Are You Afraid of the Dark?
"Shh! What was that?!"
"I didn't hear anything...wait...what is that!?" You're camping out with your friends in your backyard, one muggy summer night. You were confident and excited as your evening began. Suddenly, when your friend begins to hear noises, you think you hear them too. It's dark outside your tent, and you cannot see anything around you. You are ignorant to your surroundings. Since you are unsure what could be lurking in the dark, you begin to believe that anything could be out there. You've heard the campfire stories. Could they be true? Is it the boogie-man, a werewolf, or the villain from the latest slasher movie? From your ignorance, fear is born. The next thing you know, you and your friend are sprinting through the crisp grass, into the safety of your kitchen, and the prior plans of camping out are thwarted.
"Tituba and the Children"
"The witch no. 1" lithograph
The Pickman House, Back view that abuts the Salem ...If you had only known there was just a cricket outside your tent, or understood the sounds that fill the night, your problems would have floated away in the misty night air.
It is human nature to fear what one does not understand. When people do not understand something, they look to superstition to help them understand it. To explain the creation of the world, or other natural phenomena, early civilizations created myths. Though these tales were far fetched, it gave the ancient peoples comfort to have an explanation for the world around them. Other times, things get out of hand and man surrenders to fear, which can result in disastrous effects. In 1692, when problems arose in Salem, Massachusetts, the Puritan colony didn't understand them, and couldn't fathom the cause for their troubles. Unfortunately, as recounted in Arthur Miller's The Crucible,
The Puritans succumbed to fear and ignorance,