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Essay On The Crucible And The Red Scare

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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 two major flaws in American society during these …show more content…

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.” (Travino, Marcella Bush. "The Crucible Allegories the Red Scare Era." Great Events in History: The Twentieth Century 1941-1970 22 Jan. 1953: n. pag. Salem History: Decades in America. Web. 16 Oct. 2015. .) 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

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Title: How the Red Scare Relates to “The Crucible” Red scare formed in 1919 the climax of the Red scare is when the conflict between the Soviet Union and the United states intensifies During the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. It caused the Americans thinking that the communists are a big Threat to them. The United States took actions to prevent the red scare taking over the United States which caused McCarthyism to form. McCarthyism is a practice of false accusations without any proof.

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Hysteria throughout The Crucible, the Red Scare and 9-11 Throughout The Crucible, the Red Scare, as well as 9-11, one can see that these three have a lot in common. Whether it is the threat to the society, the wild rumors or the way that people were treated. These three events all relate even though they occurred at three very different moments of the time. In The Crucible, there are only perceived threat as one knows that the society thinks the devil is among them when really he is not. The threats are witchcrafting and the devil moving into the community.

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Anastasia Willis Ms. Guerrero English 3 AP 3 September 2014 1692 Salem Witch Trials and 1950”s McCarthyism: Times Don’t Change When the “witch-hunts “began in 1692 the people of Salem went in a severe panic mode, people began to accuse others of witchcraft without evidence. Similarly, the 1950’s McCarthyism “ witch-hunts” had everyone looking over his or her shoulder in fear of being named a communist. In both 1692 and the 1950”s being claimed as witch or communist wasn’t something that would disappear in a few days. Arthur miller wrote “The Crucible” to reveal how the Salem witch trials of 1692, replicates the fear of uncertainty presented in the rise of McCarthyism in 1950’s.

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The Crucible was published in the year 1953, during the height of the Cold War. The United States this was the Mccarthy era, which was the period when many feared the spread of Communism in our country. Senator Joseph Mccarthy initiated this whole movement that led to McCarthyism and the House Un-American Activities Committee, which sought to put a halt to all Communist activity in the United States. In addition, The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an incredible play that gives feedback on Salem Witch Trials in Massachusetts not only that, but it parallels the McCarthy “witch hunts” that took place in the mid 1900’s. The play is an allegory, which means that the story holds a much more deeper meaning than what we perceive.

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When people are placed under an intense feeling of fear, they begin to commit actions they never thought they were capable over. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, a young group of girls commit witchcraft which eventually leads to the arrest of over 100 women. This is similar to a time in the 1950s when Joseph McCarthy accuses government officials of communism and that ultimately leads to hundreds of citizens losing their jobs. The Crucible reveals the similarities between The Salem Witch Trials of the 1690s and McCarthyism of the 1950s because it demonstrates how a society can be tremendously impacted by the feeling the fear.

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The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is a tragic play that alludes to 1960’s McCarthyism. In the 60’s everyone was “witch hunting” communists and many actors and artists were convicted of treason when they weren’t even communists. Miller drew saw many similarities between puritan America and anti-communist America. Many innocent people were died because of the hysteria and mob mentality that occurred in both times. The deaths that happened in The Salem Witch trials and 1960’s

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When present, fear can often be exploited for one’s personal gain. The Crucible, a play written by Arthur Miller, which exemplifies the power of fear due to the imaginary idea of witchcraft in the small village of Salem. During the time this play was written, the United States was overcome by the fear of communism, which had led to the government accusing many innocent people for ridiculous reasons. Miller uses The Crucible to show how many of the accusations in the Salem Witch Trials, a similar event, often had underlying, selfish, and personal reasons behind them. In the play Abigail Williams, and Thomas Putnam’s take advantage of the pervasive fear in the village, allowing them to fulfill their selfish and exploitative motives which are what truly fuel the Salem Witch Trials.

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The Crucible, written by playwright Arthur Miller, is an accurate representation of the Communist Red Scare. The play is a metaphor for McCarthyism; the act of falsely accusing without any evidence. It is written based on the Salem Witch Trials, a time during the 1600s when men and women all over Salem, Massachusetts, were being wrongly prosecuted for practicing witchcraft. In both history and the play, many innocent people were proceeded against for a crime they didn’t commit, being communist. Even though the fear of being accused of communism was widely known, and not one person would dare to commit such a crime, many guiltless individuals were charged anyway.

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Arthur Miller's play "The Crucible" is an allegory that explores the events of the Salem Witch Trials in 1692 as a reflection of the Red Scare that occurred in the 1950s. Miller created the allegory to criticize the hysteria and paranoia that characterized the Red Scare and to draw parallels to the Salem Witch Trials as an example of how fear and misinformation can lead to the persecution of innocent people. In the play, the accusations of witchcraft are used as a pretext for settling personal scores and political agendas, and the accused are forced to either confess to false crimes or face execution. The parallels to the Red Scare are clear, as many innocent people were accused of being communists and were forced to name names or risk losing

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In order to learn and truly comprehend a specific event, you must learn about the history surrounding that event. Arthur Miller's 1953 play The Crucible is a story about the Salem Witch Trials. It dives deep into the paranoia, ignorance and fear that plagued 17th-century Salem. Many innocent people were killed during this time due to the hysteria of unexplained events. Due to these unexplained events occurring many looked toward the idea of witches as scapegoats.

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The play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, mimics the red scare in the 1950’s about the spread of communism using the Salem witch trials to represent how the people of the United States acted toward the spread of communism. Arthur Miller used parody, exaggeration and irony well to break down the way America acted in the 1950’s towards the red scare. Arthur Miller used parody well in The Crucible by showing how it relates to the red scare. Danforth says “Danforth. Now hear me, and beguile yourselves no more.

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These accusations initiate the Salem Witch Trials. The events and the impacts on society described in The Crucible are an allegory to the Red Scare. Fear was a factor of the panic over the threat of communism during the Red Scare and the introduction of witchcraft in Salem described in The Crucible. “As the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States intensified in the late 1940s and early 1950s, hysteria over the perceived threat posed by Communists in the U.S. became known as the Red Scare . . .

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The Crucible, published in 1953 by Arthur Miller is a very popular book written about the 1692 Salem Witch Trials. While most people use the book to study the Witch Trials, with closer examination it is easy to conclude that it is a direct allegory to the Red Scare and the McCarthy era of 1950s America. An allegory is an extended metaphor in which the characters or objects in the story represent an outside meaning. The Crucible is an allegory to the Red Scare and the McCarthy era drastically by its plot, characters, and the flow and outcome of the court trials. To begin with, The Crucible is an allegory because the plot of the book closely resembles the events that occurred during the Red Scare.

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The play The Crucible takes place in Salem, Massachusetts during the Puritan era and was written by Arthur Miller as a metaphor for McCarthyism in 1950. This play suggests that persecution can occur at anytime and anywhere as well as that the real tragedy lies in people who lose their integrity under societal pressure. Many citizens of Salem made decisions based on vendettas and personal gain which resulted in a lose of a sense of right and wrong which fueled the witch hysteria. Someone who acted out vengeance and personal gain was Abigail Williams. She was the original cause of the hysteria of the witch trials.

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,” the purpose is to justify his reason for shaming American society for the anti-communist trials by arguing that the blame was paranoia driving an individual to hysteria, often leading to bringing out the worse from within. Miller demonstrates a series of rhetorical strategies throughout the article in order to help convince an audience of his argument of paranoia leads up to distrust and chaos around a community. Miller begins the article with a series of specific verbs in order to layout a logical and convincing reasoning of why he was driven to expose the idea of paranoia being the one to commence the misshapen in society with all the trails. He describes on how “paralyzed a whole generation” was due to Communist paranoia during the era of John McCarthy (Miller 1). With the use of the verb “paralyzed”, Miller creates a negative connotation that the audience can interpret to a sorrow feeling.

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