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The red scare joseph mccarthy
A essay on the red scare
A essay on the red scare
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In the 1950s, the Red Scare over Communist infiltration grasped America, turning friends against one another and prompting Communist accusations left and right. If accused, you could confess to Communism and accuse others, or face indictment yourself. This concept is quite similar to the Salem witch trials, in which accused witches were put in the same predicament. Written during the Red Scare, Arthur Miller produced a play called The Crucible, which uses the Salem witch trials as an allegory for the Communist hysteria. In this play, rumors of witchcraft stemmed from the boredom of a few teenage girls, and blossomed into an unprecedented hysteria. Accusations became widespread, and, since confession was the only way to avoid a hanging, confessions became widespread as well. When only a small group of stubborn resisters were left, the main character John Proctor had to make a difficult decision on whether he should confess or hang, and ends up hanging along with a few others to help save the integrity of their community. In his play The Crucible, Arthur Miller demonstrates that while some may view self-sacrifice as a pointless loss due to pride, the decision to sacrifice one’s life for the good of his community and the elimination of conformist attitudes is very noble. The enormity of this decision can instill a feeling of guilt and responsibility upon another, as occurs to the protagonist John Proctor, and can cause one’s views and actions to be altered. One view towards the issue of self-sacrifice is that it is a pointless waste of life due to pride. As the date of Proctor’s hanging approaches, he is encouraged by Parris, Danforth and even Reverend Hale to confess to witchcraft, which would thus validate the hanging of the rema... ... middle of paper ... ...e as simply a waste, however if it is done to help rid one’s community of conformity and hysteria, it is a noble act. Through the enormity of this act, others can be effected, and both their consciences and their actions can be affected. In the McCarthyism era, otherwise known as the Red Scare, it was also necessary for people to put themselves on the line in order to limit the scope of the hysteria and help it to settle down. Even if it meant risking their jobs and reputations, the resistance of these people, including Arthur Miller himself, was a necessary step in calming the hysteria. No matter what type of sacrifice you give, whether it be your reputation, your livelihood, your life, or something a little less drastic, putting your community before yourself is a noble action and without people to carry out this philosophy, hysterias would never come to an end.
Throughout history , it has been shown that, history has a tendency to repeat itself. In 1692, men and women were accused of witchcraft whether they were guilty or not. The place that this was occurring was, Salem, Massachusetts, a city full of puritans who came from Europe. Witchcraft was the among the worst crime any individual could do. This often times led to people being hung or exiled from the church. Many people were hung, even though they were innocent. Many years later during the WWII era, there was a lot of speculation about communists and their impact in America This era was known as the McCarthyism era, because, Sen. McCarthy was the leading America into a anti -communist state. In one case in particular was of a U.S AIr Force Lieutenant, Milo Radulovich, who was released from the Air Force due to the fact that his father, read a newspaper which was from Serbia, because he has a Serbian background, the Air Force believed his was pro-communism, since the newspaper favored communism. The Air Force also believed Milo was pro-communism because, his sister peacefully protested outside of a hotel which didn’t allow a communist member to stay at . Milo was born and raised in Michigan, he also dedicatedly served his country, he had no form of favor in communism. but was automatically placed under the notion that he supported communism and was fighting for them because his dad read a newspaper from a different country and his sister protested for equal rights. Neither Milo or his family did anything bad. Assumption thinking leads to stereotypes.
...fess to them Elizabeth” (238). He’s thinking about giving in to the corrupt church to save his own life like everyone else. But when the Judge Danforth asks him to sign his name on a document confessing of witch craft he won’t do it because he explains, “It is my name I cannot have another in my life because I lie and sign myself to lies. Proctor finally stands up for what’s right and he shows that he won’t taint his name in order to save his own life. So they send him to be hung but he dies with his honor and his integrity.
The Salem witch trials and the story of Joseph McCarthy are very similar; they both accused innocent people of doing things that were “bad” at the time. The Salem Witch trials were persecutions of men and woman on account of performing witchcraft. Two girls accused a woman of doing witchcraft and then the accusations continued, people accused other people to relieve their own punishment in a last ditch effort to save their lives, but it was in vein. After the witch trials were over “19 had been killed and an elderly man pressed to death under heavy stones”(Linder). “Some accused of witch craft were burned at the stake all in the name of justice”(Brown). Others were finally let out of jail after being in imprisonment for months at a time. Joseph McCarthy was the U.S senator for the state of Wyoming from 1947-1957, the year that he died. McCarthy became the most visible face in public during the time of the cold war in America. “McCarthy pursued unnecessary investigations, imprisonments and unprovoked acts to those who were being accused of being a communist”(Glitterrich). The term McC...
Many people look back on the events of the Salem witch trials and laugh at the absurdity of the allegations. It seems crazy that society could be fooled into believing in things like witches and deal with the events in such an extreme manner. It is a common belief that witch hunts are things of the past. Many people would agree that they no longer exist today; however Arthur Miller, author of the play, "The Crucible", points out that society has not come very far from the days of the Salem witch trials. In his play, he used the Salem witch trials to represent the McCarthy Era because he saw that the nation was facing the same events that Salem went through back in the late 1600's. Arthur Miller wrote "The Crucible" in an attempt to create moral awareness for society. He did so by making a few small changes to the history and creating parallels in the play with racism, human tendencies, and H.U.A.C.
In Arthur Miller's The Crucible, John Proctor, a proud and frustrated farmer of Salem, chooses to die rather than to give a false confession to witchcraft. Many might view this act as that of a selfless martyr; on the other hand, it can more readily be seen as the height of human stupidity in the face of vanity and pride.
Honor, dignity, and integrity are traits that are becoming more and more rare in our society. The Crucible, a play written in 1952 by Arthur Miller, is based on the Salem witch hunts of 1692 and parallels the Red Scare and McCarthyism in the 1950s. In the play, Miller attempts to focus his themes around traits such as honor, dignity, and integrity, and as a result, the theme "is it better to die honorably or live dishonorably" becomes vital to the story and well conveyed throughout it. The characters that exemplify this idea are John Proctor and Giles Corey, both of whom die by the end of the play, and Reverend John Hale and Abigail Williams, who live through the trials.
Through time it can be seen that the worls has a nature of repeating its history. We can learn a lot about reading Author Millers text the crucible as his own experience and setting of the troubling cold war has been reflected onto the characters of John Proctor and Giles Corey which give me a deeper understanding of them. Because of the parallel settings of Author Miller’s era, the 1950’s cold war, and the text’s setting the 1692 Salem witch hunt, I begin to question my own ideas of doing the right thing and if it came down to it, that I should always try to as good things will come of staying true.
The Crucible: Hysteria and Injustice Thesis Statement: The purpose is to educate and display to the reader the hysteria and injustice that can come from a group of people that thinks it's doing the "right" thing for society in relation to The Crucible by Arthur Miller. I. Introduction: The play is based on the real life witch hunts that occurred in the late 1600's in Salem, Massachusetts. It shows the people's fear of what they felt was the Devil's work and shows how a small group of powerful people wrongly accused and killed many people out of this fear and ignorance.
Events have played out in history that made people realize the inhumane acts of people and the Salem witch trials and the McCarthy era were two of them. The Salem witch trials in 1692 were almost 260 years before the McCarthy “witch hunts” in the 1950s yet there are similarities between them. The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller in 1953, is about the Salem witch trials and is an allegory to the practicing of McCarthyism during the Second Red Scare in the United States, which Miller was a victim of. Although there may be differences between “The Crucible” and McCarthyism, ultimately the anger, lack of evidence, and the people were alike in both events.
The play “The Crucible” is an allegory for the McCarthyism hysteria that occurred in the late 1940’s to the late 1950’s. Arthur Miller’s play “the crucible” and the McCarthyism era demonstrates how fear can begin conflict. The term McCarthyism has come to mean “the practice of making accusations of disloyalty”, which is the basis of the Salem witch trials presented in Arthur Miller’s play. The fear that the trials generate leads to the internal and external conflicts that some of the characters are faced with, in the play. The town’s people fear the consequences of admitting their displeasure of the trials and the character of John Proctor faces the same external conflict, but also his own internal conflict. The trials begin due to Abigail and her friends fearing the consequences of their defiance of Salem’s puritan society.
The play “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller was written in response to McCarthyism in the 1950’s. In 1692 and 1693 the Salem witch trials took place in Salem Massachusetts. Girls believed to be involved in witchcraft were responsible for these trials. In the late 1940’s and early 1950’s senator McCarthy came to office. Senator McCarthy and some of his allies were responsible for hysteria in the United States of America in the 1950’s. The scare was also in result of a communist scare after World War II and leading to the cold war. The behavior of the people of the Salem witch trials and Americans in the 19050’s resulted in a big scare in reaction to hysteria.
People make life or death choices every day. In The Crucible, John Proctor and others decided dying honestly was better than living a lie. At this time, countless were accused of witchcraft and working with the devil in the town of Salem, MA. In this play, Reverend Hale told Elizabeth proctor “no principle, however glorious, is worth dying for.” He argued that living a life of dishonesty is better than dying for the truth, trying to persuade John to live, but as a devil's advocate. But John believed no life was worth living if it was full of falsifies information.
Dubliner by James Joyce is full of epiphanies that characters experience about the lives they live. All of the stories in Dubliners share the common themes of realization, and awareness. As the stories progress “The Sisters” and “the Dead” show the real way of life in Dublin in the early 20th century. These stories were not only showing the truth in the characters lives, but the true problems of Dublin in the 20th century. These themes are echoed throughout both “The Sisters” and “The Dead” and result in the main characters becoming more aware of their mortality and surroundings.
...d from taking these drugs and both people who seek treatment and enhancement are granted access to them?
A common aspect of African culture is our mediating of deities, ancestors, and spirits, by performing rituals and contacting ancestors or historical ideals. This spiritual combination creates a non-Western idea of movement in art. I enjoy this part of our culture, where we create a less static environment. We become other beings, through our usage of art, dance, and costume with mask and headwear. Our artistic creators are forgotten. Our original artwork are eventually forgotten. The work goes back to the Earth, for the only true matter is how the spirits are manifested in the objects at the current time; eventually even this wears out. At the time of the spiritual manifestation in the objects, they are some of the most powerful aspects in our society.