In The Salem Witchcraft Trials: A Legal History, Peter C. Hoffer closely examines the many complexities of the bizarre Salem Witchcraft Trials and offers explanations as to what led up to and caused the terrible event. In the book, Hoffer uses analogies and insight to village life to support his explanations. This paper will review Hoffer’s re accounting of the trials, his theories on the trails, and the way in which he presents his arguments.
Summary
This section contains a summary of The Salem Witchcraft Trials. The book begins by telling of Samuel Parris’s arrival in Salem. Parris, Salem’s newest preacher, arrives in 1989 along with his wife, two daughters, niece, and two servants, Indian John and Tituba. The importance of religion in …show more content…
Although Hoffer does accomplish his objective of explaining events, his writing style makes it difficult to pin down his theory or point. During many parts of the book Hoffer will drag out a topic for a long time without ever really revealing his point or what happened.Moreover, Hoffer's confusing sentence structuring causes confusion. In addition, Hoffer will delve into a topic that has little to no correlation to the book and never comes into use. For example, in the first chapter Hoffer discusses the slave trade and the high death rate on the boats even though the topic did not fit with the discussion of Samuel Parris’s journey to Salem. Although Hoffer's begins to become more direct towards the end of the book, he still sometimes wandered off topic which made it hard to read.
Another flaw in Hoffer’s writing is that he often leaves topics unfinished. For example in the book Hoffer discusses the victims’ families attempts to receive some form of repayment for the death of their loved ones. However, Hoffer never reveals if the families receives any payment or not. Furthermore, Hoffer never tells if the girls who falsely accused ever received any punishment for lying in
Summary
This section contains a summary of The Salem Witchcraft Trials. The book begins by telling of Samuel Parris’s arrival in Salem. Parris, Salem’s newest preacher, arrives in 1989 along with his wife, two daughters, niece, and two servants, Indian John and Tituba. The importance of religion in …show more content…
Although Hoffer does accomplish his objective of explaining events, his writing style makes it difficult to pin down his theory or point. During many parts of the book Hoffer will drag out a topic for a long time without ever really revealing his point or what happened.Moreover, Hoffer's confusing sentence structuring causes confusion. In addition, Hoffer will delve into a topic that has little to no correlation to the book and never comes into use. For example, in the first chapter Hoffer discusses the slave trade and the high death rate on the boats even though the topic did not fit with the discussion of Samuel Parris’s journey to Salem. Although Hoffer's begins to become more direct towards the end of the book, he still sometimes wandered off topic which made it hard to read.
Another flaw in Hoffer’s writing is that he often leaves topics unfinished. For example in the book Hoffer discusses the victims’ families attempts to receive some form of repayment for the death of their loved ones. However, Hoffer never reveals if the families receives any payment or not. Furthermore, Hoffer never tells if the girls who falsely accused ever received any punishment for lying in