Beyond The Burning Time Character Analyasis

A detailed Summary of Beyond The Burning Time Character Analyasis

Beyond the Burning Time by Kathryn Lasky is a wonderful novel about the truth and lies of the Salem Witch Trials. During this time, one is either an accuser or the accused. The Chase family is desperately trying to keep calm. Mary Chase, the young daughter of widowed Virginia Chase, and younger sister of Caleb Chase is trying to understand what is going on around her. Mary Chase will not be drawn into the scandal of the Salem Witch Trials, instead she is persistently trying to free her mother from the lies set against her, while trying to help her family survive this crazy time of false accusations and incrimination.

Mary Chase is unlike the other girls in Salem Town. She never has any free time to become drawn into the mischeif going on in the town. "And they find the days long. They're not like you, young Mary. You're so busy helping your dear mother on the farm -- you never have time to think about such things" (Lasky, 32). Mary must help her mother with running the family business, since her father died, and her older brother is being apprentice at the same shipyard where her father was master carpenter before he died. Mary has set chores, which she must perform daily in order to keep the farm properly running. Her daily chor

es include, mucking out the barn, shimming the fence, helping with the cooking, and sopping the runt piglets. These must be done everyday, or else the farm will not be able to properly function, and if the farm cannot properly function then they will lose money and become poor. The chores are a necessity to the survival of the Chase farm.

Surviving these times of false accusations and incrimination, without crying out upon innocent people, is all that Mary is trying to achieve. "He was right. She knew he was right. She would never cry out, but she would not die. She would kill before she would die" (Lasky, 204). Mary is willing to do anything to survive and help her family survive this horrible time in their lives. She is so sick of the afflicted girls and their "death sentence" lies. Her will to survive is very strong and noted many times. She knows that her family needs her, and it only adds to her survival instincts. It seems that a young girl would not be able to do much to help herself, let alone her family, survive the Salem Witch Trials. Mary supercedes this view, and she launches herself head-on into her plan for survival. Her quick wit and intelligent mind are the help behind the whole plan that Caleb thinks up, but that wit

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Approximate Word count = 837
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels

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