How Does The Crucible Represent American Society

American society as it is known today is vastly different then it was a hundred years ago…. Or so it is said, prejudice, the american dream, and a lack of responsibility are all common themes in American society, and they have been around for as long as there was an America. A Jewish author by the name of Arthur Miller has touched upon all of these themes repeatedly, All My Sons, Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, all of these works in some way represent American society during the 20th century. America despite it’s rich economy is not a very responsible place. America leads the world in tax evasion even though it is among the richest countries in the world , and it is killing people. The point of taxes is for the government to help people

The place where anyone can go and start anew. America started off as a safe refuge for people suffering from religious discrimination. But the safe haven was not to last. Even in Americas beginnings in which The Crucible takes place, there are already bursts of mass hysteria. They were called the witch hunts. During these hunts Abigail- a character in the play, who is an ambitious sort decided to add fuel to the fire and by adding fuel brings up her social status in community, thus giving her power, and adding to the hysteria. The events in this play could line up with a great number of things. One person in seemingly hours of planning reaches ultimate power in the community; Abigail, McCarthy, even Hitler follows the pattern in some sort of way. But this essay is supposed to be about events after World War two, so fortunately this next part will be about McCarthyism. McCarthy, much like Abigail he too spurred the flames of distrust in the community, except his community was Hollywood, and his hate was against communism. What is communism? It is a great idea the Russians got but since it is not democratic, the Americans were “rushing” the communists out of Hollywood. Basically the idea was if you control the media you control the people and the U.S Government did not want the people to give up their democratic ideals and become like the Russians. So McCarthy rebooted the Red Scare and relabelled it

It became the ultimate goal otherwise known as “The American dream”. The dream in America is generally to be so rich no one really cares what you say or do and the lie behind it all is that this can be achieved in a life time of honest, hard work. Look at Death of a Salesman; Willie Loman works hard his whole life, and yet he always manages to never quite make it. Willie has worked his whole life and should have what ever he wants and yet he has a Studebaker and a fridge that keeps breaking . At the time this work was written, 1949, the people of America are still hurting from the Great Depression but are slowly rising in a state of post war prosperity . Which means consumer demand is rising and there are more jobs, and it would make sense to become a salesman during this period of time. But you would have to be good, and maybe a bit dishonest to make it big. Rich quick, and for a lifetime is truly a lie, that is why the people who play dirty get rich. Willie Loman is neither a good salesman nor a cheat, he is just a man trying to find his place in this world. Truly a “low man”, he can not make it big, he can not even make a good basic investment. What even is a Studebaker? It is a car company that only lasted about 15 years, a failure of a company that could arguably represent Willie Loman- a product doomed to fail. Willie is a dreamer, and he is not well liked in the community despite what he