Six 6 Word Stories

He stared at the picture longingly. 

In bed, she closed her eyes. 

I can't believe that just happened. 

Everyone stood up to show respect. 

Why don't you take a stab?

Furrowing my brow, my thoughts collapsed. 

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

Although I can easily argue both sides to this argument, I would say that I would have to judge John Proctor as a stooge by the end of The Crucible. When Proctor was testifying to the court at the end of Act 4, he was "confessing" that he had worked with the Devil before, even though that was a complete lie. Even as Danforth, the judge of the court, continuously interrogates Proctor to name the others in Salem who he has seen with the Devil, John Proctor refuses to call out any names because he doesn't want to wrongly persecute any more innocent people. He wants to end the witch hunt once and for all, using only his life without having to drag anyone else into the terrible situation based on vengeance that had been spreading around town. At this point in the play, I saw him as acting very noble and honorable and being a character that could be respected, unlike the many others in Salem. A few dialogue lines later, Danforth asked Proctor to sign a document admitting his confession that he was guilty of using witchcraft alongside the Devil, but he refused. John Proctor would not sign the document because his reasoning was that he had already confessed his sins out loud and God had already taken record of his confession, meaning there was no use for him to write it down on paper. When I was reading this part of the play, I saw this as a sort of meaningless argument because the result of this conflict was him and Rebecca Nurse getting hung. If Proctor wanted to "sacrifice" himself to end the witch hunt, signing the document would be exactly what he should be wanting to do. I understand not giving up the names of any other people in Salem because that would be lying and accusing others for practicing witchcraft, who honestly didn't, so John Proctor did the right thing in that case. On the other hand, if John Proctor had just admitted from the very beginning the truth about his affair with Abigail being the reason for her vengeance on Elizabeth and thus, much of the town, then the entire witch hunt situation wouldn't have gotten as out of hand as it did. If he confessed his lechery initially, he would have still been giving himself up, which is what he ended up doing anyways, except revealing the truth from the start would've saved countless other innocent lives. Even though John Proctor's intentions may have been to try to do the right deed, I would consider his choice of actions to result in him being more of a stooge than a hero.

Arrivals...There Goes The Neighborhood

There has been great talk traveling around the tribe about these new white men here to take over our land and people. They have only just landed, but it seems like they had traveled to our living quarters on big wooden machines that float on the water. Many of us believe that they were sent here from the heavens because of their seemingly magical appearance into our lives. Some others don't quite have the same views and are insistent on the fact that these people have set goals on destroying our way of life. I personally don't think I have experienced enough interaction with their people to quite yet make a certain judgment on their true intentions, but I can sense that them entering in on our world, one we've known our entire lives, won't result to be an honest blessing. The moment they stepped onto our land, everyone in our tribe saw these people as strange white beings. They spoke in a language completely foreign to anything we have ever heard before, leading to communication between the two groups only possible through excessive hand gestures and signing. Ones of the tribe that have physically met and spent time with these new people have exposed news that they have attempted to inform us of a ridiculous god by, I believe, the name of Jesus. All of us that caught ear of these words caused us to become somewhat bewildered, while another part of us were intrigued by the idea. Although they have only begun to approach our lifestyle, changes are already quickly influencing the lives of both groups, and I can easily announce that none of us enjoy this abrupt change.

Me

My name is Ellaina Yon and I am a 15 year old student at Whitney Young High school. I graduated from John C. Haines Elementary School. My birthday is December 12, 1998 and I'm actually really fond of my birthday. Most people would say that they just enjoy celebrating their birthday, but I think that the fact that the physical date of my birthday being on 12/12 is pretty neat. My favorite color is purple and has been for as long as I can remember. My favorite artist is Ariana Grande and because I enjoy watching practically any superhero movie, it could easily be said that my favorite movies are produced by Marvel. My favorite sports are volleyball and swimming, and I am currently on the Whitney Young Girls' Swim Team. I absolutely hate running with a passion because I honestly feel like a fish out of water. I love reading either romance novels or fiction genres,especially scientific fiction. I find Greek mythology fascinating and the topic never seems to bore me. If I could choose a location I would like to travel to, I would choose to go to Hawaii or the Maldives because no matter where you go or what you do in those places, being able to surround yourself with the amazing views that they offer will make any vacation perfect.