Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

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Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible’ is set during the Salem Witch Trials, a time where McCarthyism was an acceptable idea. McCarthyism is a practice where accusations are made on people based on little to no evidence. In 'The Crucible' allegations are made against innocent people, especially women. The women and men are then put on trial for practicing witchcraft. The court system functioned on unfair and unjust trials; their main motive being for the accused to confess. The only way to survive being executed was to confess and give names of others who were involved. Failing to confess eventually lead to one’s death by hanging, pressing, and other horrific inhumane methods. In modern times, we see McCarthyism linked to race. Criminal accusations are placed on African Americans today that date as far back as the 1700s. African Americans were seen as inferior people and more prone to committing crimes. These accusations prompted many unjust arrests and deaths. …show more content…

African Americans make up a small percentage of the population but dominate the inmate population. In the report "Jail Inmates at Midyear 2014" written by BJS Statisticians, Todd D. Minton, and Zhen Zeng, it is stated that "of the total jail population, blacks represented 35 percent" (Department of Justice, 2014). These numbers contribute to the growing issue of negative stereotypes on African Americans. Because of this, African Americans have a higher chance of being stopped by police. In an article published in 2013 by the New York Times, the author talks about stop and frisk statistics in New York City stating that "In about 83 percent of cases, the person stopped was black or Hispanic" (The New York Times). This statement proves that police and law enforcement discriminate against blacks and other minorities such as Hispanics, by stopping them in most of their

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    In conclusion Arthur Miller saw the similarities in The McCarthy Era and The Salem Witch Trials, and portrayed them in “The Crucible.” The lives of many people were destroyed during these times in history.

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  • Over-Exaggerations on McCarthyism in The Crucible by Arthur Miller

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    “I visited Salem for the first time on a dismal spring day in 1952….” (Miller 1095) that’s what started it all. Arthur Miller was motivated to write The Crucible due to the trauma done to the liberals during the McCarthyism trials. The question is, was he a little too motivated to write it? Could his thirst for vengeance for those accused fuel him to over-exaggerate what happened in order to prove a point? Arthur Miller overused his artistic license because Joseph McCarthy was accusing important people of being communists, he wasn’t exactly like Danforth, and some of the accused in the McCarthyism trials were actual communists.

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  • Girls who Cried Witch in The Crucible

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    In “The Crucible”, the author, Arthur Miller, conveys what he believes Senator Joe McCarthy is doing during the Red Scare. The Salem Witch Trials were true events, while this play uses these trials and adds a fictional twist to show a point. Witchcraft was punishable by death during this time. Once names started flying in town it was like a chain reaction, people were accusing others of witchcraft because they were not fond of them or they had something they wanted. Some definitions state mass hysteria as contagious, the characters in this play deemed it true. In this play, innocent people were hung because some of the girls in town cried witch.

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  • Abigail Reputation In The Crucible And Mccarthyism

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    The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, was written during the early 1950s.It was the time of The rise of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s.All throughout history, accusations of witchcraft have been used as an excuse for the discrimination of people who cultures, traditions, race, and ideas were not easily accepted nor understood by the society even if it was untrue.In today’s society students are taught this because it show’s how important “The Crucible, and McCarthyism were and what changes they went through because of the human condition.It is extremely important and appropriate because it allows students the opportunity to respond in terms of their own experiences .The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism had many similarities. In The Crucible Abigail

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  • Parallels Between The Crucible and McCarthy Era

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  • Selflessness And Selflessness In Arthur Miller's The Crucible

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    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.

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    Arthur Miller’s The Crucible is a play that was first performed in 1953 in the United States of America in the midst of the persecution of alleged communists during the era of McCarthyism. Although the play explicitly addresses the Salem which hunt, many find that the play is an analogy to McCarthyism due to the striking similarities in which the people behaved. Miller highlight the different groups of characters in order to reveal overlying ideas of the play such as: Self preservation, power, and hypocrisy.

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