Sofia Cacho

Ms. Storer
English 3H Block 4
September 4, 2019
Socratic Circle Reflection on The Crucible
During this Socratic Circle, I believe I did well in my individual performance. However, I
could have done more preparation, as I had answered the questions, but had not picked specific
pages for evidence on all the questions. One thing I believe I did good during the preparation
stage was answering the questions with one statement in agreeance and with another that was not
in agreeance. This prepared me for the Socratic Circle, in which it was important to give a
different view in order to hear all sides of the argument, even if everyone is in agreeance with
one answer. Overall, the times I spoke in the circle were well thought out and built upon what
my peers had said. Furthermore, my building upon the opinions of my peers shows good
teamwork, as we all worked together to help reinforce what the other was saying. While I was on
the outer circle, however, I feel I could have given more advice to my partners, but as they each
only spoke once, and I only had so much as reference to their abilities. All in all, I hope to
prepare better next time with more textual evidence, so I can contribute thought provoking ideas,
as well as give better and more thorough advice to my partners.
As a whole, I believe those in the inner circle with me contributed good ideas and were
well prepared. However, the ideas contributed weren’t very ambitious nor very thought
provoking. They stayed somewhat surface level and very rarely was an idea disagreed upon. This
made for a good conversation, as we all agreed, but it could have been a much better debate if
there were new and exciting ideas. Yet, this shows a great example of our teamwork and our
ability to build upon what others are saying. When my group was on the outer circle, those in the
inner circle made good conversation and had many who were willing to contribute ideas. The
overall performance of my group showed we were well prepared and willing to contribute ideas,
even though we could have had more exciting and different points of view.
These ideas are important and meaningful to the text as they provide in depth analysis of
the characters, as well as provoke thought about the effect of the morals of each character in the
decisions they make. This analysis of each character and the ways they change throughout the
text allows for the reader to see their development, as well as what decisions change them and
what decisions allow them to stay the same. Furthermore, these ideas allow the reader to explore
the morals of each character and why they did what they did. This brings meaning to the text by
examining the situation of each character and their motives, showing why they went with or
against their morals.
The first thing that comes to my mind when reading The Crucible is my summer reading
book, Blacklisted! Hollywood, The Cold War, and the First Amendment. The book follows the
Hollywood Ten, the men who stood up for their rights during the HUAC trials condemning
communists. The author of The Crucible wrote the story as a parallel for this exact situation as he
was facing it, in which everyone in America turned their backs on those affiliated with
communism and allowed them to stripped of their First Amendment rights. In my own life, I
relate this conformity of society and the disregarding of morals to my knowledge of war,
specifically the one I am most familiar with, World War II. During this war in Germany, the
treatment of minorities such as Jews, Gypsies, and war criminals was terrible. Yet those in
Germany had been letting hatred grow and fester until it was out of control. Though many
Germans did not hate Jews, nor were they bad people, there was immense pressure put upon
them to conform and let the genocide happen without interference, thus skewing their morals in
order to protect their families and their lives.