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Questions for RITS/Crucible

3. These plays relate in today's world in subtle ways. In "The Crucible", the Salem witch hunt was used as a sort of parallel to the communist hunt that was going on in that decade. Today, we have mostly adopted the creed, "Love thy Neighbor", but in some pockets of our country and our culture, we still treat people who are different than us with fear. In "Rasin In The Sun", showed a black family's struggle to achieve their dreams. Even today, there are many problems with how America treats its minorieties.

By Lee Fairweather.

5. 2: In both The "Crucible" and "Rasin in the sun", it is proved that the community in those cases is not a secure place to live. In "The Crucible", people accuse neighbors of witchcraft in order to ease suspicion upon themselves. In "Rasin in the Sun" the youngers are mistreated because of their color.

By Lee Fairweather

4. "Rasin in the Sun"'s name choice is easy to figure out. Before the birth of the play, the title was used in one of black poet Langston Hughes poems, "A Rasin in the Sun". The poem talked about broken dreams, such as in, "What happens to a dream deffered? Does it dry up like a rasin in the sun?" " The Crucible"'s title is a little harder to figure out. One of the definitons of the word, "crucible" is: " a severe, searching test or trial." In my opinion, the court scene in "The Crucible" is one of the high points of the play, and in this case, " a severe, searching test or trial" could certanily be used to describe the events in the court scene, as well as most parts of the play.

By Lee Fairweather

1.In "The Crucible", I would say that Reverend Hale is the logos, as his relatively fair approach to justice finds him at odds with the court's opinion. John Proctor is ethos; he refuses to confess to imaginary sins, even though he will hang for it, because according to his own moral code, "God damns liars." Reverend Parris represents pathos; he constantly uses all sorts of "what-ifs" and constantly points out others failings in order to keep suspicion away from himself. He is also extremly paranoid. In "Rasin in the Sun", Walter represents pathos, Mama represents ethos, and Walter's wife represents logos. Walter constantly tells of his dreams to others, and even goes as far as acting like a black stereotype to show his pain over his crushed dream when he is cheated out of his savings. Mama always makes sure none of her children takes her god's name in vain, and becomes very angry when she finds out that one of her children does not believe in god. Walter's wife is always very practical, and when Walter tells her how he wished he could have his dream, she makes a remark about how she wished she lived in Buckingham Palace.

By Lee Fairweather

2. The main theme for "The Crucible" is that you should never be so quick to judge others or you might be judged yourself. The main argument is that the "McCarthy Hearings" as they were commonly called, in the 1950's, were simalar in logic and practice to the infamous Salem Witch trials. In "Rasin in the Sun" the theme is that you should always hold onto your dreams, even if they are unattainable. The main argument is that even though slavery had long been ended, black people were still suffering from the creul effects of racisim. By Lee Fairweather

#1. Brooksley Baran- In the "Raisin in the Sun" The character's identities are relatively clear. Mama and Ruth are more of the ethos and logos character because of the fact that they have their head's in the correct position to make logical decisions. Walter on the other hands, is a pathos character because of his strong emotional feelings toward following his dreams, not fully considering the ethical or logistic side of it. In the "Crucible" John Proctor is the ethos character. This is proven through his guilt of his affair with Abigail, without ethics and morals, he wouldn't have felt bad about it. As for the pathos character, i believe thats shown in Elizabeth Proctor. I think this because despite her hard exterior, her emotion and jealousy shows through when she quickly fires Abigail because of the affair.

#2. Brooksley Baran- The major argument in "Raisin in the Sun" is one of many books written on this topic, the segregation of blacks and whites needs to be rid of. Thankfully, it clearly has been, but the book is a good example of how life was for people before the civil rights movement. The theme in this story is to set reachable goals. Clearly Walter had too much invested in what he'd dreamed of doing, causing his family to lose out on a lot of money. If he had net set set a high goal, he and his family wouldn't have fallen so hard from his loss of money they barley had to begin with. In the "Crucible" the argument would be against lack of physical evidence. The people of salem were prosecuting and sentencing people to death based off evidence that wasn't physical. All the evidence was just people assuming and making up theories. The theme would be that people are innocent until proven guilty. The accused witches should have had a trial with hard evidence presented against them.

#3. Brooksley Baran- "Raisin in the Sun" is easily relevant to today based upon the fact that their family was struggling money wise. America's economy right now is anything but healthy, therefore, many people are also struggling with money now. The "Crucible" is relatable to today because it shows the lack of stability throughout their small town, similar to the US now. Everybody's accusing people of things, keeping secrets, having affairs, and disregarded respect for the people around them, quick to place the blame on anybody but themselves.

#4. Brooksley Baran- The "Raisin in the Sun" title fits this play because of the analogy that its making. A raisin in the sun drys and shrivels up. This represents the family, walter, and hi dream throughout the play. His dream of being a part of the Liquor store seemed to be a perfect solution to him in the beginning of story yet over time that dream, like the raisin, dried and shriveled up, failing in the end.

#5-2 Brooksley Baran- A community is supposed to be a safe place to live. That is not the case in either of these plays. In "Raisin in the Sun" the family lived in a unsafe neighborhood, looking to get out. Yet even after they find a suitable place to live, their not welcome because of the fact that they're black. Knowing there not welcome, living as the only black family in a white neighborhood could be dangerous, proving the community is not safe. In the "Crucible," their community of Salem isn't safe because of how quickly the citizens turn their bad on others, placing the blame on everyone else besides them. This isn't a safe community to live in if at any moment you could be accused of something bad enough to get you hanged.

1. It can be said that playwrights and authors use //rhetorical appeals (logos, pathos and ethos)// as the character development. For instance: In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus is the logos, Jem is the ethos, and Scout is the pathos. Discuss characters from both plays in these terms. In, "A Raisin In the Sun," I think that Ruth is the logos character. She always wants best for the family and uses her logic to help make decisions. Next, I also think that Ruth could be the Ethos character because she has a fair mind. Lastly, I think that Walter is the pathos character because whenever he speaks, he speaks with a lot of emotion and meaning. In,"The Crucible, Reverend Hale is deffinetly the logos character because he wants justice in the community. The ethos character is John Procter because he refuses to confess for his sins and the pathos character is deffinetly Elizabeth because she shows a lot of jealousy toward John.

By:Jonathan Hoyle

2. In, A Raisin In The Sun", the main argument is that when times are hard it is hard for people to get along. For example, in the story, the family was having trouble agreeing on things because life was hard to begin with. This relates to the theme of the play which is, families and friends need to help eachother in hard times instead of going against eachother. I think this relates a lot to the story because nothing worke when they were dissagreeing but at the end they eventually all came together. Next, I think that the argument in "The Crusible" is that things can be very unfair with the law and certain people pay that are not responsible. The theme of this play was that assumptions shouldnt be drawn until all of the facts are taken into account. I think this is a good theme for this play because toward the end, the lawers were having trouble knowing who to convict and who to not.

By:Jonathan Hoyle

3. "The Crusible" relates to todays society issues because of the way the towns people live and get along. In the story, lots of things are going on that causes people to blame other people and lie. Often in todays society, people also must blame other people for something they did in order to get out of it. On the other hand, the play, "A Raisin In the Sun" relates to todays issues with lack of money. Like in the story, money and happiness is very hard to find with the bad economy. There are many families having trouble just like the one in this play in todays society.

By:Jonathan Hoyle

4. The title, "The Crucible, is very significant to the events in the story. In the story many people are put on trial for the crime of witchcraft. Long testings or trials are known as Crucibles. Also, the title, "A Raisin In the Sun" is significant to the events in the play. The play takes place in a small house on the South side of Chicago. In the house, there is a small window where only a little bit of light is shown through. I think that the title and the window signify the light that the family has to find in order to be successful with their lives.

By:Jonathan Hoyle

5. 2. This statement can relate to both plays in many ways. Throughout the plays, many things happen that probably make the characters feel very insecure. For example in "The Crusible," people are acused of witchcraft and in "A Raisin In the Sun," black people are attemped to be forced out of a community that they want to live in. In both of these cases, people in the community probably felt very uncomfortable no wonder which side they were on.

By: Jonathan Hoyle 