The Heretic’s Daughter
The Developing Mind of Sarah Carrier
In The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent, the main character is quickly forced to rid her 9 year old views and see the world in a mature perspective. Being exposed to something as horrific as the Salem Witch Trials, Sarah learns the difference between acting like an adult and actually thinking like one. Her youthful perspective grows into a mature outlook during the course of her harsh journey that consisted of the problems bore by her family thus resulting in Sarah’s better understanding of the cruel world that surrounds her.
In just a matter of months, Sarah has hastily experienced and heard things that she hadn’t thought she would. As she moved into her cousin’s home, she begins to see how the people outside her home assumed many things. Sarah learned about harlots, Quakers, and most importantly witches. At the young age of 9, you would think that a girl would be afraid of such precarious knowledge. But Sarah was different. She embraced it, but masked her enthusiasm to show her cousin that she was mature enough to know these things. “I did not want my cousin to think of me as an infant who did not know how the world moved (pg. 46 Kent).” Sarah accepted these mature thoughts and began to broaden her mind even more. “Through the many years since that time, I have learned that women show their true selves in a different way. Sharing secrets is the way in which women tie themselves together, for it reveals complicity and trust (pg.46 & 47 Kent).” Being with Margaret developed her perceptions about her external world. She is fed with new information and as a hungry child, she eagerly accepts. Sarah and Margaret begin to develop a close bond as well as the whole Toothacker family. In the beginning, it puzzles Sarah to why her direct family loathed the Toothackers. It took time for Sarah to understand why her parents hated them. Sarah, only being a child, loved the Toothakers for their kindness and accepting behavior, but
In The Heretic’s Daughter by Kathleen Kent, the main character is quickly forced to rid her 9 year old views and see the world in a mature perspective. Being exposed to something as horrific as the Salem Witch Trials, Sarah learns the difference between acting like an adult and actually thinking like one. Her youthful perspective grows into a mature outlook during the course of her harsh journey that consisted of the problems bore by her family thus resulting in Sarah’s better understanding of the cruel world that surrounds her.
In just a matter of months, Sarah has hastily experienced and heard things that she hadn’t thought she would. As she moved into her cousin’s home, she begins to see how the people outside her home assumed many things. Sarah learned about harlots, Quakers, and most importantly witches. At the young age of 9, you would think that a girl would be afraid of such precarious knowledge. But Sarah was different. She embraced it, but masked her enthusiasm to show her cousin that she was mature enough to know these things. “I did not want my cousin to think of me as an infant who did not know how the world moved (pg. 46 Kent).” Sarah accepted these mature thoughts and began to broaden her mind even more. “Through the many years since that time, I have learned that women show their true selves in a different way. Sharing secrets is the way in which women tie themselves together, for it reveals complicity and trust (pg.46 & 47 Kent).” Being with Margaret developed her perceptions about her external world. She is fed with new information and as a hungry child, she eagerly accepts. Sarah and Margaret begin to develop a close bond as well as the whole Toothacker family. In the beginning, it puzzles Sarah to why her direct family loathed the Toothackers. It took time for Sarah to understand why her parents hated them. Sarah, only being a child, loved the Toothakers for their kindness and accepting behavior, but