Joseph Mccarthyism In The Crucible

In reading Zenas Leonard’s account of his party’s interaction with the Shoshone and Paiute people, one gets the clear sense that the American fur trappers did not understand, nor trust the natives of the Great Basin. The native’s continued presence and persistence in interacting with the fur trappers is seen as a threat. The fur trapper’s stollen beaver traps further insight some of the American trappers to seek their own revenge and justice on the natives--death. Although, Captain Walker put an immediate stop to the “revenge” the trappers were committing, the effects of the trappers revenge proved to be detrimental to future interactions with the Indians. Now, the fur trappers saw any approach from the the natives as a hostile and aggressive stance against them in revenge for their murdered comrades.

“Arthur Miller made the play called “The Crucible” during the 1950’s as a response to McCarthyism and the U.S. Governments blacklisted people.”(Blakesley). Miller was then question and accused of “Contempt of Congress” for not identifying people that were at meetings he attended. McCarthyism and The Salem Witch Craft Trials have been two very wrong things that have happened in the history of the United States for a lot of reasons. First off they both wrongfully accused innocent people of performing not accepted actions of those times. In America you have a right of free will and in both cases they were denied this right just because of someone else’s opinion. In both cases of the Salem Witch Craft Trials and McCarthyism people were being accused of acts with little evidence. People pointed fingers at others so they wouldn’t get blamed for anything, so there was a scare factor taking place. Large groups of people supported these acts maybe because of a get on board everyone’s doing it theme, and if you disagreed you were considered a witch or a communist. Our country supported McCarthy until later we soon regretted it. During the 1940’s and 1950’s communism was a scare in the U.S. so McCarthy capitalized on the subject and said two hundred card carrying communist were in the U.S(PBS). With the Salem Trials people capitalized on the scare of witches and everyone starting accusing the “weird” people. Accusations weather true or false can

Imagine being accused of something you never did just because someone had something against you. That is exactly what the characters in “The Crucible” were going through. The author, Arthur Miller, used the play as an allegory. He wanted to compare the Salem witch trials to the McCarthyism. McCarthyism, created by Joseph P. McCarthy, was popular during the cold war and it falsely accused people of being a communist with no evidence to support the accusation. It became popular because of the spread of communism in China and Europe. In the United States, anyone could accuse someone of being a communist and could ruin their lives. That is exactly what Miller was trying to portray in “The Crucible.” If someone accused another person of witchcraft their whole lives could be turned upside down. They could even possibly be hanged. Throughout the story there are an abundance of arguments. Most of the arguments come from Act III in the courthouse. The arguments are all different, but they all end up being the same in the sense that people are being falsely accused. The arguments that are like that include Giles accusing Putnam, Proctor accusing Abigail, and Parris accusing Proctor.

The Crucible is the fictional story of the Salem witch trials in which many women were accused of being witches. The Crucible is written by Arthur Miller, who was recorded as the greatest American playwright (“Arthur Miller” 1). The scene for the play is based in the Massachusetts Bay Colony around 1692. McCarthyism was the act of accusing people of treason without evidence, attacks on a person's character, and attack on their patriotism by accusing many Americans of being communist (Ortega). Lisa Martin says, “Communists control led the two world superpowers, China and the Soviet Union Americans feared a takeover in their own country” (Martin 1). Many people tried to accuse the men and women who were spreading the fear. One man named Joseph McCarthy was a senator that charged communists that interfered with the U.S. State Department (“Joseph McCarthy” 1). The accusations lead to investigations, questioning and finding people guilty without evidence,

So far throughout The Crucible written by Arthur Miller, many are being accused and many are the accusers. In Salem there is a major mystery of who is practicing witchcraft and people are naming off there enemies, without knowing if they are innocent or guilty. The accusers are powered by the emotions of envy, fear, and bitterness. People like Abigail Williams, Mary Warren, and Ann Putnam have hidden agendas and want there enemies to hang.

In society, we are blind to the lies that are taking place around us every day. Small lies, big lies, lies right in front of our face, and we are oblivious to almost all of it. This is shown really well in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Throughout the play, which takes place during the witch trials that took place in Salem, lies make up a big portion of the plot. Some of these types of lies that are used are described very well in Stephanie Ericsson’s essay The Ways We Lie. These variations of lies amplify the outrage created, through McCarthyism, and the Salem Witch trials that take place in the play The Crucible.

The horrors of history are passed on from generation to generation in hopes that they will never occur again. People look back on these times and are appalled at how horrendous the times were; yet, in the 1950s, history repeated itself. During this time, Joseph McCarthy, a United States senator from Wisconsin, began accusing people of being communists or communist sympathizers, which is parallel to the Salem witch trials in the late 1690s when innocent people were accused of practicing witchcraft. One of the people McCarthy accused was author and playwright Arthur Miller. To express his outrage at McCarthy’s actions, miller wrote The Crucible, intentionally drawing similarities between the McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials.

Have you ever been accused of something? So to keep from getting into deep trouble you quickly exclaim ‘you saw so-and-so do this’. Suddenly, you’re put on a back-burner, as this new evidence is looked into. This is what happened back in the 1940’s. People in the U.S. were scared by Joseph McCarthy on the sudden rise in communism in other areas of the world, the closest being the Soviet Union. The Scare inspired Arthur Miller to write his play. The Crucible is an allegory for the Red Scare. Arthur Miller wrote the play to show people that the craziness of the witch hunts were extremely similar to the communist hunts, and to show the dangers of being quick to accuse others to avoid consequences.

Martin Niemöller once said,“First they came for the communists, but I was not a communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.” The culture of accusations is a part of hysteria. As paranoia ensued in “The Crucible”, Joseph McCarthy made false allegations that influenced many peoples lives. An affair integrated in Arthur Miller’s play created controversy among the community. Trials were held for those accused and lying was the only way to survive. The harsh truth that was revealed in “The Crucible” and the parallels between the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials show patterns in which fear was used as an advantage, unsubstantiated claims occurred, and unethical punishments were given.

In society, we are blind to lies that are taking place around us everyday. Small lies, big lies, lies right in front of our face, and we are oblivious to almost all of it. This is shown really well in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Throughout the play, which takes place during the witch trials that took place in Salem, lies make up a big portion of the plot. Some of these types of lies that are used are described very well in Stephanie Ericsson’s essay The Ways We Lie. These variations of lies amplify the outrage created, through McCarthyism, and the Salem Witch trials that take place in the play The Crucible.

‘The Crucible’ is an allegory. An allegory is a story with an obvious meaning but if you look deeper into it, there is another meaning. In this case, the obvious meaning is the Salem witch-hunt and the hidden meaning is McCarthyism. McCarthyism started in the early 1950’s and it was governmental accusations with no evidence. Joseph McCarthy started doing trials on those he thought were communist, but he had no evidence for it. This is the same as the witch trials in The Crucible. Arthur Miller wrote this in response to McCarthyism.

In The Crucible, when a person was accused of being a witch, the accused was sentenced by the word of the person who had accused them and on the account of spectral evidence. This simply refers to the accuser’s testimony that the spirit of the accused had approached the accuser while their body was elsewhere. This method of conducting trials is unreasonable and unjust because the accused have no way of defending themselves. Similarly, during the Second Red Scare when the HUAC investigated a person who was thought to be a communist, they didn’t consider the person’s civil rights and conducted their investigations without any justification for the accusation. If the accused wouldn’t answer their questions and refuse to name other people, they lost their jobs, were blacklisted and maybe would have even been arrested for contempt against the

It is unfortunate that racism and sexism continues to exist in today’s generation. I really do not understand the differences between skin color or gender. I am not sure if the misunderstanding is because I grew up in a diverse community or my eyes and heart are blind. I am proud that I have raised my son to also have eyes and heart that are blind to color and gender. As a single parent I have had to change my tire and oil and with that same perspective, I will have my son wash his own clothes. I have shared with my son, if a woman can do the job, so can a man and vice-versa. In the video, A Class Divided, Jane Elliott, the third grade teacher shared a new perspective that was creative and perceptible and ethical. We are all humans with the same color of blood

As reported by Shaul Magid, the most significant element of Judaism is that there is only one God, who wishes for the people to do what is right and just. The Jews believe that God made a covenant with Abraham, whom is considered the founder of the religion, in which God promised to praise Abraham and his followers, but only if they were to be committed and loyal to Him. This covenant makes Jews responsible for their wrongdoings and actions (par. 3-6). According to Paul Mendes-Flohr, Jews view themselves as chosen people held together by the covenant with God (423). Shaul Magid also reports that people of the Jewish faith also believe that God has yet to send a Messiah to save and rejoin the Jews with God. The Ten Commandments, which the Jews believe were given to Moses by God, outline how the Jews should go about living their lives (par. 3-6). As stated by Jason Levine, the Ten Commandments are:

The novel, The Crucible was written in 1953 by Arthur Miller, which was based on the Salem Witch Trials existing in the late 1600s. In the play, Abigail and several other young women accuse innocent citizens of Salem for the action of witchcraft. During the trials, many individuals were unfairly persecuted; such as John Proctor. This event in history may be associated with the Red Scare, in which individuals were tried for their questionable influences of communism in the United States. When Miller compares the character of John Proctor to himself, the reader is able to relate the similar experiences that both men faced. The Crucible demonstrates the struggle against corruption involving the court, which lead to the death of many innocent individuals in Salem. The Crucible generates an allegory for Arthur Miller’s struggles with McCarthyism because of his similar experience relating to John Proctor’s battle against the Salem Witch Trials, and the relation between the actions of the court in both situations. Arthur Miller uses several writing methods in order to convey The Crucible as an allegory for his struggles with McCarthyism. Miller demonstrates how the Crucible represents an allegory for his conflict with McCarthyism by relating his experiences with the plot of the novel. Miller relates the novel to his struggles by stating, “Should the accused confess, his honesty could only be proved by naming former confederates.” (Are You Now… 34) Miller is explaining how the court