1. Lies, Rumors, and Accusations

in 1692, hysteria raged in Salem, vengeance is publicly expressed, everything is exaggerated, rumors and lies spreading like a wildfire,  Mrs.Putnam for example, who is highly sensitive and catatonic, accused Rebecca Nurse, she accused Rebecca Nurse due to her jealousy and resentment against her, this is similar to the Jewish persecutions during the 1350s, during this period, the outbreak of the black death killed millions of people, numerous Europeans whose family members were sick quickly pointed their fingers to a Jewish community, with few little knowledge about diseases, they firmly believed it was the Jewish people who decided to spread diseases with poisoning wells. This event is very similar to Ann Putnam in The Crucible because both sides of people lost their rational and logical thinking when a tragical or emergency event happens to them. In addition, Ann Putnam has built up hate against Rebecca already, and the Europeans have built up hate against the Jewish people due to their immunity of the black death, therefore, accusing these victims become a way of expressing vengeance and jealousy publicly.

(That’s how fast it spreads!)

via GIPHY

2. Religion

Religion plays an important role in both events, it had both negative and positive impacts on these two events. In both events, religion became a crucial role as emotional support for people who are involved with the situation, however, both events show us that religion will only support you mentally and empowers you as an individual, however, it can never change a fact, for example, in The Crucible, one of the most saintly and religious characters, Rebecca Nurse, was put to death for conducting witchcraft, ironically it was her belief that told her to not confess, which results in death penalty, a one side, it may be a good thing maintain the mentality to not admit someone else’s crime, but on the other side, this mentality killed her, so whether her belief has made a good impact or negative impact, is debatable. During the 1350s, after the massacre of the Jewish population, young Jewish children were forced to become Christian, in fact, the conflict between the Jewish community and the European community was religion, all of a sudden, religion became something that creates fear and chaos.

Citation:

1. Jedwab, Remi, et al. “Negative Shocks and Mass Persecutions: Evidence from the Black Death.” Institute for International Economic Policy, https://www2.gwu.edu/~iiep/assets/docs/papers/2017WP/JedwabIIEPWP2017-4.pdf.
2. Miller, Arthur. The Crucible. New York, Penguin Group, 2003.
3. The Trial of George Jacobs Sr. for Witchcraft, August 5, 1692, Matteson, Tompkins Harrison. (Painting citation)

Unit Summary

Throughout this unit, we have learned to become a better speaker, reader, writer, and listener. The unit was divided into 4 parts, each part aims to improve one of my skills.

• The first part is improving speaking skills, in class, we learned techniques for communication through analyzing TedTalks, then we would try to apply these techniques into speech practice, by practicing the techniques, two things I learned that was the most beneficial from this part was the importance of breathing and power pose, breathing exercises improved my vocal strength. Power pose, on the other hand, developed my inner strength, before the actual speech, I tried to perform a short power pose and stand in front of the podium, to help relieve my nervousness.
• The second part of this unit is reading, I was slowly starting to understand how to analyze logos, ethos, and pathos of an article, which gradually makes me a better reader who has improved critical thinking skill, the analysis of essays and articles also helped me in writing.
• The third part of this unit was writing, we had been writing persuasive freewrite, TIEAs to help improve my writing skill, we practiced on writing in Ethos, Logos, and Pathos, the three most important variables for a good persuasive written speech. I believe I improved my “pathos” writing skill the most throughout this unit, from the annotation, it taught me that “audience make a decision based on emotion”, therefore, I would now think what’s thought-provoking, what’s emotionally appealing from an audience’s perspective while writing a speech.
• The last part of this unit was Listening, we had been watching TedTalks throughout this unit, as a listener, my job was to analyze how the speaker engages with me, the audience, and apply the techniques into my own speech. I learned how an audience is engaged and not engaged during a speech, I also learned to give constructive feedbacks/analysis about the speech. 
• One thing really important I learned from this summative is that I have to read the rubric! I forgot my introduction in the formative speech, I told myself to not forget, and yet I still forgot to introduce my topic in the summative assessment, now I probably won’t forget ever again haha. Next time read the rubric before doing any assignment. 

 

Speech (Script & Outline)

Speech (Video)

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Reflection