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Similarities and differences of the crucible and mccarthyism
Characters in the crucible and the human experience
Similarities and differences of the crucible and mccarthyism
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The Red Scare caused many innocent people to become very afraid to express their ideas. This, due to the risk of communist accusations. This relates to the crucible because in The Crucible people feared practicing there normal beliefs and living out there day to day lives because they feared to get accused of witchcraft. The characters accused of witchcraft in the crucible where Tituba, Abigail, and others. Once accused of witchcraft they “we’ll be whipped” (Miller 20) as a consequence and then the victims named other people that made a deal with the devil or committed witchery. The same thing happened in McCarthyism, once accused of communism the accused normally give up names of other communists. The same thing happened in both events, once a person, accused of either witchcraft or communism, then they say if anyone else practiced one of the same things. The girls in The Crucible claimed …show more content…
One of the similarities consist of how individuals struggled to keep jobs after accused of either witchcraft or communism. This, due to their names losing honor in the eyes of other people in their communities, making it more difficult to keep or get a job. Another similarity consist of how families went through hard times in both the Crucible and McCarthyism. Even if not accused families live’s became stressful because of the possibility of accusations. Trust also became a big problem in towns these events occurred in. Citizens refused trust other citizens in their communities for fear of their livelihood’s and properties, as lies became commonplace in an effort to obtain more land at the expense of others. During McCarthyism trust because a problem as well. In exchange for lighter punishment, accused communists gave up names of others, guilty or not. Therefore, trust came very far and few between in these communities. Given the examples above, The Crucible and McCarthyism relate to each
The crucible and the “Red Scare” are both events in U.S. history that were widely feared by the people. Both the Crucible and the red scare were based off accusations that were taken out of proportion instead of being dismissed like they should have been. Though the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials were both times of hysteria, they impacted different amounts of people. The Red Scare was a problem that impacted the entire country, while the Salem with Trials for the most part only impacted the people of Salem, Massachusetts. Another difference between the Red Scare and the Salem with Trials is the reason in which these events occurred. The Red Scare was a cause of many people fearing the rise of communism while the Salem Witch Trials did
Herbert Block, a cartoon illustrator during McCarthyism, depicts the absurdity of the communist accusations during the 1950s through his drawings of fictitious evidence and the power hungry government. Despite the lack of evidence, the influence of the government’s spurious claims causes unnecessary hysteria and chaos within America. Likewise, these events are prevalent within Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible. The witch trials symbolize the court hearings during McCarthyism, and an identical absence of feasible evidence and a town overridden by fear lead to fallacious convictions. Block’s political cartoons embody the fraudulent evidence and hysteria over communism during McCarthy’s reign, which relates to the witch trials that Miller describes
What is McCarthyism? It is the public onslaught of an individual or an individual’s character by means of baseless and uncorroborated charges, basically the repudiation of a person’s reputation. Joe McCarthy was the Wisconsin senator that evoked this era of fear and paranoia by inflaming the current fear of world domination by the Communist party that enveloped the Nation. He did this by announcing that he had discovered “57 cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying members or certainly loyal to the Communist Party, but who nevertheless are still helping to shape our foreign policy.” (McCarthy, 1950, p. 2), later the amount of implicated individuals rose to 205. These accusations launched McCarthy into the national spotlight where he then began his smear campaign against many well-known Americans, which was commonly referred to as “witch-hunts”. Because of McCarthy’s actions, up to 12, people lots their jobs hundreds were incarcerated. He then turned his sights to book banning because he claimed there were 30,000 books written by all shades of Communists. After his lists were made public all were removed from the Overseas Library Program. But he was not finished yet, he then assailed members of the entertainment business. He had writers and actors brought to trial. Many of these people were blacklisted and worse, all without a single shred of evidence. When people spoke out against McCarthy they were thrown onto the communist train, until enough people came forward to rebuke McCarthy’s unprecedented tactics. At this point he fell from political power into dishonor on December 2, 1954. This ended the McCarthy era, but not the atmosphere of paranoia that lingers in the nation today.
A very famous man once said, “There is nothing to fear but fear itself.” (Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933). This is certainly true when it comes to Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. Arthur Miller lived through the Red Scare, also known as McCarthyism. After living through this era and being one of the accused communists Miller wrote the book titled The Crucible in 1952. This book told the story of the Salem witch trials with some modifications to make it more relevant to the current situation. The book ultimately became an allegory devoted solely to McCarthyism. In The Crucible it uses situations such as the actual trials; direct comparisons of the characters in the book to those that participated in the McCarthy trials and, the atmosphere of the two events were almost identical.
8) The similarities between Mccarthyism and The Crucible is that both were the practice of unfair allegations and using unfair investigative techniques. In addition people that were accused of being communist were blacklisted and some were arrested as well. Also it was treason without proper evidence. In the Crucible the government was forcing confessions, and used false evidence. Also who ever was accused were
There is a strong connection between McCarthyism and the Salem With Trials, which are what The Crucible is based on. Arthur Miller immediately recognized this link, and displayed a great example of an abuse of power, and people going to great measures to get what they want (Brater). The desire for power, unsubstantiated accusations, and the detrimental effects of these accusations are the ways in which The Crucible is connected to McCarthyism. Power and selfishness can destroy the lives of those that possess it, and the lives of people around them. Humans are easily influenced by what others do and say, which is why people can gain power so easily. It is the choice of the powerful to use their power in the correct way. When power is misused, paranoia and chaos, as well as many other negative effects result.
Fake Claims were a big part of the McCarthy communist era because if you accused someone of being a communist you would a safe from government even if it is not true. In the McCarthy era Joseph McCarthy claimed he had a list of 81 people that worked for the government but were also communists. “McCarthy accuses 81 people of being a communist.” (jigsaw chart) McCarthy told everyone that he had that list when in the end, none of the people that were on the list were communists. This connects to The Crucible in the same way. In The Crucible if you accused another person of being a witch then you were safe from accusation and the court. “For murder Rebecca is charged! For the marvelous and supernatural murder of Goody Putnam’s babies.”(71) Rebecca was charged with supernatural murder against Goody Putnam's babies.
A parallel between McCarthys world and The Crucible is how the people reacted to the thoughts of witches or communists infiltrating their societies and how that resulted in hysteria throughout towns. In Salem confessing and giving up others “witches” was a way to get out of your noose, but was also a way to augment the rumors of witches in Salem. Tituba was forgiven because she confessed to dealing with the devil and for giving up Goody Osborne and Sarah Good. Then Goody Osborne and Sarah Good were known to be witches, proving witches had come onto Salem, and seeding doubts of others innocence and purity. Many others in the town gave false confessions and countless names when convicted, this was seen as a way to evade punishment, the majority of the confessions being lies only to escape a noose. As with the alleged witches of Salem, suspected Communists were encouraged to confess an...
Two events separated by hundreds of years. Both sent the public into a paranoid state leading to a literal and figurative witch hunt. Both had a group of people fueling the public paranoia. Some say their was no correlation but the evidence and similarities are too much. The red scare and the crucible are two in events in history with uncanny similarities that prove prejudice has always been around only redirected to a new target.
In The Crucible Tituba and the girls were so afraid that they will be punished severely by the church that they start to give the names of people they "supposedly" saw with the Devil. In actuality, they may not have even seen any of these people with the Devil. But, it is their fear of the church's retribution that persuades them to give these names. And because they give these names, chaos in the town breaks out and all of the people are called in for questioning about whether or not they have “made compacts with the Devil.” During the Red Scare members or former of the American communist party were questioned and threatened til they gave names of other members and so forth, just as with the girls calling out names.
In The Crucible, the mass hysteria surrounding the witch trials caused paranoia amongst the people of Salem. Miller uses the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 as a symbol and allegory of the fear surrounding the spread of communism during the 1950s in America. The community’s sense of justice was blinded by the mass hysteria and for some, a desire for vengeance and personal gain. The Putnams
The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, was written during the early 1950s.It was the time of The rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s.All throughout history, accusations of witchcraft have been used as an excuse for the discrimination of people who cultures, traditions, race, and ideas were not easily accepted nor understood by the society even if it was untrue.In today’s society students are taught this because it show’s how important “The Crucible, and McCarthyism were and what changes they went through because of the human condition.It is extremely important and appropriate because it allows students the opportunity to respond in terms of their own experiences .The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism had many similarities. In The Crucible Abigail
Events have played out in history that made people realize the inhumane acts of people and the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy era were two of them. The Salem witch trials in 1692 were almost 260 years before the McCarthy “witch hunts” in the 1950s yet there are similarities between them. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in 1953, is about the Salem witch trials and is an allegory to the practicing of McCarthyism during the Second Red Scare in the United States, which Miller was a victim of. Although there may be differences between “The Crucible” and McCarthyism, ultimately the anger, lack of evidence, and the people were alike in both events.
The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller in the Early 1950’s. It was written during the “Red scare, when McCarthyism was established. Many anti-communists wanted to prevent communism from spreading just like in The Crucible many wanted to get rid of witchcraft. Many would accuse others of witchcraft in order to not be accused just like many would accuse people of communism. In The Crucible witchcraft would be punishable by death. Many were scared to be accused; therefore many would admit practicing witchcraft in order to save their lives. The Crucible is considered a good play because it is based on real life events during the Salem witch Trials and shows how fear played a role in the individual’s life just like during the “Red” scare.
Arthur Miller, in his article “Why I Wrote The Crucible”, elaborates on the political allegory he incorporated into his drama. Showing parallels between the Salem witch trials in The Crucible and the Second Red Scare, Miller dismisses the opposing argument that resists the idea of an allegory because of the false existence of witches contrasting the reality of communism. He proves that the foundation of fear in the two situations were analogous, for it was the dominating factor perpetuating both conflicts. Analyzing Miller’s argument and drawing evidence from The Crucible, it is proven that fear was the basis of the witch trials within The Crucible as well as the congressional hearings during the Second Red Scare. From this fear stemmed the