The Crucible Dbq

Have you ever avoided punishment by lying or blaming someone else? Recently, on social media, reviewing this video, it mentions a clever eleven year old who broke his mom’s favorite vase and instead of telling the truth. He happens to blame the fault on his sister, who couldn’t even talk since she was only three. Similar to this, in the Crucible, they blamed one another to avoid punishment. In McCarthyism, an even smarter method, of rejecting the questioning overall which still led to avoidance of punishment just like the eleven year old and the Crucible. The associations among the Crucible and McCarthyism is almost indistinguishable as they relate in betrayal , denial, and unsubstantiated evidence.

To enumerate, the betrayal in the Crucible and McCarthyism are distinguished by the people giving names of others to get out of the agitation themselves. In

Document A, Mr. Kazan alters his decision to surrendering the names of his unit, which were apart of the Group Theater acting company. He also does this because the judge, Mr. Walter, puts as if it was a good deed to give up the names. Kazan is basically sweet talked into giving up the names since Mr. Walter voices Kazan as he makes him feel he was alleviating the government and the information given can stop the ‘Communist conspiracy that for world domination’ . Mr. Kazan also changes his mind after hearing the punishment it may cause on him. So instead of contradicting and receiving punishment, he decides to enlist all the names he can recall. This is a form of betrayal because he gives up the name of his comrades for his own good and all the information he had about them. As a matter of fact, in Document B, Hale exerts pressure on Tituba, and commends her that the lord will bless her for help, this furthermore is similar to Mr. Walter sweet talking Mr. Kazan. However, in Document B, Abigail and Betty during court are mandated to confess of their accusations and they in turn lie to Reverend Parris and Hale, accusing about twelve other people. They accuse others because the girls don’t want to receive any consequences similar to Mr. Kazan and this causes a great controversy since the others were innocent but now are also stipulated to lie and confess.
Equally essential would be the denial the conviction of more hysteria then dishonesty.

As George Washington once said “ It is better to offer no excuse then a bad one” which to seems very significant, so significant that people such as Giles Corey and Mr. Seeger would receive punishment for. In Document E, Mr. Seeger was convicted to court and called upon to be directed an answer. In spite of knowing the dangers that may come, he decided not to respond and stay diligent to Albert Einstein’s statement. Henceforth, he received punishment which were one year in prison and to remain blacklisted till the 1960s.Similarly, in the Crucible, Document F, Giles Corey received indictment, where you get stones put on your chest till you collapse. He was given this punishment for not answering the charge because he knew he was going to get hung and die either way. However, this way he died loyal and in the end it was a benefit for his sons as Giles faded with a smile on his face. Mr. Seeger and Giles Corey both were given punishment for their false accusation, and in the end they stayed strong no matter the

consequence.
Hindmost but abundant, is the sole reason why the trials and the case was put to an end, the lack of evidence. In Document C, in Joseph McCarthy’s photograph he shows that he has a list of the alleged Communist Party members. He even makes clear that their is exactly two hundred and five people, however, in the note ‘he changes the amount of names given to 57 communists and then to 81 but again down to 10.’ This proves that he had no concrete evidence just the curiosity of his mind which backfired him into being one of the worst senator. Likewise, in document D, Hale shows a list of seventy-two death warrants and is unsure why to take so many lives without proof. Despite that, Danforth still goes on to say that since he has many years of experience “don’t doubt my justice” and knows the difference between a normal crime as to an invisible one. An invisible crime being one without evidence but based on the accusation made by a victim which he solely relies on. This is very alike in terms of Joseph McCarthy as he is the victim and solely blames others without any hard evidence, that also causes in the people such as Mr. Seeger, who got blacklisted for an ‘invisible crime‘.
In conclusion, the parallels of the Witch Trials and McCarthyism are not as different as one may think and very similar. They both try to avoid punishment by denial, betrayal and the judges were very scarce in evidence which lead to massive tombstones and blacklists for unsound reasons.