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Argumentative Essay On The Crucible

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Scapegoating: Taking Heat From Someone Else's Flame In an interview on Faith and Religion with Bill Moyers from PBS, Margaret Atwood once said, “Under stress, society will always scapegoat a person or a group of people.” This belief is shown in the texts The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the cartoon “It’s okay -- We’re hunting Communist” by Herb Block, and her own poem “Half Hanged Mary”. In The Crucible Salem, Massachusetts suddenly has a problem with witchcraft. Most of the townspeople and farmers accuse one another of witchcraft either for land or revenge. In “It’s okay -- We’re hunting Communists” the government is chasing after Communist but hurting people in the meantime. In “Half Hanged Mary” the town hangs a woman called by Mary Webster for witchcraft. “Under stress, a society will always scapegoat a person or a group of people” in hopes to get rid of a huge issue at stake, not thinking of the damages of the people not associated with the problem. A presentable text to justify this statement is The Crucible by Arthur Miller. In this story a small village in Salem, Massachusetts has a scare of witchcraft. Instead of taking the …show more content…

As seen in the examples above, society will do whatever it takes to solve “the bigger problem” even if it means burning the innocent. Society doesn’t stop to look back nor ahead to see the damages they’ve caused or are going to cause, they just throw the torch and wait for the town or people to fan the flame. In order for the scapegoating to come to an end, the people must first want it to end. The people must show they truly want it to stop and put forth the effort to bring scapegoating to an end no matter how bad the situation looks or is. “Under stress, a society will always scapegoat a person or a group of people” doesn’t have to be true, but unfortunately in most cases it is true and there are cartoons, plays, and poems to prove

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In both The Crucible and in modern day witch hunts, witch hunts are caused out of fear or for personal gain. Jill Schonebelen wrote a research paper on Witchcraft allegations, refugee protection and human rights. Throughout this article, it mentions the persecution of witches today in communities around the globe, mentioning the flashbacks of similar strategies that were used in the past, doing different types of tortures. In Modern days, recent generations have abandoned wonderful traditions. Rather, recollecting others with distasteful memories such as witchcraft.

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The times back then were terrible. The Crucible is a play written by Arthur Miller in 1953 about The Salem Witch Trials of 1692.McCarthyism was the “witch hunt” for the communist in 1953.the parallels between The Crucible and McCarthyism are naming names,lack of proof ,and reststance. The first reason they are parallel is because of naming names. Hollywood director Elia Kazan went in front of the HUAC twice. The first time he did not confess and names.

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Society as a whole seeks to satisfy themselves. This may be at the expense of their peers or individuals they are associated with. Arthur Miller brilliantly displays this dark side of humanity’s side in his play The Crucible. This play is based on the Salem witch trials in the early 1690s. During the Salem witch trials over two hundred people were accused of witchcraft and twenty were executed.

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Throughout history, there have been many examples of cruelty within society. Often times, this cruelty comes from fear, suspicion, and ignorance. Within the text “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, readers can see that fear can cause people to be cruel to each other. Likewise, the article “Japanese-Americans Internment Camps” supports cruelty caused by suspicion, and “A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials” by Jess Blumberg demonstrates how ignorance can destroy a society.

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During the late 17th century a total of 200 people were accused of participating in witchcraft, while 19 people lost their lives to the mass hysteria. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a group of girls start a huge uproar in Salem, Massachusetts when they start screeching about Salemites being associated with the Devil. Throughout the play write, it shows the consequences of mass hysteria and how it puts people's lives in danger. Abigail Williams causes a wave of mass hysteria and because of her trickery, innocent people have died by her and the other girl’s actions, for this Abigail is the most unforgivable character in The Crucible.

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Chloe Pendleton Mrs. Liz Hall Honors English III 13 February 2017 The Witch Hunters’ False Accusations The Crucible by Arthur Miller tells the story of the vindictive town of Salem and its unproportional amount of accusations of witchcraft. Vengeful “witch hunters” left no time to spare when making accusations on their neighborhood enemies. However, many were guilty of caving into their own weaknesses and only feared to be caught in their acts of hypocrisy. Weakness, hypocrisy, vindictiveness: only few of the many words that describe the guilty desires and revenge that lingered among the town of Salem.

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Society needs scapegoats to feel safe, successful, and content because people strive to conform with one another. By having the general public agree that one person is the cause of a problem, people feel comfortable knowing they share the same thoughts. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, a short story by Ursula Le Guin, describes a town that has reached prosperity by unanimously making one child suffer. Whether or not people know why they inflict pain on the child, “they all understand that their happiness… [depends] wholly on this child’s abominable misery.” Because everyone agrees to blame the child for his potential to end Omelas’ happiness, they are following conformity.

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Based on the tragic events of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, The Crucible is a hard-hitting tale that reflects upon the subjectivity of goodness and virtue, sparking the reflection of the importance of moral behavior during times of hardship and crisis. In an unyielding and restricted Puritan community like Salem village, a bad reputation could result in social exclusion and scorning from the community. As a result, many members of the community would go to extremes to avoid tarnishing their reputations. The Crucible asserts that those who are concerned only with protecting their standings are dangerous to a society, as they are willing to blame and hurt other people in order to protect themselves.

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The Crucible Argumentative Essay John Proctor should have risked taking a stand against a system that was against his beliefs. In the past, people have sacrificed themselves for what they believed in. As seen in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, John Proctor defies the court, and it results in his execution. John Proctor should have risked taking the stand, because he maintained his reputation as a good man and role model.

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The loud cackle, green skin, broomstick and pot of potions all bring the thought of witches to mind. In Salem, Massachusetts though, thoughts of witches were found in a different source, the very faces of their own neighbors. It was discovered, that these witches found in Salem may have come through the rising social pressures in the belief of the existents of witches. In “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, he illustrates the social pressures during the Salem witch Trial Era. Miller shows that due to social pressures, Parris, Hale, and Proctor’s actions and choices were influenced; whether to hang and condemn someone, to seek the truth no matter how drastic, or die because you refused to give in.

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In The Crucible, a story written by Arthur Miller in the early 50’s, the town of Salem is exposed to a horrific witch hysteria caused by the town’s grudges, and rivalries towards each other. These events are caused by a group of girls who get caught in an awful situation, and lied about witchcraft in order to get away. With these girls new power they, and many others used this to get revenge on those who have wronged them. So the village goes around making false accusations against innocent members of the town. In total, nineteen lives were lost to the towns selfish/unfair actions.

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Although, many people that were condemned weren’t actually apart of the Communist Party, (under McCarthyism around 1950-1954) they got blacklisted or lost their jobs. This social injustice is also portrayed in The Crucible as its characters face the Salem Witch Trials. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible as his own reaction to the injustice of McCarthyism. Miller’s purpose was to show how people accused each other with false denunciations because of their fear, jealousy and solely hatred of one another under McCarthyism.

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1146 Words | 5 Pages

In Salem, Massachusetts 1692, there were no true witches, meaning no one really signed the devil’s book and went around hurting others; even the ones who confessed to being witches were guiltless (“World”). The witch trials of Salem in the spring of 1692 were a “classic example of scapegoating”(Brooks). Today’s theories as to why these trials happened include epilepsy, boredom, abuse, suffering from a disease from eating rye, or mental sickness (Brooks). As illustrated in The Crucible, social and political tensions contributed to the mass hysteria that resulted in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692. There were many factors that sparked the witch trials.

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Is Scapegoating The Solution? “A society that is under stress will always scapegoat a group of people or one person.” (Moyer, Bill. “Interview with Margaret Atwood”) . People seem to assume when something is going wrong or is about to go wrong they can just cover it up by blaming someone else for the problem.

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Shawn Jande Ms. Clancy American Literature B3 15 November 2015 The Crucible Analytical Essay Imagine, being accused of a crime you didn’t commit by your neighbors and friends out of jealousy, and desire. This is what many people in the town of Salem had to go through during the time of the Salem Witch Trials. People's motives such as: gaining and maintaining power, and aspirations for what other people had caused them to make irrational, and atrocious decisions. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, desire and power drive characters to create chaos in the community.

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