I feel like sometimes, no matter who we try to be, a star athlete or a philanthropist, a leader or invisible, we can't help but make assumptions and judge people. We judge them based on the small part of them we see and take that as who they truly are. But in The Crucible where does this get the characters? Does it advance Mr. Putnam in his society to make assumptions, does it make him a better person? Does it make us any better to judge our peers based on their actions? I am as guilty of judging people as anyone, but I really don't know where it gets us. Maybe we just want to feel superior, maybe we don't want to be judge ourselves so we try and draw people's attention to others like Mr. Putnam, or maybe we just like putting people into categories, to keep our lives organized. Maybe its a smattering of all of those, I don't know. But what I do know is that when we spread our judgements, we could be starting our own witch hunts.
Sunday, November 7, 2010
What do we really see
The Crucible is all about hysteria and false accusations, rumors and perception. I feel like it is a lot like high school. We all are guilty of gossiping, even unintentionally. We all make assumptions about people by how they dress and act in the hallways. We judge them on what rumors we hear about them from the past weekend at that one crazy party or who they're friends with. But are we all Mr. Putnam's at heart?
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This insight definitely has a lot of truth to it. There is certainly a lot of judgement going on in a high school situation. However, no more so than in a corporate situation or even within a family, it is just more publicized. I think in part it is human nature to judge. Instead of getting to know someone, it is easier to categorize them by what you've heard about them. It's sad, really. If people learn to fight these judgements in high school, they could learn to live much more fulfilling and rich life as adults, judgement-free.
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