A Break with Charity: a story about the Salem Witch Trials

        I've just started the book A Break with Charity: a story about the Salem Witch Trials by Ann Rinaldi. It's a kind of historical fiction book, which is different from what I usually read. One of the main characters is a girl named Susanna English. Her parents are very wealthy and the people where they live often act cruel toward them because they are jealous of them. From what I read so far, I can kind of make predictions about Susanna's personality.


         Susanna so far seems to be a very impressionable person. For example, when her mother's friend comes to the house to talk, she tells her that Susanna and her son should become closer. Simply because he does well in school and goes to Harvard. It says :"You should ask Jonathan Hawthorne over. He'd be a perfect fit for you. He has gotten acceptance to Harvard. " Even though they have nothing in common, she just believes whatever she is told. Even if she doesn't agree with it at first, over time she just learns to believe it.


          There have been several times that Susanna has been easily taken advantage of by characters in the book. Another time would be when Ann Putnam forces her to let innocent people be accused of being witches. Ann then tells her that if she tells people that Ann and her friends are lying, Ann will accuse Susanna's family of being witches, and they will be jailed or even worse, killed.  Instead of trying to get help, Susanna just does whatever Ann tells her to, which kind of leads me to think that it's very easy to take advantage of her.


            Susanna's personality doesn't seem very strong or loud at this point, but I'm starting to think that this might change over time. I'm really interested to see whether Susanna keeps being naive or finally takes a stand for what she believes is right.