Theme Of Ignorance In The Crucible

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.
“The Crucible” set in the late 1600s talks about the hysteria of witch hunt. Fear forces people to do cruel things to each other and destroys the community. Abigail fears that she will be shunned for the acts she and the other girls did in the woods. So, she begins to accuse people of being witches and walking with the devil. This ultimately leads to their deaths. She also fears losing John Proctor so she tries to put a spell on Goody Proctor or somehow get rid of her. Mary Warren was scared of Abigail and the other girls so she accused John Proctor of being the “Devil’s Man”. It is clear that in “The Crucible” fear causes people to be cruel to each other.

This causes President Roosevelt to sign the Executive Order 9066, which resulted in the forcible internment of 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry. More than two-thirds of those interned under the Executive Order were citizens of the United States and had never shown any disloyalty toward the country. But, because of suspicion of the Japanese and didn’t trust them. The article says “The Japanese Americans were forced to leave their homes and businesses, carrying only a limited number of suitcases, with items necessary for their basic needs in the harsh conditions of the camps.” Suspicion caused the Americans to be cruel to the Japanese-Americans just because of their