Question

Prompt: In The Scarlet Letter, I Tituba, Black Witch of Salem, and The Crucible, the authors represent characters who are in some way outside of their societies. In a written response, analyze the ways in which these representations reflect or challenge the notion that independence defines the American spirit. Support your response with evidence from the text.

Step one: Make a declaration/decide on your argument
Step two: List your reasons
Step three: Connect - write your thesis

Answer 1

Answer and Explanation:

Step one: The female representations described above challenge the notion that independence defines the American spirit.

Step two: Women who do not have the standard defended by society are deprived of independence and freedom.

Step three:

The three works described above feature characters, women who are far away from their societies and who are deprived of their freedom because they dare to be independent in someone in their lives and this identity is outside the standards defended by American society. This challenges the notion preached since the early days that independence defines the American spirit.

The independence of women in the works mentioned above is approached in different ways and reveal sexual independence, the protection of loved ones, the domination of a family and even religious freedom, however the result of these factors is the same. Regardless of what women have done, they are limited, ostracized and suffer a strong prejudice from American society, which wants women to put themselves in patterns of submission and invisibility.

However, the American society portrayed in these works does not recognize its hypocrisy in assuming that it is being challenged with the concept of freedom and independence that is preached in the country, but they place the blame of these women on the society they were generated in, in religion and even in them themselves to justify the injustices to which they are subjected.