Week 5 - Anna, Toi, Jisun (Sunny), Patrick

How J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur express the responsibility of the individual in the Letters from an American Farmer and where we can find it? How about in the Thomas Jefferson's works?

Week 3: Charlie, Kevin, Steve, Justin

Explain the significance of Reverend Hale's actions at the end of Act IV when he came back to encourage the accused to lie and save their lives. What does his change of stance reveal about their theocratic system and how does it play in with the theme of power throughout the story?

Week 2: Heath, Hannah, Cody, and Walton

In what ways does The Crucible and its parallelism to McCarthyism, show how an individual's character is revealed in a time of crisis?

Week 2: Daniela, Roxanne, Brian

In that era, a young girl's opinion and accusations in Salem would normally not have mattered much to the community. Why is it that the Salem community believes the accusations that the young girls are making?

Week 1: Roxanne, Daniela, Brian

How is Williams and Cabeza de Vaca’s religion affected by their experiences of being held captive? Would religion have had the same role in both writings if they had not been? Why or why not?

Discussion Question Week 2 Kevin, Charlie, Steve, and Justin

Based solely on the text of the Crucible, why do you think Arthur Miller decided to use John Proctor as his protagonist and not Francis Nurse or Giles Corey?

Anna, Toi, Sunny, Patrick

How does Miller's use of religion in The Crucible compare to earlier works of American literature, such as Cabeza de Vaca?

Week 2: Arely, Gerardo, Brady, and Howard

Could the so call witchcraft practices be the ignorance of a community who is unknown or exposed to different religions besides the dominant protestant church? Or could the theocracy of Salem use to their benefit the accusations of witchcraft in order to diminish non-Christians and “problematic” citizens?

Week 1: Arely, Gerardo, Brady, and Howard

It's interesting to note that the male authors have a generally modest approach to how they perceive themselves in their work. On the other hand, the female writers seem to praise themselves more often, such as references to themselves as muses. Could the reason for this be that the women are attempting to empower their gender by first empowering themselves in the eyes of the general public? Would being modest in their work have any affect to promoting the female gender?

or.. Would being modest in their work have a counter-productive affect to their movement?

Week 1: Toi, Anna, Patrick, and Sunny

With cultural background in mind and gender, how does the influence of religion differ from the poetry written by the corresponding women authors compared to the narratives written by Bradford and Williams?

Week 1: Sam, Josh, Jonathan and Logan

We have an idea of who the intended audience was for Bradford's
writing, but what was the purpose of his writing? How would the
purpose change for each possible audience, or would it change?

Discussion Question Week 1 Kevin, Charlie, Steve, and Justin

How do Cabeza de Vaca and Bradford make use of religion in their respective texts?