Compare The Crucible To The Red Scare

The Crucible Allegorizes to the Red Scare

She’s a witch! He’s a Communist! Two very famous accusations that pivoted the lives of many Americans throughout history. The Crucible by Arthur Miller paints a picture of the 1690’s Puritan settlement in Salem, Massachusetts who conducted witch trials to rid the town of people who had been taken over by the Devil and accused anyone who had ever wronged them, and without any evidence they were hanged for equating with the Devil. Arthur Miller, who was a famous author living during the 1950’s, wrote this play to allegorize the Communist Red Scare when the government and paranoid citizens hunted for Communists in America, and without much evidence, thousands of Americans were deported. Evidently, the

People thought that because the Russian czar had been overthrown and executed by strikes that the labor unions of America were being taken over by Communist immigrants with the same goal in mind. Soon, people became obsessed with the Communistic threat coming from Russia following World War II, which led to violence and disregard of civil liberties. “The U.S. government, mainly the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) led by Democratic congressman Martin Dies, Jr., had launched an investigation designed to target suspected Communist Party members in all areas of life, including government, educational institutions, labor unions, and the entertainment industry. The repression engendered a climate of fear throughout the country, as people were afraid to speak out as the accused found their names on blacklists, which hindered their employability and ruined many lives.” (The Crucible Allegorizes the Red Scare) This proves that the amount of paranoia during this era led to the mass deportations of immigrants and American citizens from false accusations and the building pressure to rid America of Communistic threat. “Late in the afternoon of Friday, January 2, 1920, agents of the U.S. Department of Justice, in a concerted raid on reputedly communist headquarters, began arresting thousands of persons in major cities

Arthur Miller accurately allegorized these two time periods because he distinguished two fundamental flaws in both societies, and through the text and history, he illustrated how each society had these flaws in common. As research shows, during the Red Scare the American government led hunts for Communists much like the Witch Hunts in The Crucible, this shows that Arthur Miller drew a parallel between the two societies and how the amount of paranoia from these time periods made the societies flawed. In addition, during the Red Scare the citizens of America were known to accuse others in fear of being thought a Communist and from paranoia from the thought that this terrible ideal of Communism was spreading. Similarly, in The Crucible villagers accused one another of witchcraft to avoid being thought witches themselves, and out of paranoia that the Devil was running around Salem taking over people. These relate as well because in both societies it is depicted that even the residents were controlled by fear and paranoia which was a major downfall of the societies. Also, Arthur Miller pointed out how the lack of evidence needed to convict was a major flaw. This is supported when during the Red Scare Joseph McCarthy easily accused people without any hard evidence, like when Cheever accuses Goody Proctor of witchcraft because she owns a poppet in The Crucible. This shows that in both