George Orwells Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God The...

As famously written by George Orwell, â€Å"Big Brother is watching you.† In the eyes of the Puritans, God is the â€Å"Big Brother† watching over them in their mission to become the â€Å"city upon a hill.† They devote themselves to pleasing Him, eventually becoming obsessed with their status as the paragon of a Puritan society. However, as their ideologies become increasingly restrictive, their tolerance of misconduct decreases, and their utmost faithfulness ultimately leads to their untimely destruction. While John Winthrop, the governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, delivers â€Å"A Model of Christian Charity,† laying out the societal expectations of Puritans, Jonathan Edwards in â€Å"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God† aggressively warns the Puritans†¦show more content†¦Because of their sudden influx of authority after decades of deprivation, they abuse their newfound supremacy in the witch trials. Women are considered to be in struments of Satan and more susceptible to sinning, and â€Å"Puritan customs tended to discourage such legacies† of an independent woman because it is â€Å"an affront to the social order† (Shapiro). Therefore, they are deprived of authoritative positions, and when they â€Å"suddenly gain access to an authority as absolute as that which had previously subordinated them,† the young girls abuse their power following the unpredicted increase of authority they gain after decades of prejudice (Miller xvii). In essence, the significant gap in sovereignty between men and women causes corruption due to the girls’ tendency to abuse power. Moreover, as a result of â€Å"minding other people’s business,† a common practice promoted by the religious radicals, betrayal and disunity become widespread in the community (Miller 4). As a consequence of forced obedience, the restricted lifestyles the citizens carry in fear of losing their purity limit the sou rces of joy and entertainment they can get. They turn to exposing the wrongdoings of their neighbors to find a thrill in their uneventful lives. Although the citizens believe it is morally right to denounce their friends and family, it stirs up chaos, as â€Å"neighbor accordingly looked on neighbor with some suspicion† which worsens until there is no trust within the