There are times when the general public places a large amount of trust in their leader – whether be it a governor, mayor, or even a president. The reason why the general public rely on their leaders is that they believe their leaders will do what is best for the people and that they will also set up a model for the general public to idolize and follow. The Puritan society in the 1600s has Governor Bellingham, a huge hypocrite of the Puritan belief of plainness as shown by the details of his flourished residence, as their leader throughout The Scarlet Letter’s plotline. Governor Bellingham indirectly hurts his community by setting up a bad model both religiously and morally through his hypocrisy. In the plotline, no character dared to challenge the general flow of following the governor to condemn him for his falsehood, which further emphasizes the importance of independent thinking to break away from the general public, as stated in the thesis statement above. Anyone daring to question hypocritical authority can lead an uprising or a new general agreement of the public about the authority figure. This shows that by independent thinking, leadership can be granted organically as things happen.
Our own leaders, if observed carefully enough, shown to be following others instead of clearing a new path and leading the way by themselves. Such an example is heavily mentioned in the story of The Crucible. Judge Danforth exemplifies the concept of “the blind leading the blind” as he himself is unable to think independently of the truth of the witchcraft hysteria caused by a couple of silly girls. The concept of “the blind leading the blind” relates to Danforth in a sense that he’s actually not leading the outcry against witchcraft, the true leader being Abigail, and calls for others in the village to follow him in the witch hunt. He is actually a follower himself instead of a leader because he trails after Abigail’s footsteps in this mass hysteria while calling himself...