The themes of novels and plays often reflect the time period they were written in. The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, was written in the early 1950s, the same time the McCarthy hearings occurred. The Crucible has many parallels to McCarthyism, most evident are scapegoating leading to witch-hunts, the atmosphere of fear created, and the leading of witnesses.
             In 1950, the Soviet Union possessed the atomic bomb, Mao's army had seized power in China, and America's power over the world appeared to be rapidly decreasing. Americans began to look for an answer and Senator McCarthy provided one by accusing many innocent government officials of being members of the Communist Party (Carlson 44). Answers were also sought after in The Crucible. After Betty Parris, Abigail Williams, and other village girls are discovered dancing in the forest by Reverend Parris, Betty Parris takes sick to her bed (Miller 9). To avoid punishment the girls claim witchcraft brought them to the woods and are eager to yell out the names of the witches whose magic forced them there (Miller 40-46). Also, Ann Putnam, an older woman in the community, seized the opportunity to blame her seven dead infants on the supernatural, and accuses her midwives, including Rebecca Nurse, of witchcraft (Miller 44). In both the Salem witch-trials and the McCarthy time periods, scapegoating became an easy way out and quickly started witch-hunts.
             The atmosphere of fear created by accusers in the Salem witch-trails and the McCarthy hearings are strikingly similar. In the 1950s, politicians who opposed McCarthy often found themselves jobless and accused of "protecting communists" (Carlson 45). In The Crucible, Abigail Williams threatens her fellow accusers:
             Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. (Miller 19)
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