The Crucible and McCarthyism
In the late 1600's, a tragedy fed by lies and personal grudges swept the town of Salem, Massachusetts. This tragedy was called the Salem Witchcraft Trials, where 20 innocent people were put to death based solely on the accusations of others. These others were also just girls who tried to save themselves by blaming others. After the injustice had been done, another "witch hunt" wouldn't occur until about 250 years later. However, these new "witch hunts" weren't for witches at all, but for the modern-day threat of communists in our government. Just like the old witch-hunts in Salem, the hunt for communists in the government resulted in many innocent people being wrongly accused and arrested. Though these events are separated by 260 years, the accusations and trials that followed are very similar. In The Crucible, the accusations were made based on feelings of greed, vengeance, jealousy, and fear. In addition, most of the people accused were people who were different from the group, or who looked different in some way. Also, if anyone dared to speak out against these charges, they were likely to be accused of witchcraft themselves. In the McCarthy-era, The kind of people targeted were likely to be left-inclined me
The judges of the Salem witch-trials were harsh and unfair toward the alleged witches. n and women of the 1930s who had witnessed the Great Crash, depression and chronic unemployment, the cruelty of unfettered capitalism and the rise of Nazism, especially threatening to Jews like Miller. In the 1950s, many people lost their jobs and couldn't get jobs if they had been on the blacklist, a list of people who were supposed communists. Like in Salem, in the 1940'-50's everything was done to get rid of people in the American Communist party. The punishment for those deemed a witch was death by a rope, unless they confessed their crime. In both time periods, many were wrongfully accused and had their lives ruined. Arthur Miller wrote this book as a lesson that should be learned by society. This placed a fear on society that discouraged anyone from speaking what they think for fear of being put on the blacklist. Anybody who spoke against the actions of McCarthy was in return, accused of being "soft on Communism. However, many did not confess because they new the truth, and if they gave in to church and its lies, then this tragedy may have never been righted. These head figures were Joseph McCarthy, who accused his opponents so that he would rise further in power, and Abigail Williams, who blamed anyone who stood in her way as she increasingly gained popularity in the town. In both occurrences, a head, or, main accuser pointed out others for their own benefit. People who had written books that criticized the government were almost automatically placed on the blacklist. The accused people in Salem had done nothing wrong, yet they were jailed and further punished if they did not confess to committing witchcraft.
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Acceptance Essays
