The Crucible Book Report Essay

“A small upper bedroom in the home of Reverend Samuel Parris, Salem, Massachusetts, in the spring of the year 1692.” This is the first sentence in Arthur Miller’s book The Crucible. This book often is referred to as ‘powerfully disturbing’ because of the fictional part of Salem witch trials that took place in Massachusetts. This book is a fictional account of an event in Salem during the witch trials. The book starts out by introducing the characters as one of the characters Betty is lying unconscious in her bed. The first few pages of the book explain to us the surroundings of the scene that is about to take place. People begin to gather around Parris’ house where his daughter Betty is lying in the bed unconscious, unable to move and eat, etc. As people witness that Betty has been laying there for a few days, rumor starts to spread of witchcraft being involved. Abigail is Betty cousin, she knows what has happened with Betty because she was there with her and the other girls. She is deciding not to tell anyone, especially Parris when he asks because she is scared to get caught and put on trial or burned, etc. They have a long argument about it and as Abigail and the slave Tituba were listing of names of people

By the author writing a fictional story about what actually has happened in the same place before captures the reader's attention before they start reading the book. At the beginning he captures our attention by giving us many, but not to many details of the surrounds. Arthur Miller keeps our attention throughout this book by creating suspense enough that we have to keep reading but not to much that we get bored. It may be easy to get lost in books pertaining to history but not in this book, the author mixes in the history with the story by telling us what happened but also keeping our attention with twists and turns from the