In the books that we have read this semester there are two books that I chose to write about the first being The Old Man and the Sea and the second being The Crucible. The reason I chose these two books is because I feel that if there are driving forces inside of every person that make a person do bad things there also should be something inside of all of us to make us do good. I think that these two books illustrate that there are in fact both kinds of these driving forces. In some cases both of these forces are present and in others there is only one present. .
The Crucible was set in a very strange time when people were looking for religious freedom. These same people who wanted to be left alone to profess their religion moved to the present day Massachusetts where they tried to push their religion onto those who already lived there. Already you can see the contradiction, these people wished to be free and when they got their wish they wanted to force their beliefs upon others. The overall theme of this book was that almost everyone was out to protect themselves, these people would blame others, accuse them of witchery in order to keep from being accused themselves. The people of Salem would do whatever was necessary in order to keep a clear name. The majority of them were perfect examples of how the driving force inside of some can make even good people do bad things. On the other hand a great example of a strong person who knew right from wrong was John Proctor. He did not want to take part in the transfer of guilt and this proves that at least in some cases these driving forces are used for a good cause. .
The second book is quite different in that there are no accusations being made all the time and there are not really decisions to be made over right and wrong. The old man, Santiago, a fisherman who was having bad luck had gone forty days before the boy's parents forbade him to fish with the old man.