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Similarities Between Good Night And Good Luck And The Crucible

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Would you stand against an inhuman act? In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, cruel lies led to the deaths of many. In 1692, townspeople of Salem, Massachusetts were falsely accused of witchcraft by a group of young girls. Those accusations ended their lives in a biased trial. Also, in Good Night, and Good Luck, directed by George Clooney, a feud between Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy starts when Murrow reports McCarthy’s tactics in his communist “witch hunt.” Joseph McCarthy’s tactics were harsh and most of the time unfair. However, Reverend Hale from The Crucible and Edward R. Murrow from Good Night, and Good Luck have a lot of similarities as well as differences. Reverend Hale arrived in Salem after being requested by Reverend …show more content…

Murrow was a news reporter for CBS. In the early 1950’s, Murrow and his staff, Fred Friendly and Joe Wershba aired a report on McCarthyism . This report became very controversial. The report explained Senator Joseph McCarthy’s search for communists. McCarthy’s search/investigation tactics were merciless and unfair. Many lies and false evidence were used to convict innocent politicians and citizens. The feud intensified when Senator McCarthy responded to the news report. McCarthy sent a video to CBS in which he contradicted Murrow and accused him of being a communist. Afterwards, Murrow cleared all accusations against him and proved that he was not a communist. Additionally, McCarthyism created a strong fear and paranoia among U.S. citizens. The public was afraid of being targeted as communists. Many would not speak against McCarthyism and instead blamed others of being communists. For this reason, Murrow felt a responsibility towards the public. He expressed that television was not only for entertainment purposes, but to inform citizens of what was happening around the country. Murrow believed that as a television newsman he had the power and control to inform the public. He thought that McCarthy’s investigations were incorrect and the public had the right to know how cruel they were. Overall, Murrow and his staff left a mark on history. Their report and bravery inspired many to speak out against

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The Twilight Zone and The Crucible The Twilight Zone and The Crucible share many parallels through their plots based on kids accusing adults with extravagant claims that eventually leads to mass hysteria. This hysteria that occurred in The Twilight Zone and The Crucible were both caused by a suspicious event that caused distrust amongst the town. The initial shock of events causes many of the colonists and town’s people to keep trying to find evidence to support the hysteria. An example of this was when the man was accused to be an alien and one of the town’s people supports this claim by saying he gets up at night and stares up at the sky.

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284 Words | 2 Pages

In both the play The Crucible and the film Good Night and Good Luck, the characters reflect the people during the Red Scare of the 1950’s and the Salem witch hunts of the 1600’s. Even though in different time periods, both events caused controversy and chaos that made people very afraid of having a communist or witch reputation. Both Edward Murrow and John Proctor are similar in the manner that they both fight against the government’s power. For example, Proctor was against Judge Danforth because he was accused of association with the devil, just like Murrow was accused of communism by Senator McCarthy. Both were willing to stand up against hysteria even if it would ruin their reputation.

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347 Words | 2 Pages

During this time in the world people were scared of the red scarce. People would say that Joseph Mccarthy was the modern

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1711 Words | 7 Pages

McCarthy manipulated the media, told outrageous stories about the communist conspiracy in the United States, and used his power and America’s fear to besmirch any opponents as “communist sympathizers” to make sure he remained at the top. Actually, most conservative members of Congress supported McCarthy because it helped them gain votes during elections. The majority of McCarthy 's movement attacked liberals and members of the Democratic Party and this aided anyone who was not part of those topics and organizations. Then McCarthy began to target the Army because they wouldn’t favor David Schine, one of his former investigators, who had been drafted in. “Senator Joseph McCarthy began hearings investigating the United States Army, which he charged with being ‘soft’ on communism.

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767 Words | 4 Pages

People were terrified of communism spreading to the United States, so when accusations started floating around everyone would believe them. McCarthy accused people of communist behavior, although many were falsely accused, no one knew better than to think they were guilty because of how scared they were of communism spreading. This resembles how certain characters were accused of witchcraft in The Crucible. The Red Scare caused nationwide hysteria just how the Salem Witch Trials caused hysteria to the people of Salem.

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McCarthy created the uproar of having a ‘witch hunt’ on communists in America. His influence on the people gave him credibility when he accused those innocent people. “He cited 81 cases that day. He skipped several numbers, and for some cases repeated the same flimsy information. He proved nothing, but the Senate called for a full investigation.”(ushistory.org).

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602 Words | 3 Pages

Stopping Panic One of America’s greatest plays is “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller. The Crucible is based off of the true events of the Salem Witch Trials, which caused mass hysteria all throughout Salem; However, it was a satire that explained the hysteria during Arthur Miller’s time known as the “Red Scare”. During this satire, he uses characters that had real-life counterparts to explain how mass hysteria, which is exaggerated and uncontrollable emotions of fear, to show how people of his day were doing the same things and how they needed to stop it before it got worse. In the play, two characters who could have stopped the hysteria that plagued Salem were Abigail Williams and Reverend Hale. One character that could have stopped the hysteria was Abigail Williams.

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1035 Words | 5 Pages

In the play, The Crucible, Salem, Massachusetts, along with the United States during McCarthyism, is engulfed with paranoia. Although both situations include different causes, their effects are strikingly similar. For instance, throughout The Crucible, Abigail Williams is being shown repeatedly accusing innocent people of witchcraft. Her actions begin sending the small town into a panic as they throw people into jail and hang them in an effort to try and cleanse the town from any aspect of evil. Similarly, throughout 1950-1954, Joseph McCarthy falsely accused people within the United States Government of being a member of the Communist party.

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608 Words | 3 Pages

The Soviet Union was on the verge of a nuclear war, so McCarthy put fear in everyone because no one had any idea who was a communist and who was not. He made everyone afraid to trust people, even the friends other had. They were afraid that they would be accused

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906 Words | 4 Pages

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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During the film, real footage from the 1950s is used to show the brutality of McCarthy in his investigations. As this material was only available in black and white, it was only fitting that the rest of the film was also done this way. As an audience, we have never seen McCarthy or Murrow in colour therefore, why would we see them in colour when they would not match the real footage. When we watch Murrow on the television, it feels like we are the audience that he is talking to. The use of camera angles is also identical to the camera shots used for the real Edward Murrow when he was broadcasting.

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1494 Words | 6 Pages

How do male character shape or influence the texts in The Crucible and Frankenstein? “Power is nothing unless you can turn it into influence” (Unknown), it is human nature to want power and influence. The male characters in the following texts have achieved this goal. Society has portrayed males as dominant figures. Males govern the better positions in society whereas females generally do not.

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497 Words | 2 Pages

It was derived from the fear and hatred they had deep inside them. Mccarthy used this plot to get rid of his opponents and secure him a prime spot for a next term as a senator. McCarthy’s trials were no different to The Salem witch trials by raising suspitions he was able to destroy lives with a written list. Although people tried to contradict his allegations the majority’s fear of communists clouded the court’s judgement. They had no remorse for the aftermath of their doings.

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462 Words | 2 Pages

Senator Joseph McCarthy was a merciless politician who would be censured by the Senate in 1954 for his false accusations. However, his political journey throughout the country had a significant impact on the American public. Americans let fear override their conscious and allowed a bully to insert panic into their minds. McCarthy’s crusade was powerful and convinced the naive public during a time of war to question their own government without sufficient

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601 Words | 3 Pages

Arthur Miller used his storytelling to discretely show the US leadership that decisions made in fear were dangerous. Miller in his story had a quote about how “Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven.” stating the the Americans may like how the situation is being dealt with but it will eventually cause terrible trouble. McCarthy was making decisions made in fear and it was hurting the US and in fact made it so that if Miller wrote his opinion without hiding it behind a story he too would have been punished and arrested. It can be assured that Miller would have just written his opinion in its raw form if McCarthyism wasn’t a factor.

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