Another thing I did not like about the book is the title. Because she did give up, it was a surprising ending to me. I understand why she does give up because she is tired of being on random goose chases all the time and most of the time not even getting answers, but this time it seemed as it she was so close to the final piece of the puzzle. The end definitely did frustrate me because Oedipa just gives up and there is no closure. It is not the style that I typically like, but I don't regret reading it. Overall this book was definitely very different and interesting compared to most other books. This week we finished the crying of lot 49 which made me happy because we can now move on to a different book. Overall, I think it is really silly for people to believe in witches, and especially accuse people of being witches because I don’t understand how someone could even get that idea about a normal human. Even if they did try to keep it a secret, it is hard to believe that every witch to exist could keep this huge secret. If witches really existed, these day they would not be executed so why wouldn’t they tell the world. I understand that in this town it is negatively looked upon being a witch but to this day some people still do believe in witchcraft to the point where they are Wiccan. If you are a witch, you can fly and so why wouldn’t you fly and show everyone that you really are a witch. Witchcraft is something that could be proven, if it where real. I also think it is interesting when a group of people believe in witchcraft. I wonder if the neighboring towns have the same feelings as Salem. I find it very interesting how important religion and witchcraft affects that town and the people of that town. In the beginning of The Crucible, it talks about shows how religious the town is and it shows how religion impacts Salem.

I believe our country has learned from our not so positive past and is moving on to a better future and hopefully incidents like this wouldn’t happen anymore. We have always been a powerful nation, which is horrible to see how many mistakes we made even though we have the resources and intelligence to avoid incidents like that. People had to continuously overcome struggles. It is difficult for me to believe that we, as a country, have had such a tough past like this. They had to work so hard for it and they were forced to do things that are completely unnecessary and some were even inhumane. When we look at it know we see that was obviously wrong and even stupid on out part but it still happened and it was a struggle for African Americans to get their own freedom. For example, I see that this relates to slavery. It always seems that in history people are typically struggling for a positive outcome in life. It is hard to believe that people had to actually struggle and be accused of ridiculous things to finally come to that conclusion.

I really liked the ending of the crucible. Murdering someone is bad enough, but then these people have the consequence of most likely spending their whole lives in jail so why would they risk it? Living in a small block for your whole life basically takes your life away, how could people think that is ever worth it? There are many people in jail for murder and the numbers are not getting smaller. It seems like society never learns because these crimes still occur. Things like this should never happen, and even though when they do the person gets punished. I understand that some people get emotional and want harm brought on another person because of a certain incident, but to actually go through with it just shocks me. It is difficult for me to believe that for any reason one would take another’s life. Death in certain neighborhoods occurs way too frequently, while others take life for granted. I believe that in the real world today, incidents like this happen all the time. There is no way that he could have given the information back to them. Even though he did steal information from them, death should have not been brought upon him. In the reading, I think that it is really unnecessary that Ralfi was killed by the Yakuza.

Marta mielczarek