Gold+Team

Questions for RITS/Crucible:


 * 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.
 * 2) What do you think is the //major argument and theme// of each play?
 * 3) How are these 2 plays //relevant// to today?
 * 4) What is the significance of the //title// to each of these plays?
 * 5) Choose 1 of the following thesis statements and relate it to both plays:
 * 6) Without responsible actions there can be no order.
 * 7) A community is supposed to be a secure place to live.
 * 8) A woman's power has nothing to do with brute strength.

Timmy Krajewski  Pathos, Logos, and Ethos help the reader understand a character better. In RITS the logos character was Ruth because she uses logic to persuade people of the household to not bother Mama about the check. She also thinks logically and smart when she argues with Walter. The Ethos character is Mama. This is because she divides up the money evenly so that everybody can get something out of the insurance check. The pathos character is Walter because he feels bad for Travis when Travis is in need of 50 cents. Walter understands what its like to be ashamed of your poorness, so Walter gives Travis 50 cents anyway. In "The Crucible" the logos character is John Proctor because of the way John cleverly defends his points in court. John is a smart man. The ethos character is Elizabeth because at the end she explains to John that it is Johns decision on whether or not he should confess. Abigal is the pathos character because she plays on the emotion of the town by pretending to be possesed and with the Devil.  The major arguement of "The Crucible" is that you can't let panic control your choices. The court system had trusted what the "possessed" girls had said, and that led to a mass number of hanging and people in jail. In real life, if you believe everything you are told you could be played for a fool. The book shows that people were buying into this witch idea out of panic. So, you cannot let panic control your decisions, otherwise hysteria can happen. The arguement in RITS is that you should never give up your pride. Walter gains a new sense of pride when he rejects the offer by the people of the white neighborhood. The family has pride from the fact that they are going to move into an all white neighborhood. They dont let anything stop them, they keep their pride up.  These plays are relavent today because their lessons are very modern. In RITS people still discriminate against other people. People dont like to live next to certain people. The sense of pride is also strong today in some families, like it was it RITS. The book portrays an action that families today must face. "The Crucilbe" relates to today by showing the affects of hysteria. For example, 9/11. People went into a panicy state, much like townspeople who were avoiding being accused did. The book teaches us about the downside of an uproar.  The significane of "A Raisin In the Sun" is the dream. In the story Mama has a dream of moving into an all white neighborhood even though she is black. A poem had asked the question if a dream shrivels up like a raisin and dies. Mamas dream "dies" when her husband does. Did her dream shrivel up like a raisin? We dont know. Thats why the book is called "A Raisin in the Sun." The importance of the title "The Crucible" is a trail or test, and the main events in the story is about trails. Throughout the story people are being tried for witchcraft, so the tittle just offers a glimpse of what the play will be about.  Without responsible actions there can be no order. This is strongly shown in "The Crucible" because these girls are runnign around crying witch even though it isnt true. THe kids are acting immature and irresponsible, yet people believe them and there is hysteria in the town. Without responsible actions there can be no order is shown in RITS when Mama gives Walter Lee money to enter his liqour buisness. Walter gives the money to his friend, who just runs away with it. This is very irresponsible of the friend, and it causes Walter to lose his pride, and confidence again. It also causes some members of the family to be angry with Walter for being so irresponsible with his portion of the insurance check. Austin Farr:
 * Choose 1 of the following thesis statements and relate it to both plays:
 * 1) A community is supposed to be a secure place to live

A community is a safe place to live, but only if a sense of unity and mutual trust exists between its individual members. The issue of unity arises in //A Raisin in the Sun// when the almost-universal human trait, fear of the unknown or of difference, makes itself heard once again. Like in most societies during the mid-1900s, racism is abundant inChicago’s outskirts, the main setting of the play. The main characters in the play, the diverse members of the Younger family, must overcome racial prejudice and misfortune to better their lives. The Youngers encounter racial discrimination in the form of an open request to abort the move to one ofChicago’s white neighborhoods and a veiled threat of violence behind it. Countless characters in //The Crucible// find their lives in danger during the play from once trusted members of the community. //The Crucible// outlines several key faults in 1600s Puritan society, but concentrates on the Puritans’ blatant hypocrisy. The Puritans pretended to be a superior and purely pious society when in fact they were just as superstitious, racially prejudiced, and power-hungry as any other 17th century society. In //The Crucible,// many truly benevolent members of society become scapegoats for the foolish antics of Abigail Williams and other children when they are accused of “bewitching” the girls by “sending out their spirits.” Those women in Salem who did not confess to the crime were invariably hanged. A few protagonists attempt to put an end to the ludicrous claims, but the main protagonist, John Proctor, is hanged at the novel’s end. There was neither a sense of unity nor a sense of mutual trust in Salem, Massachusetts. Instead, the people of Salem suffered because of a lust for power and revenge, which was thinly veiled by the people’s crusade to eliminate evil and witchcraft.

Austin Farr: Rhetorical appeals are important in developing argument, and are most often made through the actions and words of characters in a story. In //A Raisin in the Sun//, Mama is the logos and ethos character, and Walter is the pathos character. Mama plays the traditional family role of the mediator in discussions that thinks things through logically. She also has strong beliefs and demands that her family members stick to theirs. Walter is a character who is prone to mood swings and does not think anything through until his decision at the end of the book to refute the white man offering to buy his new house from him. In //The Crucible//, John Proctor is the ethos character, Minister Hale is the logos character, and Abigail Williams is the pathos character. Proctor is against the trials from the start, and has developed a strong sense of right and wrong since he was caught having an affair with Abigail Williams. Minister Hale is a very objective character who at first is swept up in the excitement of the trials, but soon realizes that there is truth in John Proctor’s arguments before the court. Abigail Williams is the pathos character because throughout the play she allows herself to be dominated by her desire for revenge and her desire to replace Goody Proctor as John Proctor’s wife.
 * 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.

Austin Farr:

The major argument of //A Raisin in the Sun// is that different people must find a way to live together in peace. It is developed mainly by the conflict between the Youngers and the white people of their new neighborhood. The major theme is that we must be thankful for what we have and rejoice when we are granted more. It is developed by the inner conflict within Walter and the way that conflict is resolved. The major argument of //The Crucible// is that it is wrong to persecute groups based on circumstantial evidence. This was developed by Abigail Williams’s false accusations and has a historical context in the communist trials in the late 20th century. The major theme is that there must be a sense of mutual trust and unity to have a successful community.
 * What do you think is the //major argument and theme// of each play?

Austin Farr:

//The Crucible// was written in the 1900s as an allegory to the communist trials that took place in America at the time. Today, the same problem still exists as in the play. Oftentimes the word of a higher official is taken over the word of an ordinary person simply because one person is higher in the government’s hierarchy. Even if the official is in the wrong, they may still be taken at their word. Although the problem of racism presented in //A Raisin in the Sun// has largely disappeared, religion still causes a plethora of unwanted, brutal conflicts throughout the world that are the results of slight differences in beliefs. Just because Americans are not permitted to persecute others based on race does not mean that they will not find others to persecute for different reasons. It is human nature.
 * What is the significance of the //title// to each of these plays?

Austin Farr:

> What happens to a dream deferred? > Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun? Or fester like a sore-- And then run? Does it stink like rotten meat? Or crust and sugar over-- like a syrupy sweet? > Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. > Or does it explode? > The “dream deferred” in the play is the Younger family’s hope that they will someday improve their lives for their children. Misfortune strikes this dream throughout the play, and until the end, it seems like their dream will dry up like a raisin in the sun. ‘Crucible’ is defined as a severe, searching test or trial. This not only refers to the events throughout the play pertaining to the witch trials, but also to the communist trials in America at the time this play was written.
 * What is the significance of the //title// to each of these plays? //A Raisin in the Sun// is a line taken out of a Langston Hughes poem: