Mafia

A game that relates to the class activity and witch hunts, is Mafia. Mafia is an accusatory group game in which an imaginary town is being attacked by the mafia. The game consists of two mafia personnel, a cop , a nurse, a narrator and citizens. One important element of the game is that no one knows your identity except the narrator. Basically at the beginning of every round everyone except the narrator closes their eyes. The narrator then wakes the mafia and they select one person to kill. Then the mafia go to sleep. The cop then awakes and selects one person to investigates and goes back to sleep. Next, the nurse is wakes up and chooses one person to save( hopefully the victim of the mafia), and goes back to sleep. Finally, everyone open their eyes. The narrator then announces who is dead, if the cop was investigating the right person, and if the nurse saved the the right person. Everybody( except the narrator) speculates about the identity of the mafia and votes on a person who to send to jail. The person with the most votes go to jail and is out of the game. The game continues until the mafia are put into jail or the cop arrest them.
The game reminded me of how, like in the witch hunts and McCarthy trials, that all that is needed to convict someone is an accusation. This accusation may or may not be backed up by legitimate proof. Also in the game your "enemy" has no identifying features;they look just like you. The final similarity, is that to find the "enemy" you have to ruin innocent peoples lives.
What other real life examples witch hunt concept?
Ashley Hill

December 16

Today was our first official day of the class witch hunt. The rules that we established yesterday were actually implemented for the first time. Herr Lazarow told us that our job is to keep a journal of observations we make about our classmates, keeping track off who is or isn't following the rules. The goal is too be able to provide some evidence for the accusations we will have to make about who we think the witch is and why.

After that, we watched a short excerpt from a movie that was about the McCarthy accusations and the numerous investigations that took place. Most notably, the McCarthy's accusations against the US army, where McCarthy accused the army of protecting certain officials who were members of a Communist spy ring. These hearings were broadcast on live television and deeply impacted public opinion.

We then began discussion on the topic of McCarthyism. We used one of McCarthy's speeches and the movie we just watched as references. One particular point of discussion was how McCarthy continued to ask questions to those who chose to take their 5th amendment right (nothing you say can help to incriminate yourself). This meant he repeatedly questioned people who refused and could no longer answer questions in order to make them seem like they had something to hide. The main idea is that if they were innocent and weren't Communist, then why wouldn't they just give an answer?

We summarized this by ultimately concluding that you don't need any evidence to make the accusation, the accusation is enough by itself. Suspicion was enough to declare someone a Communist and once the claim was made the damage was already done.

- Mike Bass

December 15

Today in English class Herr Lazarow told us about the social experiment that he is conducting on our class. We, the figurative lab rats, are participants in a mock witch hunt. There is one student who is confidentially a witch and we must discover this individual. To do this we are assigned a series of rules that we must follow. They are:
1.We must discuss Penn State football in conversation
2.We must not place water bottles on our desk
3.We must wear mismatched socks
4.We cannot discuss Harry Potter
5.We must wear college/MHS gear
6.We cannot wear green
7.We must use Pencils
8.We must correct grammar errors
9.We must carry one book outside our backpack + an additional (unassigned) reading book
10.We must participate more in all classes
11.We must make direct eye contact
12.We cannot use filler in conversation (e.g. uhh, uhm, like, basically, you know, etc.)
13.We must address our fellows in the German Frau/Herr with the last name
14.The backpack must be placed to the left of the desk.
15.We must wear flair.

We are also to carry a journal detailing any abnormal behavior on the students part, and developing a theory on the identity of the witch. Over the weekend we will be assigned an essay on who we believe is the witch.

Today we were also treated to a picture of the student in Africa who needs $500 to stay in college.

- Alexander Altaras

December 11

In the beginning of class, Mr. Lazarow talked about the community puzzle fundraiser the Interact club is doing to raise enough money to send a man to college (The Catholic University of Ghana) for another semester. Each puzzle piece is $1 and they can be purchased from Mr. Lazarow or any of the interact officers.

We then started talking about the concept of witch hunts and the other various witch hunts, besides Salem, that have occured in the past and are happening at the moment. These examples include:
-McCarthyism: during the 1950s. This involved the hunt of communists, especially in Hollywood (The Hollywood Blacklist). Arthur Miller was acquainted with many of the people whose names appeared on the Hollywood Blacklist and witnessed the ruin a hunt like this can do to someone's life. Both in Hollywood and Washington D.C. It started with McCarthy looking for people within the state department who showed communism sympathies. All of the hunts demonstrate the fact that people will do a lot, and even go to extremes, because of fear.
-French Revolution: worse than McCarthyism and much more similar to Salem, mass slaughter to those who were suspected of committing counter-revolutionary activities.
-Post 9/11 Terror Hunt: predjudices against people from the middle east or those of middle east descent. Due to their appearance, they were and are still, at times, accused of being terrorists. They are much more likely to be pulled out of a security line at an airport and checked more thoroughly.
-Japanese Internment: during WWII. People of Japanese desecent living in America were containded because they may have had Japanese sympathies.
-Kuwaiti Genocide
-Sexual orientation: during the Clinton years, accusation of homosexuality led to people being shunned or pushed to the outside

Genocides, including the Cambodian Genocide, Rwandan Genocide, and Nazi Germany, as well as the Great Purge, are considered to be racial cleansings and not really witch hunts.

Our homework was to read Joe McCarthy's speech.
We were also asked to make a list of 10 rules of what it means to be a part of this society. I wasn't really clear on this assignment so if someone could explain it better than I did, it would be appreciated.

-Julie S.

December 9

Today in class we finished talking about Bradstreet's poem about her grandchild. In the second stanza it talks about nature but Bradstreet means that people expect death when someone or something is old but not when someone or something in new and young. But everything is decided by God and if it is God's will for someone to die young than people have to be ok with it. She also comes to a realization that the world doesn't follow logic or reason all the time. 

Next we talked about the poem she wrote about her husband. Some people said this poem surprised them because when you think of Puritans you don't think of them being in love with their husbands or wives. This may be because marriages were some what arranged back then or because the Puritans were such strict and severe people. We also discussed if this poem talked about God or Puritan values enough. Since Bradstreet talks about loving her husband more than worldly things I think that the Puritans values are shown. And at the end she also says that they will hopefully be together again, meaning in Heaven. 

And at the end of class we began to talk about the Crucible. We said that the characters are easy to relate to. We also discussed how Miller is writing about a story taking place in the 1650s but that the story was actually written in the 1950s. Since the book is written after the the time period that it occurs in it's natural for Miller to make some deviations from history. This story is supposed to teach the readers something. Something about the witch hunts but also about unfair persecution. This concept of witch hunt begins with fears and prejudices. The puritans were fearing and waiting for the enemy (Native Americans) outside, but when it didn't come they had to find something inside to blame. Some might also say that these people were not witches at all but were just infected by a disease. The sanitation in the Puritan towns was little to be desired. This may have caused many people to become delirious or as the witch hunters called it, possessed. 

--Callie

December 8

The discussion in class was based around more of Anne Bradstreet's poetry. In her Prologue, Bradstreet continues to state her concurrence with the inferiority expected from a women of the time, describing that "Men have precedency," yet she urges others not to deny that women have skill. She also asks to be recognized for what she does, by being rewarded with practical items, thyme and parsley.

In "Verses upon the Burning of our House, July 18th, 1666," Bradstreet goes on somewhat of a rollercoaster, from describing her desire for fire, to accepting that this is the way it is, to mourning over what she has lost, to saying that her "hope and treasure lies above." The poem is a constant battle between the Intellectual and the Emotional which concludes with the ideas of hope and faith.

We also started to discuss "In Memory of My Dear Granchild Elizabeth Bradstreet, Who Deceased August, 1665, Being a Year and a Half Old;" that her content with such a child was too much so, perhaps implying that her contentment had moved her focus away from God.

Please mention anything I missed.

-Michael Q

Thursday, December 4th

On this delightful thursday 5/6 english session we began the class with an ending - an ending to the vocabulary review. We shared our thoughts about Latin and Yiddish phrases. It turns out, many words from the Jewish language have migrated into our english tounge for all to benefit. Following the vocab, gears were shifted - shifted, to Anne Bradstreet.
The topic of Anne Bradstreet brings up the topic of women in Puritan society - women, who were seen as corruptable. She was a diamond in the rough, a needle in the haystack of male writers.
On first glance, Anne Bradstreet is seen as a personable and emotional writer. Upon further examination, Bradstreet reveals elements of the academia in her poems.
Right away, Bradstreet shows a seeming disdain for herself and her writing skills in her prologue. This brought up the question as to whether Bradstreet was truely humble, or if she was faking it for effect (possibly to appeal to her male authors, who would have been more comfortable with a more humble female writer). When Bradstreet referenced Calliope, it became evident she was more than just a humble housewife scribling nice words in her spare time.
Bradstreet was educated, arguably just as much so as her readers.
In her paraphrase of Aeniad (sp?) she shows that the plight of the Trojans is like to the plight of the Puritans; they are the inheritors of Troy. In a further act of humility, she states she will not sully the works of the great writers who had previously wrote about such escapades.
Our discussion of Bradstreet will pick up on monday, though it is certain she is an academic and layered writer who brings more to the table than that which meets the eye.

December 2

Today in class, we spent the period talking about the poem "Upon a Wasp Chilled With Cold" by Edward Taylor. Mr. Lazarow told us that this was the most complicated Edward Taylor poem that he had given us. In the beginning of the poem, the man finds the wasp on a window sill and it is chilled with cold (much like the title tells us). Then he takes the wasp and puts it into the sunlight and the wasp then goes back to its normal life. Mr. Lazarow also reminded us that we should not translate meanings of things in puritan literature from one piece to the next. So if the wasp meant something in a previous poem, it's not the same thing in this one. Also this poem presents the fact that man is to wasp as god is to man. Throughout the course of the poem Taylor repeats the phrase "as if" to make many similes throughout the entirety of the poem. This poem was supposed to teach those who read it that humans are not as great as we think we are.

The most important thing the wasp does in the story is stretch its "legs" up to the sun which resembles a human praying to god. This action shows the reader that the wasp has found god. The transition from the first to the second stanza in the poem goes from the story of the wasp to the reflection. Or the wasp offering his prayer to the sun to Taylor praying to god. The wasp is the thing to learn and the thing to teach us. The main idea of this poem was to show us that there are lessons to be learned in all things.

We concluded the class period by talking a bit about Anne Bradstreet and discussing how her poems are much more emotionally involved than those of Taylor.

-Joe M

December 1

Today in class we finished up talking about "Meditation Six". Taylor says that human souls are God's treasures. He also says that people cannot see the clarity of their own soul, and that this is why they have God. He says that God is the spectacles that allow him to see the clarity of his own soul. Taylor also compares his soul being plate to his soul being gilded. He doesn't want his soul to be gilded because that would mean it wasn't fully gold, only covered in gold. Instead, he wants his soul to be plate, meaning gold all the way through. We also identified the metaphysical conceit to be "Am I thy gold?". This makes the reader go back and think about what money has to do with God and ones soul.

Next we talked about "Upon a Spider Catching a Fly". This poem talks about a spider eating a fly and a wasp. The fly is eaten quickly but the spider lets the wasp calm down before it's eaten. Both the fly and the wasp have the same fate, death. This represents the Puritan belief that everyone is doomed and no one can escape from sin. Humans are sinful by nature and will eventually fall into temptation and sin (the web). At the end of the poem Taylor describes a Nightingaile being kept safe in a cage. At first this may sound like the opposite of Heaven. Heaven isn't a cage (being trapped) but rather being free. However, Taylor says that the cage acts as protection from sin. One is imprisoned by God but kept safe from sin.

Hopefully I didn't miss anything, but please comment if I did.
--Callie