Caitlin Barnum
Hn. English 3
Ms. Robinson
Peer Pressure Puddles: Affects on today’s society and back then
Peer pressure is defined as social pressure by members of one’s peer group to take a certain action, adopt certain values, or otherwise conform in order to be accepted. One could say the reasoning for the girl’s actions in The Crucible was because of peer pressure. They wanted to be accepted by Abigail. We could see throughout the story how much power Abigail had over everyone in the town. Take a look at the affects that peer pressure has in The Crucible verses today’s society in having a leader, followers and how those roles affect each other.
Abigail was the leader of the other girls her age in the town. No matter what she did or said, they were right behind her doing the same things. For example, up in Betty’s room when she had first fallen sick, Abigail had told Hale, “I danced for the devil; I saw him; I wrote in his book; I saw Goody Osborn with the devil”.(Miller 25) When Hale asked her if she had seen anyone else with her, she claimed to have seen Sarah Good. At that very moment Betty sat up from her bed and claimed also to have seen other women from the town with the devil. Also, when Mary Warren was going to testify that the girls were pretending, Abigail started screaming of seeing a bird; all the other girls started screaming and looking up at the ledge. Only those girls could see the bird. Imagine a high school cafeteria, all the tables are filled with talking children, but all are separated into their ‘clicks’. There are the popular girls, next to the jocks on the left. Then over in the corner are the band geeks. And spread out randomly are the people who don’t really talk to anyone. One of the popular girls, Allison, with a smirking smile on her face, walks in. Everyone moves out of her way. The other girls get up to make room for her at the lunch table. Everyone in the whole room knows who she is but they don’t dare make eye contact for fear of ‘the evil stare’! She’ll give it to anyone who displeases her in anyway. Mary Warren, and the other girls, were followers of Abigail. They wanted to be in her group. Mary’s plan was to come forward with information about Abigail and the other girls pretending they were seeing spirits. Abigail would not stand for this, and drove Mary crazy. The girls repeated everything Mary said and kept taunting her. Finally Mary broke down and accused Proctor of forcing her to sign the devils book. She ran sobbing to Abigail and said “Abby, Abby, I’ll never hurt you more”!(Miller 52) Mary felt she would be cast out by Abigail if you continued to testify, so she gave in to peer pressure, and joined the rest of the girls under Abigail’s ‘spell’. We can now take a look back at our lunchroom scenario. The girls who got up for Allison to sit down defiantly didn’t want to upset her, like Mary didn’t want to upset Abigail. And if people are afraid to even look at you, you know you have some power. But we can also assume Allison is not a very nice person. Why can’t they just let Allison find an empty seat, so not to inconvenience them?
Maybe the reason for the ‘leader’ in both situations is because they need to feel they have control over other people, just to feel good about themselves. And maybe the reason for the ‘followers’ is to be following the ‘leader’ is because they don’t fit in or feel uncomfortable about themselves; they want to be a part of something. Mary warren went back to Abigail maybe because she didn’t want to feel left our or like she didn’t belong anymore. Maybe Abigail was accusing people of witch craft just because she wanted some attention. The same goes for our lunchroom scenario. The followers of Allison felt overpowered and felt like they had to do everything for the ‘leader’ to stay in the group. And maybe Allison is only mean and overpowering because she doesn’t like to feel overpowered.
Overall, peer pressure had a major impact on the trials and the actions of the witnesses in the 1690’s. in both societies, the existence of peer pressure is very similar. We could see how the leaders obtained power, and why the followers would look for some one to rule them. Also we saw why the leader and the followers chose their roles in this dog eat dog world. If you are a follower, don’t be controlled into things you normally wouldn’t do. And if you are a leader, don’t be controlling and mean. Your personality will determine what your role you will take, but keep in mind those of the opposite role.
