Gilberto Lopez

10 April, 2019
Argumentative Artifact

In my junior year of high school, I was assigned to write an essay on the play, The

Crucible. The prompt required me to argue whether the protagonist, John Proctor, is the tragic

hero of the play. The prompt required details such as discussing of the hero’s strengths or noble

qualities, their flaws, and how outside events influenced their downfall. This assignment falls

under the argumentative category because I had to defend my opinion that Proctor is an innocent

man tainted by burden. We also had to consider a counter argument, where they claim was that

John Proctor was indeed a bad man who was aware of his actions, and introduce a rebuttal that

disproved this argument. Another reason the essay falls under the argumentative category is that

the purpose of the essay was to persuade the reader that my opinion is the most logical or correct

argument, using concrete evidence.

By completing this argumentative essay, I was able to fulfill the Critical Thinker SLO

and the Effective Communicator SLO. I was a critical thinker by taking the whole plot and

details of the play, and concisely summarizing the main details in order for the reader to

understand the context of the text. I also made a distinct reference by comparing the main

character to Batman and Superman, and the critical thinking came in when I had to gather

distinct traits they share with John Proctor, a man from the 1800’s. I was also a critical thinker

as I had to think of a strong counter argument to my own position, and address it with a strong

rebuttal that would convince the reader my position is strong. I was an effective communicator

by using pathos, in order to make the reader feel empathy, toward Proctor. By making his

mistakes seem very human and out of trauma, I make the reader see Proctor the way necessary,

in order to carry out the overall message of my argument, that his actions are not his own, but a
result of trauma. I was also an effective communicator by using specific diction like “victim,

innocent, justified”, when describing the protagonist in order to prove that he is not guilty of his

actions, and get the read to associate him with innocence. I also wrote my essay in a way the

reader would be able to understand the overall message and the reasoning behind my argument.

The assignment helped me improve my argumentative skills by defending a character’s

actions, which most people would deem as villainous. I then had to justify the character’s actions

by explaining the circumstances that pressured him to perform such actions. In short, this

assignment helped improve the argumentative skills that I will be able to use in the future. By

addressing a counter argument in my essay, I was able to improve on arguing my opinion and

disputing another. In order to prove my own opinion over the counter argument, I had to choose

specific pieces of evidence that would strongly support my argument. Now in the future it will be

easier for me to identify critical pieces of evidence that would make it easier to support my

argument. This assignment also helped me with my use of diction, as I had to use persuasive

diction in order to change the way the audience perceived the character’s actions.