The Crucible And Mass Hysteria In The 1950's

Einstein failing math, Washington’s wooden teeth, and Humpty Dumpty being an egg are all common misconstrued truths in American history and culture. Assumptions are a regular cause of misunderstandings and confrontation. Many people in society tend to believe the first thing they hear without any questions or back story. The Crucible illustrates the social issue of people who fail to think for themselves. During the 1950s and in The Crucible, hundreds of people were accused of crimes with little to no evidence. In the 1950s the rumor of communism in America began to spread like wild fire. In 1950 many authors, actors and government officials were accused of communism. Val Lorwin, a State Department employee was an alleged communist. He

In the 1950s the rumor of communism in the U.S. spread so quickly and people everywhere were developing unfounded fears. Mass hysteria took over the U.S. with worrying of communism. In the 1950s children were paid to spy on their teachers and teachers were paid to spy on their students. This show how far the paranoia went. If people in society would have taken the time to rationalize and figure out another way to handle these insane situations, less damage could have been done. Similar to the mass hysteria in the 50’s the characters in The Crucible were quickly getting the word of witchcraft spread through Salem. Because the people in these positions failed to use any common sense, people were getting blamed and getting into a situation that they never had anything to do with it. In both situations, people saw there only way to get out of trouble was to give up other people's names. In these times no one was safe. One would give up any name to get out of trouble, whether it was an enemy or a best friend. In The Crucible, Tituba was being blamed for witchcraft and as soon as she got the opportunity to place the blame on somebody else, she took it. While Tituba is being interrogated Mr. Putnam is drilling her with confusing questions. Tituba begins to get nervous and starts to spit out lies and accusations to save herself. While weeping and in fury she declares "Sarah Good!...Aye sir and Goody Osborn."(Miller 47). Mrs.