues but many people do not live by these.  Integrity consists of being honest and knowing what is right and wrong.  The legit definition of integrity is "adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty" (Integrity). An example of integrity is there is a lost wallet and you do not know whose it is.  You have two choices, take the wallet and keep what is in it or find the person who owns it.  If you had integrity, you would know that the right thing to do would be to return the wallet to the rightful owner.  The next virtue is loyalty.  Loyalty would be described as someone who will never give up on you and never leave your side.  Your best friends should be loyal, I know mine are. (:  My best friends are there for me when I need help and do not give up on me.  Being loyal is very important for me because I want to know that I have someone who will stay by my side when the going gets tough.  After loyalty I have charity.  Charity is "generosity and helpfulness especially toward the needy or suffering; aid given to those in need" (List).  In my opinion, helping others is one of the best feelings in the world.  Being able to change someone's life from bad to good puts such an impact on me.  Our school helped out a food bank by having a food drive and we ended up filling our principals office.  I was in the office earlier and a man came in and told the secretaries to tell our principal thank you for all the food because now they can feed more families in need.  When I heard that, a smile formed on my face and just knowing that we helped out dozens of families.  The last but not the least virtue I chose is respect.  My definition of respect is being kind to people, especially authoritative figures.  Being respectful should be something every person in this world should live by.  I try my best to follow these above virtues. 

"Integrity." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. 

"List of the Virtues." List of the Virtues. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2012. 

Declaration of Independence

When a major step in politics or another big topic is taken, people try to manipulate people into thinking different things.  They will try to persuade you into believing something that may or may not be true.  People use propaganda techniques and faulty logic to get the response they want.  This right here can be seen in documents, like in the Declaration of Independence. 

First off, I would like to define propaganda for those who do not know what it means. Propaganda is "information, ideas, or rumors deliberately spread widely to help or harm a person, group, movement, institution, nation, etc" (Propaganda).  Now that everyone knows what propaganda is, I can go over what propaganda techniques are and some examples.  Propaganda techniques are approaches used to spread ideas and information to back up a political, religious, civil, or commercial cause.  Some examples of this technique are name calling, transfer, bandwagon, plain folks, card stacking, etc. ()  Along with propaganda techniques, there is also the occurrence of faulty logic.  When using faulty logic, people say things that are not necessarily true to get a wanted response from the person they are trying to persuade.  

The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson and contains some propaganda and faulty logic.  One example of a propaganda technique is name calling.  This technique is probably the most common of all techniques.  Name calling consists of attaching a negative label to someone or something to make them seem less qualified than you are.  "A prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a TYRANT is unfit to be ruler of free people" (Jefferson 124).  In this sentence, Jefferson is referring to the King as being a tyrant.  In my opinion, he is being a wee bit immature by calling the King names.  I don't actually know if the King was actually a tyrant, but from this document, people believe that he is. 

Another example of propaganda that I saw in the Declaration of Independence was the use of opinions as facts.  Those two words together is an oxymoron.  Opinions are what a person thinks in his or her own mind while facts can be proven.  "Such has been the patient suffering of the colonies" (Jefferson 122).  In this line, Jefferson is telling us about how the colonies suffered because of the King and soldiers.  While that piece of information is true, the colonists were mistreated, but the way he worded it made it an opinion.  "Patient suffering" is the part that makes it an opinion because I do not think that the British though the colonists were patient when the war started.  How could anyone be patient in a war?  

The last occurrence of a propaganda technique in the Declaration of Independence is called Glittering Generalities.  It is funny to think that using propaganda isn't always looked highly upon and they use "glittering generalities" as one of the names.  Glittering Generalities uses "glad words" like good, honest, fair, best, etc to make their argument seem more positive and look like the better choice.  An example I found in the excerpt is, "In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms" (Jefferson 124).  The "glad word" in this reference is humble.  This word makes the argument seem better for Thomas Jefferson than whoever his opponent is.  

All in all, even though Thomas Jefferson included propaganda techniques, the Declaration of Independence is essential to the way the United States works today.  We, as the people of the United States, are free because of this document. 

"Propaganda." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2012. 


"Recognizing Propaganda Techniquesand Errors of Faulty Logic." Recognizing Propaganda--Guide to Critical Thinking--Academic Support. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Sept. 2012. 


Wilhelm, Jeffrey D., Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. "The Declaration of Independence." Glencoe Literature. New York: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2009. 120-24. Print.  

Journal #10

First off, I have never heard of Brach's Star Brite mints.  Okay, that is a lie because I just looked them up.  If Mr. Langley was to bring in those mints to our English 332 class, I believe that it would cause our class to get off subject.  This already happens daily, so you would not really want another distraction.  One of the distractions could be that someone could choke on the mint.  We would have to spend some time dislodging the mint from the throat of the student. Another distraction could be the stupid, crinkly wrappers.  Once someone takes the mint from the wrapper, they have the tendency (at least I do) to play with it.  As everyone already knows, the wrappers are made of plastic and when played with, it makes a very loud and annoying sound.  When I am in a classroom, I am there to learn and if someone takes away from my learning, I get frazzled and annoyed.  Sometimes I do slack off and take part in the horsing around part, but most of the time I try and spend my classroom time wisely.  Along with the distractions, there is a big possibly that all the wrappers would be left on the tables and desks.  Mr. Langley would not be very happy if he looked around the room and saw an abundance of Brach's Star Brite mint wrappers.  He would then have to take time out of his day to pick all the wrappers up even though they are not his.  After saying this, I would not really care if Mr. Langley brought in mints.  It is not really our decision as students to decide whether the teacher should bring in mints for the students.  We are not the ones buying the mints from the store.  All of the distractions I listed above should be taken into account before purchasing the mints and bringing them in.  

Journal #9

Autumn.  This one word brings such joy to some people's world. In my opinion, autumn is my favorite season because of the weather and all the colors.  When the season changes to autumn, the weather starts getting colder and you get to wear sweat pants and sweat shirts.  I am the person who would rather be cold than hot.  When you are hot, it takes forever for you to cool down but when you are cold, all you have to do is get a blanket or put on a sweat shirt.  The good thing about autumn is that you can open your windows at night and let a whole bunch of fresh air in.  During the summer you can't do that because the air conditioning is constantly running.  I have to be cold when I go to bed, otherwise I won't be able to fall asleep and I am not a fun person to be around when I haven't gotten enough sleep.  At this time, the football season is getting closer to being over and that means the games are awesome! I love football games because I love showing school spirit and having fun.  I am on the dance team so I get to get into the games for free and dance at halftime.  At these games, you have to wear sweatshirts and long pants.  These outfits are the comfiest! The main reason that I love autumn is because the changing of colors.  My favorite part is walking down the road and watching all the colorful leaves hanging on the branches.  Red, orange, yellow and brown are such calming colors.  Some days when it is really windy, you can see the colorful leaf tornadoes.  These are groups of leaves spiraling in the air because of the wind.  In the fall, my family and I collect leaves and laminate them so we hang them up as decorations in the house.  I LOVE AUTUMN!

Journal #8

One time my friends and I planned to hang out on a Saturday night to watch a scary movie.  That night though my parents planned to have a get together with some friends.  Our families all have kids and we usually get a long pretty well.  I was going to leave to go my friends house after dinner but dinner went late and the clock read 8:20 P.M.  I asked my mom if I could go to my friends house, who unfortunately lives twenty-five minutes away.  Of course she said NO.  At this point my mom was being irrational and I decided to argue with her.  When a parent answers no, the child's first response is to ask "why?" It was a bad idea on my part because I later got in trouble for back talking.  My mom's response was that it was too late and by the time I got to her house, it would be time to come home.  Whenever I want to drive somewhere, you have to throw in the possible factor of getting in a car accident.  This of course also affected her decision.  She did not want me driving at night to a place that is semi faraway.  She does not realize that if I left at that moment, I would have an hour to hang out with my friends before I should actually leave.  My mommy still said no even after I told her that.  She is one of the people who does not like to change her answer once she has stated it.  This made me mad and ended up making me emotional because I wanted to see my friends.  It had been a WHOLE day without seeing them and who knows what would happen if I did not see them.  Parents seem to be irrational in a lot of situations but I guess they do that for a reason.  They seem irrational to us but to them they are being rational.  They keep us from going to places to keep us safe because they love us.

Journal #7

I hate bullying, which can be portrayed through physically hurting or emotionally hurting someone.  Bullying is never the right path to choose when your self esteem level is low.  When bullying occurs, the bully and the victim are both affected by it.  Most cases of bullying are because the bully needs to feel superior and the way that they fulfill that feeling, is to make someone else cry or hurt.  In class, there will be people who may have a question that may seem unreasonable and should already have an answer.  In other words, the question that the person formulated is stupid.  Yes, teachers say there is no such thing as a stupid question but believe me, there is.  If this happens in a classroom, the person who asked the question will most likely be made fun of.  The students will make comments that they think is funny but will ultimately hurt the student.  Everyone has been both a bully and a victim before in their lifetime.  It happens in your family, your group of friends at school, the classroom, at work, or even in places where you know no one.  It is sad to think that a person would bully someone that they do not even know, but it happens.  The effects of bullying on the victims can be very life changing.  There have been many cases where the victims have ended their lives because they do not feel like they could take it any longer.  For someone to take their own life is horrible and I cannot even believe how much guilt that the bully would feel.  Bullying can cause the victims to harm themselves to make themselves feel better.  For example, people cut themselves with a razor blade to make the pain go away.  Any and all of these effects of bullying should never have to be felt by anyone.  If only the world was a perfect place with unicorns and double rainbows all the time.  

The Crucible Act IV

"The parochial snobbery of these people was partly responsible for their failure to convert the Indians. Probably they also preferred to take land from heathens rather than from fellow Christians. At any rate, very few Indians were converted, and the Salem folk believed that the virgin forest was the Devil’s last preserve, his home base and the citadel of his final stand. To the best of their knowledge the American forest was the last place on earth that was not paying homage to God" (Miller 5).  “The Crucible” was written by Arthur Miller.  Miller is showing us a line that separates the goodness of God and the evilness of the Devil.  The town is the image of God and all the blessings he has given us.  Once you pass the forest line, you enter the Devil’s territory.  He states that the forest, Indians, and anything that lies in the forest is considered the Devil’s “home base.”  “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” is a sermon that is preached by Jonathan Edwards.  Jonathan spends his sermon yelling at the congregation that their lives are all one big sin.  “Sin is the ruin and misery of the soul; it is destructive in its nature; and if God should leave it without restraint, there would need nothing else to make the soul perfectly miserable” (Select).   He reprimands them for not trying harder to live up to God’s expectations. 

“The Crucible” is a play about a town of Puritans who are trying to do the right thing.  What they believe is right is a lot different than the actual definition of right.  The definition of right is “in accordance with what is good, proper, or just” (Right).  The townspeople assume that there are witches that are taking over their minds and bodies.  They want the witchery to stop so they are going to try and act more on God’s word.  To try and stop the witchery meant that they would blame and lie to each other.  Even the reverends have turned to lying.  “I have sought a Christian way, for damnation’s doubled on a minister who counsels men to lie” (Miller 132).  Reverend Hale is the one who said this line.  People look up to him and religious figures, so when they lie, people think it is right for them to also.  This act is tearing apart families, almost everyone has turned to lying, and the worst of it is that many innocent lives have been taken.  "Life, woman, life is God's most precious gift; no principle, however glorious, may justify the taking of it (Miller 132).  Like Miller said, life is a gift from God and we shouldn’t take advantage of it.  Jesus died on the cross so we could live and be free of our sins.  In “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” Edwards wants the people to see that they are living their lives incorrectly and that they should make changes so that they can fulfill God’s expectations.  If we do not make changes, we will have to deal with the fiery consequences of the Devil. 

Both of these works of art have similar qualities.  The main similarity I found was that they each drew a distinct line between God and the Devil.  The forest, Indians and witchcraft are results of the Devil, while the people of the town are God’s masterpieces.  On the other hand, Jonathan put the lives of everyone on under the Devil and the level of Jesus under God.  Both authors have different perspectives but I don’t believe that either one of them had the right idea.  People should try hard to make following God’s word a life goal.  Being on God’s side is where you want to be.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print

"Right." Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2012.

"Select Sermons." - Christian Classics Ethereal Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Sept. 2012.

Human Nature in "The Crucible"

In Arthur Miller's play, "The Crucible," human nature is displayed through events and characters in mostly negative ways.  "The Crucible" was published in 1953, which was only fifty-nine years ago.  In the big picture, fifty-nine years really is not that long of a time period.  The sad thing is that even though it was more than half the span of a person's life, some of the same instances still occur today.  The biggest thing in the play that I noticed is lying.  Lying is done by everyone in the world.  When you are in a situation where you may be punished, you want to remove yourself from the spotlight.  Instead of being honest and sharing the truth, they project the problem onto someone else.  This case right here was exactly what happened in "The Crucible."

"The Crucible" shows that the consequence of lying about witchcraft leads to the death of innocent people.  Many people in the town of Salem are blaming and projecting the accusation of being witches onto each other, when the whole thing is just a lie.  "Betty: staring too: I saw George Jacobs with the Devil!  I saw Goody Howe with the Devil" (Miller 48).  This quote shows an example of what I just stated.  When you are being blamed for something, all you want to do is to turn it onto someone else.  Betty and Abigail did just this.  No one was actually a "witch" but because one person thought someone was a witch, everyone thought someone else was.  

Abigail is one of the characters who had the worst habit of lying.  She is privately taking vengeance against Elizabeth Proctor because she wants John Proctor all to herself.   To get her way, she makes up events that will set up Elizabeth into looking like she is guilty.  For example, in Act II, Mary Warrens comes back from the witch trials with a home made present for Elizabeth.  Mary made her a doll with a needle in the middle of it.  Later unbeknownst to her, Abigail was found with a needle in her abdomen.  The marshal accused Mary Warrens of witchcraft and somehow got the needle placed into Abigail's abdomen.  Abigail of course set up the plan along with Mary's help to make Elizabeth look guilty.  This act of lying sent Elizabeth to jail.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print

Journal #6

I can guarantee that everyone in the whole wide world has been blamed for something they have not done.  In the cases I have been blamed, it has been because of my siblings.  Siblings think it is fun to turn the blame on someone else.  I have to admit it takes a load off when you are not being the one that is being punished.  But whenever you do something wrong, there are always repercussions.  If you did not know, repercussions means consequences.  My parents always say, "For every action you do, there will be consequences."  Some of the possible repercussions that could be drawn upon you for blaming someone else would be going to jail, getting grounded, getting sent to your room, etc.  If you robbed a bank and when the police questioned you, you pointed a finger at someone else, you could be sent to jail.  The worst thing though that could come from that would be the guilt.  Feeling guilty is the worst feeling ever, I think.  Can you imagine doing this action I stated above and sending an innocent person to jail?  I know I would be feeling so dragged down with guilt because that person who will be in jail could be a husband and a father.  He would be leaving his family because of some idiot who was to busy thinking about himself.  Another thing that would be terrible to live with is if you blamed one of your friends or even a best friend on something bad that you did and losing their trust.  I would feel horrible if I lost a friend or best friend as a result of one of my actions.  Losing a friend puts me down in the dumps and even thinking about this happening makes me frown.  I love all my friends and I am blessed to have them.  Writing this blog has made me think about not blaming things on other people. 

The Crucible Characters

In class, Mr. Langley instructed everyone in the class to take the True Colors test.  The test consisted of a series of questions where you had to choose one of two answers.  After you answered all of the questions, the page would reload and tell you what type of person you are.  The choices were Helper, Thinker, Planner and Doer.  If you were a Helper, the color blue would be associated with you.  Gold is for the Planners'.  Green is for the Thinkers' and the Doers are orange.  I was given blue which is a helper.  In "The Crucible" each main character has a color to tell them what kind of person they are.  The characters I found most important were John Proctor, Abigail Williams, and Reverend Hale.

First off is Abigail Williams.  Abigail is John Proctor's niece who can be a pain.  In Act II of "The Crucible" Abigail is never speaking but she is mentioned a couple of times.  "Hale: Abigail were stabbed tonight; a needle were found stuck into her belly--" (Miller 76).  Abigail is a Thinker which is also the color green.  Thinkers are people who are critical, logical, and analytical.  Abigail is a Thinker because in Act I, she blames dancing and witchcraft on the younger girls.  She had to have thought this whole thing out because she knew exactly what would happen.  Another quality of a thinker is that when getting yelled at is in the picture, you ball up and try to stay away from the punishment.

John Proctor is a local farmer who is hypocritical and has a deadly secret.  I would have to say John is a Planner or gold.  "You are the pillar of strength and have high respect for authority. You like to establish and maintain policies, procedures, and schedules. You have a strong sense of right and wrong. You are naturally parental and dutiful" (True).  This here represents him because although he does commit adultery, he knows it is wrong and regrets it every time he is with Abigail.  On page 23, Arthur Miller shows how badly John feels about committing adultery.  "Proctor: Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time.  But I will cut off my hand before I'll ever reach for you again.  Wipe it out of mind.  We never touched, Abby."  He has a crush on Abigail Williams.  John is in his thirties or forties while Abigail is seventeen.  That is a big age difference and the worst part is, is that John is married!! "You loved me, John Proctor, and whatever sin it is, you love me yet! He turns abruptly to go out.  She rushes to him.  John, pity me, pity me" (Miller 24).  this right here confirms the affair and even though John enjoyed what when on, he knows that it is a sin and should stop.

The last character I am going to analyze is Reverend Hale.  After reading the two acts, I would have to say that he is a Thinker or green.  I made this decision because Hale knows all about witchcraft because he has done loads of research is a smart man.  As the play goes on, Hale realizes who is telling the truth and who is lying.  To figure this out takes some thinking.


Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print


"True Colors Career Gold Card." True Colors Career Gold Card. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Sept. 2012.

Journal #5

When you say "fair punishment," it almost seems like an oxymoron.   Getting punished never seems fair to the child, because they do not feel like they did anything wrong.  The 21st century consists a lot of online media, online games, and cell phones.  These things make children and teenagers become attached to inanimate objects, which is never a good thing.  In the video, the women never really stated what the punishment really was but said that you should fit the punishment to the crime.  These crimes can be anywhere from back talking and fighting to cheating and stealing.  When I was younger, if I got in trouble I was sent to my room.  Now a days kids have TVs, computers, cell phones, and electronic games all in their room.  Sending a child to their room when they had all these electronics in their room would hardly be a punishment.  What you want to do is instead of sending them to their room, you should take away their electronics.  Taking away these devices will make the child have withdrawals and make them see that if they do the same crime, they will have to live through the "pain" again.  

My mom and dad feel that if we need punished, they will take away the things that we are closet to.  For my brother and youngest sister, it would be the computer.  They are both constantly on the computer playing online games.  It is almost like they do not have a life outside of the computer.  My punishment would be to take away my cell phone.  I love my cell phone and I would say I am attached to it because I do not like to let it leave my sight.  I am not happy that I am that attached to my phone because that means I am focusing more on that than more important things.  

My version of a "fair punishment" would be to take away the cell phones, computers, and gaming systems.  Children and teenagers need to see that their is life outside of technology.

"The Crucible" Act I

"The Crucible" was published by Arthur Miller in 1953.  The recent stories and excerpts we have read have been from centuries ago.  For example, William Bradford started his journal “Of Plymouth Plantation" in the 1600s.  That was over three hundred years ago.  That is a wide span of time for new ideas to arise.  The thing is, is that Miller's writing is similar to that of the Puritans'.  As we have conversed in past class periods, the Puritans' writing style consists of: straight forward, tends to be less descriptive, which leads to shortness and A LOT about God.  The main thing with God is that they do not want to put any emotion that will make God seem less than he is.  The Puritans' are scared that if they draw attention to themselves that God will punish them and send them to Hell.  

From what I just said, you probably think that "The Crucible" is just like all the rest of the Puritans' works of art.  Well you are wrong!  Arthur Miller's play talks highly of God and that he should always be put first, but it also shows how the Puritans' beliefs start to spiral into a downfall.  First off, I would like to share with you a little bit about what I read in Act I.  "The Crucible" is a play about the Salem Witch Trials.  These trials took place in Massachusetts in the late 1600s, 1692 to be exact.  The Salem Witch Trials were composed of nineteen men and women, who were accused of witchcraft and were either killed for their wrongdoing or sent to jail.  Many of the accused sat in jail without ever even having a trial.  As big of an issue it was at the time, it ended just as quickly as it started.  Anyways, the story line is that Reverend Parris' daughter, Betty is in a coma and they believe that it is because of witchcraft.  He had seen his daughter along with a couple of other girls dancing around a fire with the family's slave, Tituba.  

On the first page of "The Crucible," Arthur Miller states, "to win people and God to his side."  Just from this fragment of sentence, you are able to see that Reverend Parris wants to be on God's good side but also to be liked by the people in his town.  The government of Salem is a theocracy.  "The people of Salem developed a theocracy a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies" (Miller 7).  This right here also shows that God is important even when making decisions for the government.  

The author shows how the Puritans' writing style is starting to beak away from its normal format.  "He was the kind of man, powerful of body, even-tempered, and not easily led" (Miller 20).  this right here seems like normal descriptions to us, but with the Puritans', this is way too descriptive.  Usually they are very blunt and scarcely give details.  This quote shows how the writing style is starting to become different and not the same as it used to be.

Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, NY: Penguin, 1996. Print. 

Journal #4

Every year, my family and I try to make a voyage to Florida.  The drive from my house, which is123 ABC Street to Seagrove, Florida takes fourteen hours.  I figured you would not want to know my real address because I would rather not have creeps show up at my doorstep.  Do not worry, you are not a creep.  Back to Florida because that is what I am supposed to write about.    In my family, there are six people.  I have my two parents and I have three siblings.  You can understand that we would need a bigger vehicle to fit all of out suitcases and bodies.  My family drives a white Toyota Sienna because it fits all six of us and there is a built in DVD player.  That accessory comes in handy when we go on long road trips.  For the fourteen hour drive,my siblings and I watch a lot of movies.  If a movie is two hours, you can watch a total of seven movies.  That is a lot of movies!  

When we do leave for Florida, we leave early in the morning so we can beat the morning traffic.  Instead of stopping for lunch and breakfast, my mom had the good idea to pack both meals.  For breakfast, we usually have store bought donuts and water or orange juice.  Once lunch rolls around, we get out the chips and sandwiches.  Yummy, I love sandwiches.  Of all the years, we have been to Florida, we do not like to drive all fourteen hours in one day so we break it up.  Most of the time we stop in either Montgomery, Alabama or Birmingham, Alabama.  I love both of those cities because they are so different from Springfield, Illinois.  You can walk down the streets and see such a wide variety of people.  The next morning, we wake up and pack up the van after we have breakfast.  It takes about three more hours to get to our house in Seagrove, Florida.  As we get closer and closer to our destination, we get antsy and just want to be there.  All the palm trees and ocean views are relaxing and exciting at the same time.  Pulling up to our house and running out onto the beach makes the fourteen hour drive worth while. (:

William Bradford

William Bradford was born in 1590 in England.  When he was just a child, both his parents died, which led to Bradford being bounced around from relative to relative.  At the age of twelve, William was living with one of his relatives in a town close to Scrooby.  There was a church that drew him in because of “its fellowship and its lack of ritual.”  “By the age of 17 Bradford was a fully committed member, sharing the radical idea of separating from the official Church of England - a dangerous decision, for Separatist leaders were hunted and imprisoned. When the congregation learned that the king, James I, intended to ‘harry them from the land,’ they fled to the Netherlands (William).  “Religion hath been disgraced, the godly greeved, afflicted, persecuted, and many exhiled, sundrie have lost their lives in prisones and otherways” (Bradford 5).  William Bradford led all the exiles from place to place to stay safe.  In these places, they would worship and pray, not giving up on the Lord.  Living in different places and bouncing around caused them a difficult life with money and food.  Most of the congregation got jobs working with textiles.  At this time, the group had found a pastor, John Robinson, to run the worshiping and praying.  Pastor Robinson suggested moving the congregation to a new place overseas and everyone agreed (William).

William Bradford decided to keep a journal of the move from the Netherlands to the Americas.  This journal was originally named, “Of Plimoth Plantation” but was changed to “Of Plymouth Plantation” for easier reading.  In this journal, Bradford wrote about when the congregation “settled in Holland, through the 1620 Mayflower voyage, until the year 1647.”  This journal is important because it was the first and only written timeline of what happened on the Mayflower and in the Americas.   Not only was it just facts of what happened but also what the colonists thought of the Americas (About).  It is amazing how much one book will teach people so much about one subject. 

As I said before in a previous blogs, the Puritans’ main topic is God.  .  William Bradford mentions God repeatedly in his book, “Of Plymouth Plantation.”  On page six, Bradford mentions several verses in the Bible.  They are: Matthew 15:3, Jeremiah 50:24, 1 Corinthians 10:22, and Jeremiah 50:31.  The fact that William can quote the Bible shows that he believes in and follows God.  Another fact about the Puritans’ is that they write mostly as journals, histories and diaries.  The whole book that William Bradford wrote is a journal that he recorded all his information in.   Many of the Puritans’ were persecuted because of taking part in religion so they fled.  Bradford and other people in his church, fled because they did not want to be persecuted.  I said a quote earlier in the first paragraph that relates to this statement.  One last thing that is similar to the Puritans’, is that God keeps them strong in situations that are tough and is there when they need someone to talk to.  Pastor Robinson and the rest of his congregation felt the same way.  They knew that whatever situation they were put in, good or bad, that God would show them what to do and how to deal with it.  “Others by providente care & ye use of good means, might in a great measure be prevented; and all of them, through ye help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne, or overcome” (Bradford 26). 

"About the Bradford Journal." About the Bradford Journal. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Sept. 2012.

Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Plantation. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Open Library. Web. 3 Sept. 2012.

"William Bradford." William Bradford. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Sept. 2012.