1. participate-to take part. pillars of salt does a thorough job of showing the individual participants in public executions and punishment. one, or maybe just me, would at first think the only true participant in an execution would be the person being executed as he or she takes the dominate role. however, this text goes to show that everyone, down to the plebian towns- people play an imperative role in a criminal’s execution. “but the people came not just to watch, they came to participate. it was not only the idle and the curious who gathered to witness a…spectacle; people from a variety of levels and areas assembled to experience a carefully staged public ritual.” the commoners participated as viewers, as supporters of a man’s hanging, as judges of his crime; most importantly, they were innocent participants. those who had not participated in sinful, condmening acts. aside from the commoners, the clergy participated. Their participation was in the role as savior; the main character responsible, via their moving sermons and speeches pertaining to the accused, for saving a man’s soul and the soul’s of onlookers and witnesses. “in order to reinforce the social order, in order to reaffirm the values that the capital crime had threatened, minsters and magistrates collaborated in presenting Morgan before as many people as possible, and through their direction the ritual of death dramatized the condemned man’s struggles to escape a firey hell.”
2. death– the termination of life takes on a completely different meaning in Pillars of Salt. It was not just the act of passing away, but a form of entertainment. in terms of Morgan’s and Rodger’s executions, the said purpose of the public affair was to warn others of the outcome of wrong doing ON YOUR SOUL. however, perhaps the intention of the crowd was to witness something never before experienced. in fact, the text even states, “fully aware of the popular fascination with death. ” the onlookers are also actually referred to as an “audience.”
3. conversion– ultimately a change, i found the contrasting usage of the term, in comparison to that of Foucalt, very interesting. in this text, the interest in conversion was not placed on injust to just, but rather on sinner to non-sinner, wretched to holy. a criminal’s conversion is looked upon in this instance from a much more religious standpoint. “ministers became in- creasingly involved with arousing a more personal, evangelical form of piety.” and “criminal characterization similarly reflected this evangelical fervor, and narrative emphasis shifted from the individual’s desperate distress to his or her confident faith in Christ’s merciful love.”