“Jumping to conclusions is like playing with wet gunpowder: both are likely to go in the wrong direction. » -Charlie Chang. The Puritans were a group of English Protestants who adhered to strict religious principles and opposed sensual enjoyments. The Puritans firmly believed that the Devil could walk among them at any time. Because of this belief, the Puritans believed that people could entrust their souls to the devil. By surrendering their soul to the devil, a person could become a witch or wizard. In Arthur Millers novel The Crucible, the Puritans go hunting to rid their town of witches. The Puritans also placed great importance on how each person should act in society. For example, if someone did not go to church often, people would be very suspicious of that person. In the short stories "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister's Black Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Puritans become suspicious of others because of a strange event. The strange events lead the Puritans to distrust and reject one another. In Hawthorne's two short stories "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Ministry Black Veil" and in Miller's The Crucible, a strange event pushes the Puritans to hastily conclude that it is witchcraft. In Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," the main character, Young Goodman Brown, hastily concluded that everyone in his village was working with the devil after dreaming of an encounter in the forest. The first piece of evidence that young Goodman Brown jumped to conclusions about was how he treated his wife when he returned from the forest, compared to how he treated his wife at the beginning. At first, Faith was "a blessed angel" ("Young Goodman Brown" 1) and said that when he returned, he would follow her to heaven. Then, often in the middle of paper ...... witchcraft, victims executed for witchcraft could have been saved. In Hawthorne's two short stories "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister Black Veil" and in Miller's The Crucible, jumping to conclusions ruined people's lives. Drawing hasty conclusions without fully understanding the situations can end up going in the wrong direction. If young Goodman Brown had taken the time to think about this encounter, he would have realized it was a dream. If people had taken the time to ask Mr. Hooper why he wore the mask, then Mr. Hooper's life would not have been so bleak. Finally, if the court had taken the time to ensure that Abigail was not lying, her victims' lives would have been saved. If we humans can learn to investigate and try to think before we act, then in some cases people's lives could be saved..