The Crucible: Injustice

Thomas Goldstein was living in a garage in Long Beach, California, and attending college when a man was shot dead on the street near where he lived. Tom was a Vietnam War Veteran yet after a short while the police came after him. In 1980 Tom was charged with murder and sentenced to 27 years to life in prison. A man named Edward Fink who worked in the jail house where Tom was first brought to testified in court that Tom had confessed to him that he had committed the murder. Fink was the key witness at Tom's trial as well as another trial involving a man named Tommy Thompson. As a result of Fink's testimony Tommy was executed. There was a last minute debate as to whether or not Tommy was really guilty but the execution was not stopped in time to review the case any further. When Goldstein heard about this other case he called his attorney, Sean Kennedy from prison and had him look into Fink's records. They contacted Fink and he later recanted his earlier opinion. In 2004 Fink told the court that he has changed his mind and no longer believes that Goldstein was ever involved in the murder he was charged with. Tom was released immediately.

Thomas Goldstein was falsely accused due to a witnesses error. This reminds me of the crucible because all of the cases in the book were based solely on the opinions of witnesses. In my opinion there was never enough evidence in this case or any of the cases in the book to make any convictions. It is our right as Americans that we are innocent until proven guilty. The problem that has occurred in cases like these is that the defendants were proven guilty with out enough evidence. Witnesses have an extremely heavy impact on juries and are often inaccurate. The other problem that the defendants faced was that they did not have proper representation. If Tom had had a better defense attorney Tommy's case may have been discussed in the first trial and and more proof of Tom's innocences would have been brought up. In the crucible none of the defendants are even represented. They are brought to the judge and convicted on the account that their neighbor does not like something about them.

Why Read The Crucible?

Before the play even begins John Proctor makes a horrible mistake that haunts him throughout the story. Proctor committed adultery when he had sex with Abigail Williams. Because of his decision he would later suffer as a consequence. When Abigail accuses Proctor's wife Elizabeth of being a witch he is forced to explain to the court and his wife what had happened between the two of them.

At the end of the summer i went to Vancouver B.C. with my friend David for a week. At the beginning of the trip i broke his digital camera because i was being careless with it at a beach and it got sand inside of it. Just before i left Olympia i bought a camera that i had been working for all summer. The first day that we filmed with it(skateboarding) David Broke my camera's external fisheye(wide angle) lens. Because i was not thinking about the possibility of breaking his camera by dropping it in sand i now have to pay for my broken lens. The mistakes that Proctor and myself made would effect us for a great deal of time afterward. I still have not bought a new lens and have been filming with a scratch on the side since it was hit. When we handle things or situations we need to be constantly be considering possible consequences of mistakes that could occur. If we consider what could happen we are less likely to make mistakes.

This is America

As a people, Americans have always been ambitious. The American dream is to work hard and become wealthy. When British colonists first settled in America they began a new trend of freedom. In Britain it was almost impossible for common people to change there social rank. In America your purpose was decided by what you accomplish and what you could provide. Since the beginning of colonial America to modern times we have been hard working and have shared freedom with our neighbors.

The dreams of Americans are all different but we share the knowledge that if we work hard we can succeed in our country. This is why people will risk their lives to come here. Not everyone will succeed but we all have a chance. This chance is all we Americans need to know to be able to dream. I feel very fortunate to live here because in America i can decide exactly how i want to live.

Not all Americans want wealth in money. This is a stereotype that is derived from the "American dream." In many countries people think of Americans as being greedy ungrateful hicks but this is not true for most of us. The truth is America is a land of many people, cultures, religions, and ideas. There are so many diverse groups of people here that no generalization like this one can be made. When the colonies were first emerging the New World was called a melting pot. Massive numbers of people came here from all over the world and they still do today.