Connecting McCarthyism and The Crucible Essay - 1375 Words

The horrors of history are passed on from generation to generation in hopes that they will never occur again. People look back on these times and are appalled at how horrendous the times were; yet, in the 1950s, history repeated itself. During this time, Joseph McCarthy, a United States senator from Wisconsin, began accusing people of being communists or communist sympathizers, which is parallel to the Salem witch trials in the late 1690s when innocent people were accused of practicing witchcraft. One of the people McCarthy accused was author and playwright Arthur Miller. To express his outrage at McCarthy’s actions, miller wrote The Crucible, intentionally drawing similarities between the McCarthy hearings and the Salem witch trials.†¦show more content†¦Like Abigail, McCarthy had no evidence against the people he blamed of being communists. His list contained 205 names of communists and â€Å"[was] mainly based on a vague report† (1). Although there was not e vidence against the accused communists, the American people were ready to believe that communists had infiltrated their country because the communist Soviet Union had already taken over other countries, including China, Korea, and North Vietnam (â€Å"Domino Theory† 1). Like the American people, the town folk of Salem were willing to believe that there were witches in their town since witchcraft had just been discovered in nearby Andover, where forty people were accused of witchcraft (Andover, Massachusetts† 1). Both McCarthy and Abigail were able to take advantage of the atmosphere of hysteria during their time period to get what they so desperately wanted. Yet their reigns of power did not last long. When Abigail accused highly respected people such as John Proctor and Rebecca Nurse, the townspeople were not so willing to accept that the people they respected were practicing witchcraft. Abigail’s credibility wavered. Likewise, when McCarthy accused officials in the United States Army of being communists and innocent children like Shirley Temple, people began doubting his credibility, especially with the lack of evidence (â€Å"The Red Scare: McCarthyism† 1). Although the periods that Abigail and McCarthy controlled people’s fear wasShow MoreRelatedArthur Millers The Crucible And The Second Red Scare1293 Words   |  6 Pages In Arthur Miller’s â€Å"Why I Wrote The Crucible†, Miller connects The Crucible and the Second Red Scare by highlighting his process of writing which in return displays the two different time era’s similarities. He states, â€Å"[W]hen I began to think of writing about the hunt for Reds in America, I was motivated in some great part by the paralysis that had set in among many liberals who, despite their discomfort with the inquisitors’ violations of civil rights, were fearful†¦of being identified as Communists†Read MoreSimilarities Between The Crucible And Salem Witch Trials725 Words   |  3 PagesThe Crucible and the Salem Witch Trials are very similar to the time of McCarthyism and it the most likely reason the why the book was written. â€Å"It was not only the rise of McCarthyism that moved me, but something which seemed much more weird and mysterious.† (Budick 1985) a quote by the author himself proving it was a factor that made him write the book. They were both witch hunts one literally one not so much a witch hunt as a communist hunt. Events in the play and events in McCarthyism areRead MoreEssay about Senator Joseph McCarthy and Communism1192 Words   |  5 Pagesreleased a monumental rampage across the United States. For fear of governmental infiltration by Communists, an outbreak of accusations swept the nation as a result of the Wisconsin senator, and helped create what is known as the second Red Scare (â€Å"McCarthyism†) Joseph McCarthy was born November 14, 1908 in Grand Chute, Wisconsin to dairy farmers, lived an average life until the age of sixteen. At this point in time, McCarthy dropped out of school until 1929, when he decided to go back and finish high