The Crucible Chapter 22 Analysis

Ch. 21-30

By chapter 21, the group has reached Dehli, India. Every time they see Cacciato and he escapes, they find a clue that takes them further. We learn in chapter 22 more about the personality of the members of the group. Eddie likes to sing and listen to music, so music is his way of dealing and coping with the war. Also, although Johnson claims to be from Michigan, he sends every letter to Maine. Just like this, everyone in the group is lying to themselves in some way, as they think they are going after cacciato to stop him and arrest him, but really they are trying to escape Vietnam and escape the war. Penderson clings (or clinged while he was alive) to his religion as a means of coping with the war and tried to stop the brutality

Doc Peret is focused on getting results and surviving like any other soldier. The names that the men go by suggest that the war forced these men to present one form of themselves to each other, while they are having to confront forms of themselves they never had to before- war is as much with oneself as the enemy. Lieutenant Corson falls in love with an Indian girl, and this suggests that Corson is lonely and desperate to make a friend. Vietnam is actually mentioned for the first time in chapter 23, this is significant as they try not to mention it as it is a painful reality they want to escape. Corson also sees his wife in Jolly, and misses her, which is a reason why he falls in love with Jolly. In chapter 24 the soldiers are going for a stand down in which they can forget their tension and trauma for a while, but it isn’t easily escapable or forgettable. The soundproof rooms they go in to call their families shows the privacy and the fact that all the soldiers keep their family lives secret. Berlin places a call to his parents, and can’t bring himself to think of what to say to them, which reveals a troubled relationship he has with them. He is both saddened and relieved when his mother does not pick

They try to escape the war and run away, however, they cannot escape the reality of the war. In this time the US was in the cold war and determined to stop communism from spreading anywhere. The US went into Vietnam to stop the spread of communism, but the war was HIGHLY protested in the US and not popular with the soldiers or the people of Vietnam who supported the communist regime. Because of this, the war was nearly impossible for the US to win, and the soldiers endured intense suffering in the jungles of Vietnam. The My Lai massacre was one of the most important events that showed that the distinction between enemy and ally was blurred, and American forces shot at anyone, man woman or child, they saw. This kind of brutality led to the mental breakdown of soldiers like Billy Boy and Berlin. Additionally, the American soldiers didn’t even really understand why they were in Vietnam fighting or did not strongly believe their cause. Vietnam is considered a shameful war in the US so when those veterans returned they were not treated with honor and gratitude, rather with disdain, which further took a toll on several of the soldiers who returned. The book also characterized war in general as not only being external but internal. War is about survival, and maintaining one’s mental stability and sanity. One’s greatest