"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 enjoyment. The Puritans firmly believed that the Devil could walk among them at any time. Because of this belief, Puritans believed that people could surrender their souls to the devil. By surrendering one's soul to the devil, a person could become a witch or wizard. In Arthur Millers novel The Crucible, the Puritans go on a hunt to rid their town of witches. The Puritans also placed great importance on how to act in society. For example, if one did not go to church often, people would be very suspicious of him. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's stories “Good Young Man Brown” and “The Minister's Black Veil,” the Puritans become suspicious of others because of a strange event. The strange events lead the Puritans to distrust and reject each other. In both Hawthorne's stories "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister Black Veil" and Miller's The Crucible, a strange event causes the Puritans to come to the conclusion of witchcraft. In Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," the main character, Young Goodman Brown, came to the conclusion 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 has come to is how he treated his wife when he returned from the forest compared to how he treated her in 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 later, often in the middle...... middle of the paper...... of witchcraft, victims executed for witchcraft might have been saved. In both Hawthorne's stories "Young Goodman Brown" and "The Minister Black Veil" and Miller's The Crucible, jumping to conclusions ruined people's lives. Jumping to conclusions without fully understanding situations can end up going in the wrong direction If young Goodman Brown had taken the time to think about the encounter, he would have realized it was a dream. If people had taken the time to ask Mr. Hooper why he was wearing the mask, Mr. Hooper's life would not have been. so dark. Finally, if the court had taken the time to make sure Abigail wasn't lying, her victims' lives would have been saved. If we as humans could learn to investigate and try to think things through before acting, then in some cases people's lives could be saved..