I found this picture of a "sexy puritan" costume on the web, and it made me think about how ironic it was that a society that so conservative and held back, are being parodied now by this costume. I also wanted to pose a question I had been thinking about lately during this whole puritan unit. How would the puritans react to society nowadays, where even the historically "purest" society is being skewered in a cheap attempt to cash in on the "sexy Halloween costume" craze.
To answer this question, I think we can safely draw some comparisons to the Amish society. If puritans were still around today, they'd probably share many characteristics with the Amish. They'd probably create separate communities away from the modern world, and have some of the same values. I think that the difference between the two would be in their reactions to this "modern world." The Amish people live in harmony with the "modern world," while staying completely separate. If the puritans were around today, I think that they'd be vocally opposed to our way of life, and insist on their viewpoint. They'd insist that they are the city on the hill and that our society is destined for eternal damnation.
There is a reason that there are no puritans anymore, they can't survive in the modern world. I posed this question hypothetically, because I've wondered during this unit how a puritan would survive nowadays. If the puritan society had lived on, it probably would've evolved with the times into something completely different. But you can be sure of one thing, the traditional puritan would not be caught dead in one of those costumes, lest they fall prey to the devil and eternal damnation.
1 comment:
Similarly, I have thought the same thing during this unit. I find it ironic and, quite frankly, sad with the costume. Puritanism did have its flaws, and I think that if it were around today, yes they might build their seperate communities, but I feel like it'd end up like the girls in the Crucible where the kids are more interested in the pop culture life than the life of a Puritan. Also, what would they think of Harry Potter? People obsess over that, and to think... they be witches! Haha, but good post and nice last line =]
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