The Crucible: Pre-reading Blog
Read each of the following quotations. Choose one and write about it- what does it mean, connect it to your life, connect it to the real world, connect it to a current event, connect it to an event from the past. You need to have an intro, body, and conclusion. Really focus on your ideas. Go back through it and make sure you eliminate mistakes before you post it.
- “Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, that he also believes to be
true.” ~Chinese Proverb
- “The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.” ~Ken Kesey
- “Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” ~Alexander Hamilton
- “A man must consider what a rich realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “You see what power is - holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them!” ~Amy Tan
- “Who lies for you will lie against you.” ~Bosnian Proverb
- “When witnesses concoct lies, they often miss the obvious.” ~John Grisham
- “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.” ~Erich Fromm
- “The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.” ~Jim Hightower
- “I liken an affair to the shattering of a Waterford crystal vase. You can glue it back together, but it will never be the same again.” ~John Gottman
Those who lie for you, will lie against you.
ReplyDeleteI picked this because I think there is a lot of truth to it. I like how it is worded and I like where it comes from. This quote means that if someone is willing to lie to defend you, they will lie for themselves also when it is to benefit themselves. If someone is your friend, they dont want you to get in trouble for something, so they lie for you so that you are able to get out of a sticky situation. This also applies to them if they are in a situation where they are about to get in trouble, you better believe that they are going to protect themselves and throw you under the bus to save themselves. They do this with a lie. I believe that if someone is willing to lie for someone else, they will always lie for themselves too.
The truth of this quote, I do not agree with. I don’t think it is right to lie for someone else to save them from getting into trouble for something. I think that if someone makes a bad decision and does something that they really weren’t supposed to do, they should get punished for it when they get caught. That is why our country and nation has rules. They are meant to be followed, and if you choose to break them, that is your own choice. Someone else shouldn’t get involved in your problems, because in the end when they get in trouble for trying to cover you up, they are going to end up telling the truth to get themselves out of it anyway. Tell the truth about a situation in the first place, and make things easier on everyone.
Cassie McIntyre
“The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.” ~Ken Kesey
ReplyDeleteWhat this is talking about is that if you got out to get revenge on people you and that person you are going after my just get hurt in the same time so you better prepare for more then more person getting hurt not just the person that you are then going after. Like if someone does something wrong to you, you should not retaliate back at that person because you will also get hurt in the long run. A connection to the real world is like how the trade centers then fell but we reacted by attacking Iraq and later our debt went below what it was before that point. Like the government shutdown because the people at Washington will not come to an argument on what they will do so they keep people out and later hurt everyone else not in the problem. A connection to the past is like how WWI started because of the assassination and the rest of the countries were then brought in because they were not able to then deal with the problem on their own and needed extra help during the process.
People who then want to get revenge on somethign that happened to them will later hurt themself because they will cause a bigger problem then what they had before that time. They will cause more things to go wrong and may cause themself to get hurt and not only the person they are going after.
Michael Mast
Blog
ReplyDeleteChristie Fry
“You see what power is - holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them!” ~Amy Tan
Has your life ever been bullyed to the point to where you just want to cry? ASK yourself this, have you ever seen bullying and didn’t stop it? People can be very mean. In this quoke im going to explain my experience, experience that I’ve seen with other people, and feeling like your all alone in this situation.
This quoke means alot to me. I’ve seen this meaning, and i’ve heared it before in real life. This qouke is basically saying that someone knows your scared or frightin by someone, so that person or someone will use it against you stright to your face. In my experiences of this I have had people come up to me and bully me right in front of everyone that was around. Talk about being embrassed! People don’t really care about others and thats the probelm lately. I honestly think If that person makes you feel scared or makes you feel like your worthless, than that person feels like they done there job.
I’ve also seen people get bullyed right in front of my eyes, I even heared on the news that people even take their lives because they can’t deal with it anymore. I will be completely honest I didn’t stop the bullying that I had seen. To this day I really reget not sticking for some of those people. No person in this world should be scared of anyway or anything. I know people who didn’t even come to school for weeks because they were bullyed right to their face. In the real world I will admit it is a pretty scary place. People can be very cruel to others. The people who bully obvisouly don’t have a heart when it comes to these kind of things.
My advice to everyone who ever had gotten bullyed is, never take that crap from anyone or anything. People who obvisously have enought time in their life to make someone feel bad, is not worth your time at all. If your really getting bullyed their are people who are here for you. Never let someone win with making you feel scared.
Mary Feldmann
ReplyDeleteThe Quote I chose was, “The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.” by, Ken Kesey.This quote means that if you get revenge on someone, karma will come back to haunt you, and you will get hit twice as hard as you hit.
I feel like this quote connects to my life because a few years ago I was at my sisters house and I was trying to get the cat out of the food pantry. I was having trouble so in my attempt to retrieve the cat, I pulled the cats tail. This really ticked off the cat, so it turned around and bit me! Everytime I tried touching the cat, it tried to bite me. Basically what I’m getting at is that I tried to hurt the cat so it got out of the pantry, and in return, it hurt me even worse than I hurt it. Things like this happen everyday is real life situations. Kind of like when you go into a restaurant. If you are really rude to your waiter or waitress, they could easily spit in your food without you knowing. You bit, so they bit harder. Another way of connecting this poem to real life is by using a current event that really happened. There was a girl that was bullied, and during the bullying, the girl got more and more depressed everyday. Eventually she killed herself because of the bullying that was going on. The people who bullied her got put into jail, and have to live with what they did for the rest of their lives. So, since they bullied her, they got harsh punishment. In terms of the quote, they killed her (“dug her grave”), so now they have to pay the consequences, so they basically “dug their own grave” along with hers.
There are many other examples in the real world that have to do with this quote. I like this quote because it’s so true. If you get revenge you are essentially digging two graves. This quote talks about how bad revenge is, and scares you not to do it. Take things into thought, before you act. Think ahead to what is to come from your actions. Know the consequences before you act.
Bailey Lubben
ReplyDelete"The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.” ~Ken Kesey That was my quote that I chose. This quote means to me that if you get revenge on someone the consequences are going to be even worse because karma will come back to bite you.
When I was little I would always want my sister to play Barbies with me but she never would. One day I set up all the Barbies in her room to make her mad since she wouldn't play with me. She ended up walking into her room with the lights off and stepping on my Barbies. She broke some of them. That goes to show that when I was trying to get back at her karma came and got me back worse.
Other things that could easily happen if you're mean or rude could be you at a store and the cashier will charge you more than you owe because you were rude to them. Another thing that could happen is you bad talking someone and trying to get back at them and then it ends up that you get into trouble at school because of what you've done. This just goes to show that you have to be nice to people and not get revenge because you'll end up getting the worst part in the end.
To tie this into the quote even more is that what I'm saying is that when you dig one grave for the person you're getting back at you're also digging a grave for yourself because you're going to get it worse. It'll come back to haunt you and eventually karma will kick you in the butt.
“I liken an affair to the shattering of a Waterford crystal vase. You can glue it back together, but it will never be the same again.” ~John Gottman
ReplyDeleteAffairs happen all the time around the world everyday. It's not uncommon for an affair to happen. What this quote is saying is that you can have an affair with someone but then go back to the person who you were originally with. But there is a consequence. That relationship is not going to be the same at all. It's almost going to be awkward to be around that person knowing that you cheated on them or they cheated on you. This can connect to the real world easily. I know someone who got heart broken but then they were taken back. That relationship is not going to be the way it was. I don't want to mention names but now when I'm around them it just feels different. I think that they know this too but obviously just don't want to talk about it. Sometimes they do talk about what happened, which isn't necessarily a good thing, and eventually we come to silence. This happens all around the world. So if you have an affair with someone just know that your relationship with the previous person isn't going to be the same.
Derek Salow
“Who lies for you will lie against you.”
ReplyDelete- Bosnian Proverb
This quote is talking about trust. You might trust someone to “have your back” and at some point, they might prove that to you. They might lie for you so you don’t get into a situation, or they might lie for you to get out of the situation. Either way, they are willing to lie for you. That’s a true friend, but how do you know that they aren’t “true friends” with someone else. Maybe their “true friend” is one of your enemies. How do you know they won’t turn their back on you and lie for their other friend? Trusting people is difficult. Gaining trust takes a long time, but losing trust only takes a split second.
Another way you could look at this quote is a way of being selfish. Someone might lie for you in the time of need, but then when it is them against you, they might lie against you in order to keep themselves out of the situation. You never know what people are going to do or say.
Lying for someone or having someone lie for you might seem like a good idea at the time, but lying is like a spiderweb, “The spiderweb of lies.” It just keeps getting bigger and bigger; when you run into them they latch onto you and it is difficult to get them off. You might tell one little lie, but that lie leads to another and another, and finally you find yourself trapped. Somewhere somehow someone is going to find the truth to one of your lies and then there’s a domino effect. Lying is a bad habit, whether you’re lying for yourself or lying for someone else, either way those lies are going to add up and stab you in the back.
People who are willing to lie for you will be willing to lie against you also, so keep that in mind the next time you ask someone or do someone the favor of “don’t tell anyone”. We all know someone is going to lie. If you don’t want people to find something out, don’t tell! Simple. Telling someone not to tell, they say okay, then they go to their group of friends and spread the juicy rumor you just told. Maybe then you’ll learn your lesson, if they lie for you, they’ll lie against you.
Abby Jay
ReplyDeleteI picked the quote “Who lies for you will lie against you.” by Bosnian Proverb. I like this quote for a couple reasons. Not only is it one hundred percent true it can also connect with many people on different levels. The reason why its true is because if you and somebody else are in a bad situation and they lie for you so you don't get into trouble makes them seem like a good friend. In reality, if they lie for you then it means that they won't have a problem lying to your face about something that they did or said behind your back, also they would lie just to protect themselves. This quote also connects with people because at one point its more than likely that a friend has lied for you but its also a possibility that they've lied to you or they lied to protect themselves. People lie for all reasons but the main reason is to protect themselves but if they lie for you it's true that they are protecting you but nothing is stopping them from protecting themselves instead. They'll do anything to make sure they don't get into trouble. An example of this situation would be if you and your friends are together and you did something that you know will get you into trouble and it was your friend's idea and it got you into trouble. As you guys try and lie your way out of it your friends goes behind your back and blames everything on you even though it was their idea. No doubt that they were just protecting themselves.
I like this quote because it has so much truth in a small sentence. Some people are evil and will do anything to make sure they don't get in trouble. Even if that means that they have to be shady and lie against you so you get into the trouble or if the truth comes out and they blame you. A lesson people need to learn is that if they're willing to do something that is going to get them into trouble they need to be honest and tell the truth. They can't be shady and put all the blame onto somebody else or lie and say they had no part in doing anything and to be perfectly honest it was all their fault.
“I liken an affair to the shattering of a Waterford crystal vase. You can glue it back together, but it will never be the same again.” ~John Gottman
ReplyDeleteI chose this quote because it describes what happens in our everyday life. The biggest and best example that everyone can connect to this quote is 9/11. When the towers fell it shattered the world in to sorrow. It broke loved ones hearts that were the victims families. The world and America had gotten a bigger sucker punch in the back and that shattered everything. People in Manhattan, the ones who had grown up to the towers showing directions and as an everyday image were shaken. As years past and clean up crews began cleaning the World Trade Center site or Ground Zero an idea was hatched to rebuild on the site a memorial. Some people hated this others agreed, so before you know it construction begins on the site where the towers once stood. Today the new World Trade Center 1 or Freedom Tower is the new beacon of the town but to the people that where in Manhattan that day the new building will never change the years before the attack. The Island of Manhattan will never be the same no matter how hard the people try to fix their hearts, memories, and even the town. We as well have impacts that we try to fix only to realize that we just put medical ointment on that wound. No matter what we do to fix or to heal ourselves we will always have cracks in our soul from the outcome even if we do try to make it better by apologizing the cracks or scars will still be there
~Zachary Smith
“The man who seeks revenge digs two graves.”
ReplyDeleteThis is true in a lot of fights because everyone has gotten into a fight at some time and we always want to get back at the person. It is human nature to always want to get even with someone. Sometimes we get so focused about getting back that we end up hurting ourselves. Sometimes we seek revenge even if it will be the cause of our death.
Mindy Burkle
"The man who seeks revenge digs two graves." -Ken Kesey. Revenge is an option that is taken too many times. Those that seek it will never truly be satisfied, but will only just have bad karma against them.
ReplyDeleteThis quote is saying that revenge should not be sought. The person who seeks it is putting themself in a position to "go down" with the person they want revenge on. I have tried to seek revenge and most the time am successful, but it doesn't leave me satisfied nor should it, I usually just get in trouble with a parent, teacher, or any other person of power.
The real world is always seeking revenge. Wars are started based on revenge. We got attacked on 9/11 so we invade Afghanistan and Iraq to seek revenge on those who hurt us. The war is not what we all thought it would be though. We are slowly backing out and do not want to continue losing troops. We are putting ourselves in our own grave.
Revenge led us also into World War 2. We were a neutral nation until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. We then sought revenge on the Japanese and their allies the Germans. We won the war and took our revenge, but millions of troops were killed along the way and many innocent lives were taken. You see seeking revenge is more then just getting back at someone or something it can truly be devastating and you may end up digging your own grave.
Steven Huber
Olivia Hill
ReplyDeleteThe quote I decided to right about is. " A man who seeks revenge, digs two graves."
-Ken Kesey
To me this quote has a great message. It has a very strong meaning. You never want to fight fire with fire because some one is bound to get burned. The way that this happens is, some person does one thing to you and the first thing you think about is getting revenge. Well when you are getting revenge you are digging a grave for yourself as well as the other person. And when you get revenge that person is going to come straight back and do it to you again.
My connections to this quote is when I was in middle school, my sisters and I would joke around with each other and they would sometimes get a little violent. But one of the jokes went to far and she broke one of my trophies from little league softball. I was so mad so I went and in full anger I broke her favorite head band. I know it sounds childish but at the time it didn't seem like it. But I ended up getting in trouble for two weeks with no t.v. or phone. And I ended up getting her in trouble as well, but it was only for a week. So in the end I learned my lesson of the second one always gets caught and that when you fight fire with fire you will get burned.
I choose the quote, “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction,” by Erich Fromm. This quote means that you will never be satisfied if you are always greedy. I think this quote has a lot of truth that people should take away from it.
ReplyDeleteI think many people can relate to this quote in today’s society. It seems everyone is looking for something better than what they have. If you have a good job, you are looking for a great job. If you have a 3G cell phone, you want the latest 4G phone. Those are just two examples of being greedy. Greed never runs out, or is a bottomless pit. Therefore, we are never satisfied. Personally, I always want more clothes. It seems like I never have enough and could always use more. When in reality, I’m just being greedy and should be satisfied with the clothes I already have. Like the quote says, being greedy can be exhausting. People never stop thinking about all of the things that they want or wish they had. Instead, why aren’t we grateful for the things we do have? If we were grateful and focused on what we did have, it wouldn’t be exhausting or an endless effort. We would be satisfied with what had.
This quote really does have a deep and truthful meaning. Many of us should take the meaning into consideration and apply it to our own lives. Erich Fromm put the definition of greed into a very good perspective.
Heather Sabers
The quote I chose was, "The man who seeks revenge digs two graves," by Ken Kesey. I agree with this quote and I think it is very meaningful. This quote means that if you try and get revenge on someone, it will just come back to haunt you, and you won't get anything from it other than karma.
ReplyDeleteIn the real world, if someone does something to you, most people will want to get revenge. That's human nature. But if you do to someone what they did to you, how does that make you any better than them? It doesn't. It makes you exactly like them. We have all heard the saying, "Two wrongs don't make a right." This pertains to this quote. It makes sense. Just because something happened to tick you off, that doesn't mean you should do the same. It doesn't make it right, it actually makes it more wrong. In the real world if you are mean to someone, they could easily do something even more mean to you. They will want to get revenge on you.
This can connect to my life because once when I was younger, someone had said something not too offensive about one of my friends. Well my friend wanted to get revenge on this girl because she was hurt by it. She ended up starting a rumor and it spread around the school. The rumor got back to the girl it was about, and she obviously found out who had started it. She went to the principal and my friend got into serious trouble. Like the quote says, she sought revenge and it just came back to bite her in the butt. She should have just left it alone and not let it bother her.
A current event that this could relate to would be the government shutdown. The government couldn't make an agreement, so the government shut down. Personally, I think this is just going to come back and haunt the government. I don't think it was a very good idea.
So the main idea of this quote, in my opinion, would be to not seek revenge. In the end it will only come back to haunt you. Doing back to someone what they did to you doesn't make you any better than they are. It makes you just as low as them. Learn to brush things off and not stoop down to other peoples' levels.
Madison Schaul :
ReplyDeleteThe quote I chose to do was " The man who seeks revenge digs two graves. " - Ken Kesey. This quote makes a lot of sense when you think about it. What it is saying is that a man seeking revenge is just looking for more trouble than there already is. Two wrongs don't make a right. Say someone does something against you or to hurt you , so you fight back. In the moment you think revenge is the only thing to turn to , revenge will solve all your problems , revenge will put you in control. You're wrong. Revenge is not the way to go , revenge will only feed the fire and continue to go back and forth between you and the enemy. I respect this quote and what it is saying because when you connect it to the real world it says a lot. Someone may be out to get you, call you a name , or steal your boyfriend , so what anyone would think to do is fight back. They call you a name and you come back at them with a few words of your own. Someone is trying to steal your boyfriend right before your very own eyes , so you sabotage their life and give them a "taste of their own medicine". How does revenge connect with the "digging of two graves"? Well , it's simple. To take part in the act revenge , something first has to happen to you. Something to triggers you to fight back or in other words , get even. We all have the desire to be the last one to say something in an argument , or the one to throw the last punch. We all want to be the tough guy and finish what someone else has started , to prove a point. For example , revenge is a never ending cycle. It takes someone to finally be the bigger person and just walk away from it. You murder someone , there's one grave dug , their friends, family , and the law come after you , there's your second grave.
The quote I chose was, “Who lies for you will lie against you.” ~Bosnian Proverb. I think this quote speaks the truth. It's saying that those who will cover up for you and act like you did nothing wrong, are also the people who will cover up themselves and throw you under the bus if they are going to get in trouble. A connection to my life is when my siblings come home and they do something to make my dad mad they will automatically blame it on me, but on the flip side, if someone is doing something to me my siblings will always have my back. They lie for me all of the time but when it comes to my dad, we don't need to face the wrath of Steve. Everyone is on their own when it comes to upsetting my dad. Another connection I can relate to is when it comes to my friends. My friends will of course always have my back and when I get into trouble I know I can count on them to help me out of it. Sometimes, that does involve me lying. When the roles are reversed and everyone in my group is getting in trouble, we all will try to protect ourselves and not worry about what the other people might have to deal with as a punishment. We just want to make sure we cover up our own tracks before we jump in and help the other people with theirs. I honestly wish this quote wasn't true. I wish we could all trust one another and be honest, because if we were just honest in the first place we wouldn't have to deal with the consequences that may come when the truth comes out. My mom always tells me that no matter how big the lie may be, the truth will always come out in the end. I will always be their to protect the people I love even if that involves a little white lie, but I just hope that when I need help those people will be there for me too. This quote has a lot of truth to it but hopefully we can change it. If we have everyone telling the truth and never lying maybe our lives would be a little easier. Think about what you are saying before you actually say it.
ReplyDeleteSavannah Salow
“Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.” ~Alexander Hamilton
ReplyDeleteThis is quote reminds me of some people that I know. I believe this quote talks about how if you have nothing to live for in life than you can easily fall into bad habits, such as drugs. Some people just don't strive to be active and do things so they create a low esteem for themselves which then leads them to falling into the wrong habits. This personally makes me think of people that make a living by dealing drugs and other things, because these people don't have anything to live for, so they became addicted to drugs. This can also be an effect of bullying too. Some people just get bullied so much that they don't want to live for anything or even to live, so they fall for the wrong things. For those people out there that have this problem, you need to strive to be the best you can be, strive for something, don't let yourself fall for anything.
Riley Kloser
"A man must consider what rich a realm he abdicates when he becomes a conformist." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
ReplyDeleteRalph Waldo Emerson provides some great insight in this quote. I believe he is attempting to tell his audience that, by doing what everyone else is doing, you are just giving up on a very broad area of potential. For instance, if you aspired to become a famous actor/actress on Broadway, but only practiced during choir/musical and sang along to the radio without really putting much effort into expanding your pitch range, using good breath support, and being able to sing with a vibrato, you cannot expect to make it to the big leagues. As Dave Ramsey said, "If you want to live like no one else, you have to live like no one else." In other words, if you want to rise above your peers and other potential competitors, you have to put in the extra work and effort and training in order to get to the top. Kristin Chenoweth, for example, didn't just show up at a Broadway audition and land a lead role. She studied at University of Oklahoma under the direction of Florence Birdwell. Ms. Birdwell was not easy on her, nor was Kristin easy on herself. Ms. Birdwell at one point humiliated Kristin in front of a group, because she knew that humiliating her student would make her work harder to prove herself. She was right. Kristin went back and worked super hard to achieve approval from her teacher. She learned to put her heart into her song, to make the audience feel what the song was about; she learned to look at the audience and not stare out the window. As you see in relation to Emerson's quote, the "average Joe" probably won't find himself in an enviable position later in life. He'll still be working 9-5 plus overtime, scraping cash every other month or so in order to make ends meet. If Kristin hadn't worked her tail off, practicing day in and day out, she most certainly would not be the respected actress she is today; having starred in a couple different musicals, including being a part of the original Broadway cast of the widely known and loved musical, "Wicked." Don't give up those chances just because you're afraid of being made fun of or sticking out of the crowd. Why blend in when you were born to stand out? It simply doesn't make sense.
ReplyDeleteThe quote that I picked was that of Amy Tan reading “You see what power is - holding someone else's fear in your hand and showing it to them!” This quote means that they can hold your fear against you and because they know your fears that they have power over you and they can control you. If you don’t do what they say then they will make your fear happen. This can be connected to my life, the real world, a current event, and a past event.
This can be connected with my life because when I was younger and my brothers knew that my fear was my dad and getting in trouble with him, so they would make me do their chores. If I told them I didn’t want to or that it was their chores they would threaten to tell dad something I did. So they had power over me to make me do what they wanted me to do. They had my fear in their hands and showed me that they would use it if I didn’t do what they wanted me too.
A real world connection would be cops and tickets. They hold peoples fear of getting a ticket in there hands and if they speed they show it to you. Meaning that if you speed and get pulled over they may or may not give you a ticket but you are scared they will and they have the power to give you a ticket, you can’t tell them no I don’t want a ticket.
A current event is the Government shutting down. They basically said that if the Democrats and Republicans weren’t going to work together they were going to shut down the government and they showed them they do have to power to do that and the fear for them is now coming true of all the people yelling at them and angry. There fear is that the United States and the people aren't happy and thats exactly what happened so now we have put more pressure on them to make a decision.
A past example is Hitler. Hitler had all the power to become a dictator and have everyone follow him because he took everyones fear and he showed it to them and said if you follow me it will never happen. He had everyone so scared and feeling powerless that they all listened to him and followed everything they did.
Now I hope you have a better understanding of what this quote really means and how it can relate to everything that is going on in this world, and everything that has gone on.
Kelsey Gearhart
“I liken an affair to the shattering of a Waterford crystal vase. You can glue it back together, but it will never be the same again.”
ReplyDeleteThis statement is basically saying that in some of cases, if you hurt or break something, and you try to fix it, it won't be the same as before. I believe this goes right in hand with what Salem will be like after the witch trials were brought to an end. Many children including Abigail, got caught dancing in the woods and possibly conjuring the evil spirits which led to the elderly getting suspicious. The girls did not want to get in trouble so they started calling out names and were the cause of the breaking of the crystal vase in terms of Salem. Why I picked this quote, is because I believe that what the girls did will forever scar Salem.
Riley Kloser