Salem Witch Trials vs. the McCarthy Witch Hunt In history things repeat, this is seen when the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Witch Hearings are compared. While the Salem witch trials occurred in the late 1600’s, a similar unfortunate situation occurred in the 1950’s with an event called McCarthyism. Although both take place in two very different time periods of history a lot is shared between the two, even though one of them was political and the other was more biblical. These two periods in time create an idea that if someone powerful in society viewed something as wrong then it became known as a sin or a crime. For both the Salem Witch Trials and the McCarthy Witch Hunt false accusations and false evidence became the foundation of the problems along with power of the mind. The Crucible is a metaphor for the accusations made in the 1950’s during the Red Scare era. Falsely made evidence by innocent accused people that were trying to save themselves prolonged the witch trials as each went on more people were blamed fueling the fire more. In the Crucible by Arthur Miller based on the Salem Witch Trials, witchery became paranoia for the puritan town of Salem, in this time there was only a biblical influence and anything that was considered non-biblical had to do with witchery or the devil. In the 1950's during the McCarthyism era thousands of Americans were accused of being communists and became the subject of investigations and questioning before committees and agencies. The constant accusations went on until the original list of over 200 grew to almost 10,000. The main targets of suspicions were those who had the most influence on the American people such as famous people, politicians and educators, those found guilty of being a communist were then publicly out casted.
Un-realistic and false accusations became truth for the Puritans, everything became about saving themselves, this meant betraying neighbors and friends for both witch hunts. These accusations all got started by simply paranoia, as soon as somebody thought someone else was a witch and they were publicly accused the choices were death by hanging or save yourself by accusing somebody else. In the crucible it all got started by a group of teenage girls who knew how to take advantage of people. When a witch specialist was called in they listened to the information he gave out about witches then used it against others. Both witch hunts were driven by the fact that society deemed it to be wrong so those accused of witchery or communism became out casted or killed. With the McCarthy hunt a lot had to do with the fear of being out casted so people followed along even if it was against what they believed in it was the only way they could really survive. In both you see friends and neighbors turning on each other and enemies rising to power, the false
