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Similarities between the salem witch trials and mccarthyism
Similarities salem witch trials and mccarthyism
Similarities between the salem witch trials and mccarthyism
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Both events created chaos by stirring up people's crazy fears. The "Red Scare" refers to the fear of communism in the 1950s. This was actually the second "Red Scare." This first took place earlier and referred to the fear that a Bolshevik revolution would take place in America. The second "Red Scare" was also known as "McCarthyism" due to its most famous supporter, a man named Senator Joseph McCarthy. After World War II, many people feared communism.
McCarthy accused the secretary of the army of concealing foreign espionage activities. The secretary discriminated by saying that members of McCarthy’s subcommittee staff had threatened army officials in order to obtain a certain treatment for an associate of the subcommittee that have been drafted recently. He accused some of the most well-known entertainers of the era, demanding the “naming of names”. Careers and lives were ruined by accusations, based on weak evidence.
In the Salem witch trials and McCarthyism were very similar. In the crucible, Abigail Williams and senator Joseph McCarthy both was popular at first, but after some events had happen and ended, they both lured out of the “spotlight” Abigail became a prostitute and senator McCarthy had really became a nobody.
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The Salem Witch Trials took place long before the communist Red Scare in America.
However, these trials were also a terrible event that scared many Americans, making them think that the Devil had taken over their society. Luckily, the only lasted about one year. In 1692, some young girls began acting strangely. It started in the home of a minister, the Reverend Samuel Parris. Reverend Parris had a slave from the Caribbean named Tituba. She and her friends had the reputation of dancing and screaming wildly. Their behavior started to spread to other girls. Many of the local ministers became afraid. Not even the local doctor could figure out what was going
on. Even though both the Red Scare and the Salem witch trials each had grains of truth to them, such as that communism was on the rise during this period and was popular in certain countries and the girls believed to be witches in the Salem Witch Trials were in fact acting foolishly, they were mainly movements based on false fears. Both movements scared a lot of American people into worrying that America would be taken over by the Communists during the Red Scare and the Devil during the Salem Witch Trials. The two situations were extremely similar in that there was a lot of fear surrounding an idea that was not actually true but because people started to be afraid and then influence others to be afraid it became a much more intense fear and movement. The people in both these events were afraid of different things but their fear spread throughout their communities and grew to a crazy mess
Besides similarities between “The Crucible”, Salem witch Trials, and the McCarthy Era there are differences. The Crucible/ Salem witch trials had people being hung that were believed to be witches compared to people just being put in prison when they were accused of being a communist in the McCarthy era. Also, anyone was able to charge someone else in “The Crucible” where during the McCarthy Era Joseph McCarthy was the one charging people, and no one else had any say about who was charged.
In 1860-1960 there was lynching in the United States. When the confederates (south) lost the civil war the slaves got freedom and got rights of human beings. This was just to say because segregation wasn 't over in the South and didn 't go away for over 100 years. Any black person in the South accused but not convicted of any crime of looking at a white woman, whistling at a white woman, touching a white woman, talking back to a white person, refusing to step into the gutter when a white person passed on the sidewalk, or in some way upsetting the local people was liable to be dragged from their house or jail cell by lots of people crowds, mutilated in a terrible
The Red Scare was given its name because everyone feared the idea of communism (“Red”) in America. Fear, especially spread out among a group, is a dangerous and chaotic thing that can cause people to do things that they would not normally do. It can cause people to betray others close to them or not trust some people they would normally trust.
It was perceived that the threat was posed by the communists. Due to this reason, the hysteria adopted the name the “Red Scare”.... ... middle of paper ... ... However, the minority groups started fighting for their rights so as to enjoy their privileges as stipulated by the constitution.
Another comparison between The Crucible and McCarthyism is that in both people were guilty of believe. In The Crucible, people who believed or practice witchcraft were executed and in McCarthyism the ones who believed or participate in Communism were guilty of belief.
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.
He was a Senator from Wisconsin who organized a campaign to search for and dig out any communists that were living in the US. McCarthy didn 't use fair and just techniques to find the alleged communists but rather used stereotypes, overgeneralization, and name calling to root them out (Westlund). When someone was accused of being a communist, they were asked to confess and say the names of other people they knew who were communists, so it essentially turned into a blame game which was very similar to the way it was in the Salem Witch Trials. In The Crucible, the character Abigail Williams represents Joseph McCarthy. Abigail Williams was a real person involved in the Salem Witch Hunt but her character in the play was altered a small bit for dramatic effect. In The Crucible, Abigail begins the witch hunt by making false accusations of witchcraft on innocent people. She uses lies and deception to blame others and to put herself up (Miller). People believe her accusations just like McCarthy’s because there was fear in the people and it caused them to be more willing to believe the accusations. They both had power at the time and no one really stood up against them because everyone was scared and they believed their claims (Westlund). Comparing Abigail Williams to Joseph McCarthy was just one of the comparisons that Arthur Miller made in his play The
One example of The Crucible being an allegory to the McCarthy Era is the similarity in the way people were accused. In both instances “Habeas corpus” and “Innocent until proven guilty” are not present. In The Crucible the accused entered the courtroom with a decided fate. To Judge Danforth they were guilty unless they could prove themselves innocent or confess and give him the names of other witches. Even though this was unfair, people were afraid that if they stood up to it than they too would be accused. In John Proctors case this was true. John Proctor goes to the courthouse to free his wife who has been accused of witchcraft. Slowly, Danforth and Hawthorn turn it against him and accuse him of witchcraft. All hell breaks loose in the courtroom and Proctor has an outburst.
The Crucible is paralleled directly to the Salem Witch Trials and indirectly to the McCarthy hearings of the 1950’s. The story of The Crucible takes place against the background of the Salem Witch, trials but the themes lie much deeper. The main themes expressed in The Crucible relate to the events that occurred at both the Salem Witch Trials and during the McCarthy era. At the Salem Witch Trials, one hundred fifty people were accused of practicing witchcraft and nineteen of those were convicted and executed. The evidence against these people was hardly substantial. At the McCarthy hearings, thousands of people were “blacklisted.” Anyone who tried to oppose the accusations was also viewed as a Communist. No one was convicted due to the more advanced legal system; still, that did not erase the fear that was instilled by the allegations.
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 horrors of history are passed on from generation to generation in hopes that they will never occur again. People look back on these times and are appalled at how horrendous the times were; yet, in the 1950s, history repeated itself. During this time, Joseph McCarthy, a United States senator from Wisconsin, began accusing people of being communists or communist sympathizers, which is parallel to the Salem witch trials in the late 1690s when innocent people were accused of practicing witchcraft. One of the people McCarthy accused was author and playwright Arthur Miller. To express his outrage at McCarthy’s actions, miller wrote The Crucible, intentionally drawing similarities between the McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials.
The leader of this modern day witch-hunt was Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, who was a dishonest and corrupt man. “Although a junior senator, he refused to follow Senate rules and customs, specialized in malicious attacks on his colleagues, and frequently thwarted committee work by trying to inject trivial and extraneous matters into committee discussions,” Oakley says, describing McCarthy’s ethics. McCarthy worked his way up the political ladder not by honestly winning but with deceit.
In 1692, everyone was sure that the Devil had come to Salem when young girls started screaming, barking like dogs and doing strange dances in the woods. The Salem Witch Trials originated in the home of Salem's reverend Samuel Parris, who had a slave from the Caribbean named Tibuta. Tibuta would tell stories about witchcraft back from her home. In early 1692 several of Salem's teenage girls began gathering in the kitchen with Tibuta. When winter turned to spring, many Salem residents were stunned at the acts and behaviors of Tibuta's young followers.
In an interview with Bill Moyers, Margaret Atwood spoke about cultures and societies in history coming under stress. “When society comes under stress, they begin to look for somebody to put the blame on, they will always scapegoat a person or a group of people.” Texts that represent Atwood’s statement are shown in a drama called The Crucible by Arthur Miller and a drawing called "It's okay -- we're hunting communists" by Herb Block. Also, they’re shown in Atwood’s poem, “Half-Hanged Mary” These sources, and many others, demonstrate the wicked people in society when their reputation is tested or at stake.
The first Red Scare was after the Bolshevik Revolution. The Bolshevik became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in Russia in 1917 (ended in 1920). The second Red Scare was before World War II. It created the fear of the American Communist and created McCarthyism. It was significant because it came in the aftermath of the first World War and the Bolshevik Revolution. Furthermore, they showed an extreme fear that lead to the violations of individual rights.