Joseph Mccarthyism In The Crucible

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After reading “The Crucible”, I found that Arthur Miller is trying to show us how we lose sight of what is right and what is wrong. While writing the play, Arthur Miller watched America enter a period of hysteria due to the statements of one man, Joseph McCarthy. During this time, Miller decided to write a story of gangs living in New York. When he presented the story to others, he was asked to make the gang members be Communists. This suggestion proved that Americans had lost their sense of morality. They were convinced that Communists were evil people who wanted to destroy the country. While none of these ideas were true, people continued to hate the Communists because they were seen as troublemakers who needed to be oppressed. As …show more content…
As tensions rise in the small town of Salem, people begin to capitulate to the authority of the girls. As a reader, it is easy to see that Abigail and the other women pretend to be haunted, but for the townspeople they are perplexed. The people fail to see how they have been tricked into supporting the oligarchical group of girls. Moreover, the townspeople embrace the new faction of leadership, much like Americans during the 1950s with Joseph McCarthy as their tyrant. The admiration for Salem’s corrupt rule is first expressed by Mary Warren after returning from a long day of trials. Mary exclaimed to John Procter, “You must see it, sir, it’s God’s work we do ... The Devil’s loose in Salem, Mr. Procter; we must discover where he’s hiding!” (63). Warren’s apocryphal assertion proves how Salem is so taken by the flawed leadership of girls. She shows that in with oligarchical rule, hysterical claims follow. Mary Warren, an average citizen, exemplifies that when life rapidly changes, horrible leaders may appear fit for a position when in reality they are

The Role Of Joseph Mccarthyism In The Crucible

Joseph McCarthy was a U.S senator who served from Wisconsin. Joseph McCarthy is related to the play because he started what is known as McCarthyism. McCarthyism is the practice of falsely accusing government employees of communism. The Crucible has a similar act where the young girls involved in the Salem witch trials were falsely accused of…

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Essay Comparing The Crucible And Joseph Mccarthyism

‘50’s. A man named Joseph McCarthy helped escalate this paranoia. The sense of paranoia, among other similarities, is clearly present in The Crucible more than any other work of modern literature. The most obvious way The Crucible relates to McCarthyism is how the residents of Salem are afraid of witchcraft taking over their village the same way that Americans are fearful of Communism taking over their country. Communism and witchcraft are both taboo ideas in society. In The Crucible, the “higher power”…

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The Crucible Research Paper

How does McCarthyism relate to “The Crucible”? Why would Arthur Miller use the Salem Witch Hunts to make commentary on the Anti-American Activities Act? What is the difference between McCarthyism and “The Crucible”? What do you think Arthur Miller would say on the subject?Given the situation on McCarthyism, “The Crucible” can relate really well to the subject. The following paragraphs will be providing information from multiple resources on the matter of McCarthyism As well will be providing quotes…

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The Crucible Essay

2015 The Similarities Between The Crucible and The Red Scare Accusing someone of false accusations is easy. Seeing that someone face consequences for those accusations is difficult and often unheard of. In the case of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible the false accusations made by the girls were carried out causing the victim’s lives to end with a rope around their neck and nothing more than air beneath their feet. A similar connection is found between Sen. Joseph McCarthy and the people associated with the Red…

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Mccarthyism In The Crucible

being accused of witchcraft. This took place in Massachusetts during the early 1690s. McCarthyism is also about people being accused but it is Communist not witchcraft and took place in the 1950s. The Crucible demonstrates the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s and McCarthyism of the 1950s because it shows how a society can be fueled by fear. To begin with, both those accused in The Crucible and those accused during the McCarthy hearings were found guilty with little evidence…

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Essay about The Crucible's Parallels to the McCarthy Era

The Crucible is a clear representation of the era of McCarthyism. The McCarthyism Era was an era when people around the country were being accused of being Communist spies. This event was led by Senator Joseph McCarthy and Human Un-America Activities Committee (HUAC). Thousands of Americans were being investigated relentlessly and some lost their jobs to this outbreak of hysteria. The Crucible directly related to the events in the McCarthyism Era. For example, the village of Salem in The Crucible…

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The Crucible Vs Mccarthyism Essay

200 townspeople. Of those 200 people, 20 hanged. Throughout The Crucible, it explains the ridiculous trials the people went through to try to prove their innocence. The Red Scare shows parallelism to The Crucible because people went to great lengths to prove their innocence of McCarthyism, just like they tried to do when accused of witchcraft. The Crucible contains multiple occasions where the events that happen parallel McCarthyism such as: the unreasonable claims, the hostility towards the accusers…

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The Crucible: An Allegory For Mccarthyism

The Crucible is an allegory for McCarthyism. If you look deeper into it, there is another meaning. The obvious meaning is the Salem witch hunt and the hidden meaning is McCarthyism. Both stories have to deal with fear and hysteria. Fear of spread of communism or witchcraft. In The Crucible Salem was a place that was surrounded by the forest which was sought out to be where all evil was. Everyone knew each other's business in Salem and this caused the fear of witchcraft to spread. Parris goes speaks…

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Salem Witch Trials and Elizabeth Proctor Essay

12/9/13 Research for the Joseph McCarthy essay: (if we ever have school) McCarthy then ran as the Republican candidate for the Wisconsin Senate seat, where he used propaganda and erroneous accusations against his opponent, Robert La Follette, to promote his own campaign As re-election began to loom closer, McCarthy, whose first term was unimpressive, searched for ways to ensure his political success, resorting even to corruption The American public went crazy with the thought of seditious…

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Essay on Crucible: Salem Witch Trials and Red Scare

repeating itself are in Arthur Miller's "The Crucible". Miller did not get his inspiration just from his own mind but from a period of time, were people were extremely judgmental and prosecuted people for false accusations, but this seems to happen over and over in history. For example, the event of the Red Scare which is also known as the McCarthyism. The Red Scare had less harsh consequences, but the same rippling events throughout time. In 1953, The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, created hysteria…

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