The parochial snobbery of these people was partly responsible for their failure to convert the Indians. Probably they also preferred to take land from heathens rather than from fellow Christians. At any rate, very few Indians were converted, and the Salem folk believed that the virgin forest was the Devil’s last preserve, his home base and the citadel of his final stand. To the best of their knowledge the American forest was the last place on earth that was not paying homage to God.
– Arthur Miller
The Crucible, Act 1. The theme of good vs evil is found in the narrator’s description of the Salem Puritans’ failure to convert the forest Indians to Christianity. The Salem folk believed that the forest was the Devil’s demesne where evil thrived. But good reigned in the town where people paid homage to God.