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Free Essays on The Crucible: Human Nature

The Crucible – Human Nature

Human nature was fully to blame for the disaster which took place in Salem in 1692. Human nature is what your character is made of in trying situations, and in 1692 scientific knowledge was extremely poor by today’s standards and so all reoccurring problems were blamed on an evil force, whether it be the devil or witches or anything the imagination could conjure, hence human nature was being tested regularly. The decisions people made were critical to the disaster’s progression, in today’s scene in would have been dismissed within minutes, but the paranoia floating around in the town kept the ball rolling. People were so terrified of the thought of evil that any suggestion of it would create a preordained judgement in the mind of anyone, especially those who made judgement of the accused. To get to the supposed truth, a rather unjust system was employed. You either confessed to the crime or you were hanged. Now in those days this was not seen as a terrible injustice because of the hysteria the thought of evil spirits caused. Human nature was to destroy anything thought possessed or evil, to believe the accuser and not the accused, to be judged guilty unless heavy evidence proved you innocent.

In this story there is no real crime. A few children fool around with something they know is wrong, they get caught, but are not brave enough to take the punishment, and so shovel the blame. Now this is where human nature is responsible. The adults of the town believe these children and set about punishing the accused, namely death. Now had these people had the character to think for themselves, to judge the situation for the evidence alone, nothing would have been worth writing about in Salem, 1692. Instead these people were weak, they thought only for themselves, and as a result, a tragedy that will go down in history occurred. Even when they are about to be hanged, they have been found guilty of a crime that has not been committed, the people are still squabbling over their own situations, they are all thinking about how they will benefit from the situation.

Friendship in Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Huckleberry Finn – Friendship

Mark Twain illustrates the theme of friendship through the characters Huck and Jim. Their friendship was created when Huck and Jim were put together due to common circumstances that take place throughout the novel. The friendship that was formed was constantly undergoing changes. Towards the end of the book the relationship that once existed as a simple friendship grew in to a father and son relationship. Huck and Jim were tools that Twain used to show just how the theme of friendship developed.

Huck and Jim were both running away from society for one reason or another. Huck was running in order to escape from the constraints of society and conformity, while Jim was trying to keep from being sold to another owner. At the time of their escape it was easy and convenient for the two of them to be together. “The nigger run off the very night Huck Finn was killed”…This quote explains what the two did in order to get away from society. The pair decided the best way was to run away from it all.

Huck and Jim’s friendship undergoes many twists and turns along with the trip the two take down the Mississippi River. With each adventure their friendship grew stronger and deeper from their encounter with the Duke and the King to the riverboat scene the friendship is built one building block at a time. Throughout the novel Jim makes references to the kindness that Huck shows him, but Huck seems oblivious to their new found friendship. “Dah you goes, de ole true Huck; de on’y white genlman”…(pg. 89) When Jim made this statement Huck realized just how much this friendship meant to Jim.

The friendship between Huck and Jim is constantly changing with the chain of events. The two characters encountered many things while floating along with the pace of the Mississippi, such as making decisions. In the novel Huck was forced to make the decision whether or not he would turn Jim in because it would be the, “right thing” to do because Jim was a run-away slave. It was a close place. I took…up [the letter I’d written to Miss Watson], and held it in my hand.

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