The Crucible and McCarthyism-Wrongly Accused
The events of Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" and those of the McCarthy scandals may be separated by some two hundred and sixty years, but are joined in the sense that elements of societies each sought only evidence of guilt. The events that occurred in these two situations show that even the most advanced of societies can be corrupted or mislead by things that are not true. Today, people believe that something like the Salem witch trials or McCarthyism could never happen again, but these events should be a constant reminder to society that nothing is impossible. Even up to this very day people point the finger at others and blame them for things that may not be true, but they believe to be. An example of this is society singling out a certain race of people, or people of a certain religious belief. People's need for their own success and power may sometimes influence their words and actions towards other people. The start of all the witchcraft hysteria began in early New England in 1647. This was the year that the first accusations and executions took place. When we think of Puritans who lived back then, we see them as being very strict and religious. This is a common misconception of them. "Generall
"The executions of twenty "witches" seems no minor matter when seen from a distance of three hundred years"(Martine 4). This quote is explains how it does not seem like much today, but back then it was a whole lot of people. If you were to do the same thing today there would be a lot more people dead to equal the amount of twenty people dead back then. During the height of McCarthyism, statistics show, "ten thousand people may have lost their jobs"(Schrecker 1). This is a more realistic number for people to look at today, because it portrays the real effects of the situation. In the time period of the Salem witch trials twenty people may seem like ten thousand to us today. The people of Salem were thus very similar to those of the 1950's, "their past and heritage were not all that distant-not as distant as their world was from that of the 1950's"(Martine 4). "The story of witchcraft in early New England spotlighted very sharply the power of local gossip"(Demos 246). This statement is very true in the Salem trials, but also in the case of Senator McCarthy. McCarthy did not have any concrete facts, but based everything he said about others on gossip. He made up lies against people he wanted to be accused of communism. McCarthy claimed, "he had the names of two-hundred and five persons in the U.S. State Department who were members of the communist party"(Martine 8). McCarthy's lists of people who were communists became to be known as his blacklists. Just like in "The Crucible", where there was such a fear of witchcraft, McCarthy created a fear of communism. "The nightmares of many Americans thus came true-there were witches after all, and some of them were our neighbors"(Martine 9). This shows just how afraid the American society was of another case like the Salem witch trials. In both the cases, something that had started off from a small suspicion had now become a huge reality. All because one person or a group of people took things into their own hands, and stopped thinking about other for that period of time. Another one of the many reasons that causes people to accuse others is a lack of knowledge. In Salem the people did not know much about witchcraft. Their lack of information about the subject created a fear of it. This case can be very similarly related to that of McC
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1563
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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