Comparing The Crucible And Mccarthyism

Every student has read a story with no understanding or motivation, only to pass the test and move on. Little do these students know… there is some education behind these passages. In 11th grade students are required to read The Crucible, and what students think no more than a play, there is so much more. To be able to understand what you are reading, you must dig deep and focus on what is important. McCarthyism and The Crucible are two stories that connect in a way that many people disregard.

In addition, what catches our attention is that McCarthyism and the Red Scare both fit right into History and English. McCarthyism signifies the intense anti-Communist movement that occurred in the United States. McCarthy accused people and left it to them to prove their innocence. In one of his cases he made the accusation, because there was no proof that the person was not a communist. Red Scare prevented communism from

pervading itself into our society and government. It also was rallied Americans into having one enemy, that enemy being the Soviet Union and Communists.
Pursuing this further, The Crucible was similar to the events that occurred during the Red Scare.

People were being persecuted for acting or thinking a peculiar way in each novel. The play is a parable for the McCarthy era, in which similar ‘witch hunts’ occurred targeting citizens as communists rather than disciples of Satan. In the Red Scare people were accused of being witches, were arrested, given a quick trial, and then burned at the stake. In The Crucible, people were being found guilty of witchcraft with no real proof at all.

You can see why today we learn to depend on facts, and not superstition, speculation, or fanaticism. We should be able to learn how to be tolerant of our surroundings and not to demand conformity. We need to allow ourselves to admit to our own faults and to never judge a book by its cover. Hysteria led to a lot of innocent people getting executed, which then led to them getting labeled as witches by people who were apprehensive that if they didn’t point the finger at someone, then someone would point the finger at

them.
As already stated, make sure you read a little deeper into the novel to get a better understanding of what you read. After reading these novels are you going to look back and say, “that was a waste of time”, or “I learned something new today”? To be able to get into a book you must have knowledge of it, so focus on the main ideas to pull out information that may help you in the future. In high school you may think you are just given an assignment to get a grade, but throughout life it will come back to you.