Author Archives: mtt3e

Levi Ames

Recompense– Ames repays people he steals from with other stolen goods.  He does not elaborate on why he chooses to recompense certain people for their losses.  Maybe he only repays people who know he stole from him so they won’t … Continue reading

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Syllavan

Submission– Owen’s submission to authority is complicated.  Although Owen seems rebellious early in life, seeing his parents as tyrannical, he later becomes a model citizen and even takes “great delight in discipline” in the army.  Despite his outward submission, he … Continue reading

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My Very Late Post on Patience Boston

Convictions– Although “convictions” usually suggests an absolute and unwavering value, for Patience it seems to mean a value she wishes she were convinced of.  She talks about abandoning her “convictions” about God and returning to drinking and sin.  Like Esther … Continue reading

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william fly

Pariah- outcast, outside of social system   Fly operates outside of the rules of society, but the preacher writing this sermon wishes to make him a pariah (with all its negative connotations.)  He demonizes him throughout the narrative.  His refusal … Continue reading

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Esther

Pollution- introduction of harmful/negative substances into the environment   Esther says “I fell in the horrible Pit (as before) viz. carnal Pollution with the Negro man belonging to that house.”  This implies that any children born of a negro man … Continue reading

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Mather

Propoganda– Mather’s narrative reads like religious propaganda.  The dying speeches of the repentant sound very crafted, calculated, and unauthentic.  It does not seem realistic for a servant to blame his misery after murdering his master on his earlier disobedience to … Continue reading

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Ch. 2 Foucault

Ambiguity: uncertainty, lack of absolute proof   “Full proof” could lead to any sentence, but in the 17th century, proof would have been hard to obtain. Their definition of full proof, however, was ambiguous: the testimony of 2 irreproachable witnesses … Continue reading

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Pillars of Salt

Infallible: immune from error because of ties to the church or God   According to the introduction to Pillars of Salt, the Christian state was comfortable playing the role of God and revoking life. Those responsible for Morgan’s death described … Continue reading

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Foucault

Cruelty:  causing unnecessary and especially painful suffering.   This chapter suggests that the notion of cruelty has changed from the 1700s to now, and even from the 1700s to the 1800s.  It opens with a strikingly grotesque narrative from an … Continue reading

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Monster

Monster: A creature whose identity is created (or distorted) by the imagination or legend.   The behavior of gang members is like a legend based on distant stories that becomes real to the people working in the prison system. Monster … Continue reading

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