Click any of the links below to read about McCarthyism, Arthur Miller, and the connection between The Crucible and McCarthyism. Leave a comment and your name for participation points.
Short introduction to McCarthyism
McCarthyism in more detail
Short Arthur Miller biography
17 comments:
I think the way Miller interpreted things happening in the United States (like the Puritan witch-hunts and the Depression) into his work was very intelligent.
-Adrienne Leonhardt 3AB
i think the Miller made an excellent analogy between the red scare and the Witch hunts of salem. It's absurd to think that one could be jailed for a baseless acusation like being a commy.
Neil Mistry 3
I like how Miller bases his plays on the American working class. And that even after he was convicted, he continued to write plays.
~Paje Morrow 3AB~
Good comments, guys. Keep them coming. What's also interesting is how the word McCarthyism has come to stand for any situation in which people make unfounded accusations.
i thought it was pretty comical how the first real reference to McCarthyism was used in a cartoon from the washington post but besides that, i agree with neil on how McCarthyism was based on unrelevent accusations just like the witch hunts in The Crucible
--Erica Merckling 3ab
It is really interesting that the writers and artists accused for communist sympathizing had lost their careers because of one unsubstantial accusation. Just like in the crucible how reputation is very important. Many people's reputations were destroyed like John Proctor and Elisabeth Proctor. Something so important just vanished because people were so afraid.
-Tory Brown 3AB
I think it is fascinating that not many people back in the 1940's would stand up against such accusations. Because Miller showed us that many people wouldn't stand up for the unpopular standpoint. Instead people would let their friends be put into jail because they were too afraid to go against the the unfavorable side.
~~~Olivia Haglund Per. 3~~~
What i think is interesting is that this can kind of relate to Lord of The Flies, in how people are so easily whipped up into a frenzy by a sense of fear or danger.
Nicole Bernath 3AB
In the Crucible, many people were accused, but there was no proof calling them guilty. That's pretty much the same McCarthyism, someone who has effect on the people accusing someone who's not guilty. It only took one person to change a life forever.
-Jennifer Bond, 1AB
From reading about Mcarthyism it seems Miller did a great job reflecting the the troubles he was living in, being the red scare, and the time of the salem witch trials. Hopefully there won't come a time when Mcarthyism arises again leading a play write of our time to have to relate something to the red scare.
-kelsey culbertson 3AB
It is interesting how in both the Crucible and McCarthyism the people are hunting for the infiltrators. More times than not when people are determined to find something, in this case the Devil and communisim, they will find it at all costs even if it does not exist. People, like Reverend Hale, who are paid to find the Devil feel the burden of identifying it in order to prevail in their job. When that happens people are wrongly accused. In the Crucible they are accused of witchcraft and in McCarthyism they are accused of communism or communist sympathizing. Is there something unjust about this system of identifying the infiltrators or is it just me?
.:CoRiNn WaLtRiP:.
-:-Per. 1AB-:-
Fascinates that the crucible's popularity is repeated through history because of it's relatebility to histeria and the world around us. That is an amazing writer right there.
Is is just me? I feel kinda bad for Senator McCarthy because he can never escape from who he accused and what he did (unlike hale and danforth) beacause the word McCarthyism is obviously inspired by his name. Now, who could forget who started McCarthyism...?? He is forever branded.
Bre Burnett 3AB
(my computer finally is working wilson, yay!)
Wow- amazing how one person can have the ability to ruin so many people's lives- I thought this article was very interesting.
Looking back in 'The Crucible', I can tell that Miller really put a lot of effort into expressing thoughts and ideas of both the Puritan's world, and the one world he was living in at the time.
-Emily Curb, Pd. 1AB
People are too Naive.How could you go ahead and belive all these people were communists and your neighbors are witchs?? Especially when it is started by a group of people or one person. Theres a big lack of Empathy also.There wasnt evidence that could PROVE you were guilty but yet people were put in jail anyways.
and plus the whole idea of mcCarthyism is amazingly confusing
Amy Merchant
1AB
It seems like most of the plays Miller wrote had to do with his father being a failing businessman.
Joel Shelley 3AB
It seems like most of the plays Miller wrote had to do with his father being a failing businessman.
Joel Shelley 3AB
It is interesting how in The Crucible all different sorts of people- with good class or bad- could so easily be accused as withches of devil-seekers. In McCarthyism they were so easily accused of communism. As Mr. Wilson says, in both situations people were wrongly accused.
~~~Kylie Hathaway Per 3
Post a Comment