Unfair Stereotypes In The Crucible And Mccarthy Era

Intro Paragraph + Thesis: Events such as unfair stereotyping, paranoia, and targeting ideas through accusing people, appear in The Crucible, McCarthy Era, and contemporary America; despite those many similarities, there are a few contrasts, such as who was attacked, how to the information was spread and exhibits, or the lack of, of guilt.

Unfair stereotyping has lead to accusing and convicting the innocent. Witchcraft may have been an easy assumption to make because Tituba, a slave and accused witch, is said to have been from Barbados, a place known for its practice of voodoo, but there are “no references to this [Tituba practicing witchcraft] in the court records.” (Brooks 2016). This means Abigail, the one making accusations against townspeople,

Before Salem, “ America’s first witch hunt hysteria swept through another colonial New England town” (Klein, 2012). This means As a result, when the accusation of witchcraft arose in Salem, the fear, already instilled in the citizens, was magnified. This means, that when the first accusations were made, people had no reason for disbelief as they all believed the threat to be a real. The original accusations lead to the fear of witchcraft to grow and terrorize the town, as the threat became more real with confessions. This fear amplification was also evident during the Red Scare. As a result of the Cold War, communism was a valid concern, appearing in America and stirring up national fear. Once the fear was “in our backyard”, drastic solutions were taken to fight the overdramatized threat. After 9/11 and even more recent terror attacks, a fear that was placed on the backburner became one at the forefront of everyone's minds and people began letting their fear lead to the persecution of others. As a result, adequate precautions have been made to prevent more innocent lives lost, but, the fear has continue to grow and affect and innocent people, have been labeled with a term that “breeds fear and hatred across the world” (Omand

On the hunt to weed out the witches and purify the town, lives and names of good men and women were ruined. Procter, a townsman accused of witchcraft, makes a whole spiel saying, “... it is my name...Because I lie and sign myself to lies...I have given you my soul; leave me my name!” (Miller). This is an example of a man whose name is tarnished and life is taken in hopes of ending the perceived, conceptual threat, witchcraft. At the end of The Crucible after all the trials, the accused people of Salem such as Proctor and Rebecca Nurse only have their names left, but even that is tainted with the false accusations. Fighting communism during the McCarthy Era lead to actors and ordinary people having their livelihoods ruined as a result of fighting the idea of communism. Ellen Schrecker, college professor and author of books regarding the Red Scare, describes the effects as “‘human wreckage’–broken careers, lost jobs (ten to twelve thousand), suicides and fatal heart attacks, incarceration, physical attacks by vigilantes” (H Labor, 1999, p 4 para 3). Although communism was a real threat, it was also just an idea, an idea that, in attempts of ending it, destroyed people. Today, the case of Perienne de Jaray, a business woman whose business was “ruined as a result of the baseless