Cancel Culture In The Crucible By Arthur Miller

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In the past few years it has become apparent that “trending” is a popular phenomenon, which has resulted in the term “cancel culture” being used frequently after becoming a trend on media platforms. Teens and young adults are the trend setters of the twenty-first century. Similarly, in Arthur Miller’s play The Crucible, a teenage girl named Abigail Williams starts the trend of shunning others throughout Salem Village by accusing several women of witchcraft. In a segment of the play, Abigail screams, “I saw Sarah. Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” to divert attention from herself (Miller 54). Once Abigail started naming citizens from Salem Village, Betty Parris, Abigail's younger cousin, …show more content…

The people who started these allegations are often white and should not have a say in the matter. Additionally, companies canceled for reasons related to sexual innuendos include GoDaddy, Balenciaga, and Tampax. All of the companies listed above produce relatively popular products; however, a marketing mistake changed people’s perception in a way the company did not intend. In other cases, companies get canceled based on people associated with said company, like Bud Light's partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer. These instances indicate that canceling companies and ordinary people are becoming more prominent in the U.S. as years go on. Cancel culture has been a trend since peaking in the late 2019 and early 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic (Brown). Consequently, TikTok also gained popularity while the Covid-19 quarantine was taking place. Reasons to believe that the two events share a connection stem from a common growth in popularity. Although, it is possible for cancellations to happen in person, most happen on social media platforms, especially …show more content…

On the other hand, many say that cancelling culture helps society become better people. The article, “Americans and 'Cancel Culture': Where Some See Calls for Accountability, Others See Censorship, Punishment”, written by Emily Vogels, demonstrates these beliefs by showing surveys taken in the United States. A statistic Vogels mentions concludes that 49% of the people familiar with the term “cancel culture,” view it as holding people accountable for their actions. A great alternative to blacklisting a person is to criticize their actions instead of bashing the person’s reputation. Pushpa Iyer’s article, “Arthur Miller Had it Right: The Crucible and Cancel Culture — Center for Conflict Studies” states that people should be more like Arthur Miller (Iyer). After being asked to reveal communist followers, Miller was defiant and did not disclose any names. If citizens stop canceling specific people and instead start canceling behaviors, people’s names would stop getting blacklisted, ultimately resulting in a harmonious society that learns from mistakes. Cancel culture is an increasing issue, harming innocent

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