conversion – Boston like Rodgers become a model narrative for the people to follow because of her rdedication to God. The story of the conversion was the aim of these narratives because it exposed the criminal mind as being unable to bear their own criminal acts. It leaves people with the thought that although there may be no hope to resurrect your life here on Earth, if you are penitent and able to renounce your former life you can become a monument of God’s mercy and may secure your spot in eternal bliss.

Counsel – The role of the ministry was to help encourage criminals to repent and begin life anew by condemning the former life. This counsel was fairly instrumental in shaping the narratives we read because without the executors of God’s will helping to change the minds of these criminals they surely would not have been selected to mass produce and distribute among the public. It is interesting to note though that both of the conversion narratives of Rodgers and Boston ignored such counseling until they knew that the final days on earth were numbered, only accepting God and repenting after being imprisoned for a crime punishable by death.

2. conversion– after repenting, a person’s changing their life of sin to a Godly life was much desired. A person’s conversion was, in a way, the minsters’ and christian townspeople’s payment and reward for the godly works that they had conducted in a sinner’s life: “she was frequently visited by Ministers and other christians of the town and neighbourhood, to whom she gave little encouragement for a considerable time…” then, “she felt the power of the word preached, inlightening, convincing, humbling and softening of her heart…the words spoken to her in private made deep and lasting impressions on her Soul.”…”i see the folly and filthiness of the ways of sin, and in some measure am made to discern the Excellency of Gods ways, and do find more delight and pleasure therein, then ever i did in my former courses.”

3. death– the ending of one’s life up until Rodger’s account has been thought and spoken of as the negative consequence to a bad act. so strong is the connotation that it is often preceded by “condemned.” Ministers, when speaking to those convicted, warn that their repentance must come before their death, as it is the ultimate end. it is the ultimate punishment. people fear it. However, Rodgers looks at it from the opposite perspective. she views it as her reward for her conversion. a positive outcome for what has become her godly life: “i find a willingness in me to accept the punishment of my sins, and a readiness to glorify the justice of God by suffering that Death i have deserved, in hope of receiving his mercy to eternal life.” “…I endeavor it by thinking of my condition and manner of death…but in the midst of those thoughts, Gods comforts delight my soul, and i think, that at such times i feel the greatest incomes of joy and sweetness.”

2. death– the termination of life takes on a completely different meaning in Pillars of Salt. It was not just the act of passing away, but a form of entertainment. in terms of Morgan’s and Rodger’s executions, the said purpose of the public affair was to warn others of the outcome of wrong doing ON YOUR SOUL. however, perhaps the intention of the crowd was to witness something never before experienced. in fact, the text even states, “fully aware of the popular fascination with death. ” the onlookers are also actually referred to as an “audience.”

3. conversion– ultimately a change, i found the contrasting usage of the term, in comparison to that of Foucalt, very interesting. in this text, the interest in conversion was not placed on injust to just, but rather on sinner to non-sinner, wretched to holy. a criminal’s conversion is looked upon in this instance from a much more religious standpoint. “ministers became in- creasingly involved with arousing a more personal, evangelical form of piety.” and “criminal characterization similarly reflected this evangelical fervor, and narrative emphasis shifted from the individual’s desperate distress to his or her confident faith in Christ’s merciful love.”