Puritans are one of the founders of America due to the fact that they were one of the first people here who created a home and a life in this new world. They were very religious people and yet very superstitious. They did not affiliate themselves with anything dealing with the dark forces and if one did they should be taken care of like in the Salem witch trials ,where innocent women died because they were accused of being witches. The funny thing about the puritans is that if they were so religious why would they believe that such dark forces did exist and that it existed between them? Why couldn't they just believe that it was a lie that it wasn't true? Why did they have to get so involved in it to the point of taking someones life? It's because the occult was a new experience that brought fear, hysteria, and curiosity to people who had never experienced it.
It has been over 384 years since the puritans had experienced the occult and instead of it only being a memory it has left a scar in America that can never be erased. It has only expanded not just to one person but to everyone. One great example that proves that, is Nathaniel Hawthorne's, Young Goodman Brown. This short story was actually published in 1835, 205 years later after the puritans and even though Hawthorne was not there to witness the Salem witch trials he is able to write a short story that emphasizes the occult. So why write about something that caused fear and death?
It's because that's what the people in America want to read.
Now in present 2014 it can really be seen that America is infatuated with the occult. It's everywhere and we see it every day. It's in the tv commercials, movies, books, and online. For example the movie, The Conjuring. The conjuring is the perfect example because it involves nothing but evil dark forces.It's a movie that is based on a true events that involve witches, demons, and exorcisms. Many people knew that it was a very scary movie and after hearing how scary it was it intrigued many to go see it. The exorcist is also another example and the goosebumps book series as well.Why is it that authors and directors decided to create works dealing with the occult? Again it's because that's what the readers and viewers want. Why do the viewers and readers want these? It goes back to the puritans. The occult is something that gives us a feeling of fear, adrenaline, and curiosity to know what the dark forces can be capable of. It is a feeling that we don't usually feel and we just want to get out of our ordinary life. By imagining supernatural beings and magical events we are able to entertain ourselves and engulf ourselves in a mysterious new world.
So what does this say about american culture? We are nothing like the puritans at all. We have established our own identity. Since we are exposed to so much of the occult we don't believe in everything and we are not afraid. We are more open-minded and don't actually take dark forces serious. For example you see little kids in halloween, trick or treating and even though halloween is related to the devil you see them dressed as witches, zombies, devils, etc. and asking happily for candy in the night. You see us laughing at movies that make parodies of movies dealing with supernatural phenomena. So instead of seeing something evil and dark we take it in as something that entertains us and gives us a good scare and a good laugh when we remember how dumb we were when jumped out of our sit at the smallest sound made in the movie.
credz for pics.:
http://cdn.mos.totalfilm.com/images/t/the-conjuring-exclusive-poster-131169-a-1364403294.jpg
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/ximages/earlyam/Puritans/crucibleimages/salem-witch-trialdrama.jpg
http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/b6R52V9_S0I/hqdefault.jpg
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