Find 2 or 3 examples from history that have similar themes that we have seen in the Crucible. You will need to do research on these historical experiences in order to be able to write about them.
Discuss each of these themes and make comparisons between the Crucible and one of the historical examples: false authority or authority figures basing themselves on representing the "word of God", herd mentality, separation of Church and State. In conclusion, talk about some of the ways communities and societies can heal and come together after such tragedies.
The main idea of the Crucible is orbited around truth. It shows how social connections and level in society can become a great liability. Innocent lives were sacrificed because of the wrong story that was forced to be believed as the truth. I have found many correlations between the Crucible and actual events that have occurred in our society over time. One event that I found to be represented in the Crucible was the Red Scare of 1919-1920. Allow me to elaborate: Shortly after the end of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Red Scare spread to the United States. A nationwide fear of communists, socialists, anarchists, and other rebels suddenly grasped the American cognizance in 1919 following a series of anarchist bombings. The nation was gripped in fear. Innocent people were jailed for broaching their views, civil liberties were ignored, and many Americans feared that a Bolshevik-style revolution could occur anytime (somewhat like the Crucible, where innocent people could not show their opinion in fear of being jailed and hung). During World War 1, anyone who wasn't as patriotic as possible-- German-Americans, immigrants, Communists--was suspect. It was out of this that the Red Scare occurred.
All told, thousands of innocent people were jailed or deported for not showing patriotism, and many more were arrested or questioned. On January 2, 1920 alone over 4,000 alleged “radicals” were arrested in thirty-three cities. Numerous local and state legislatures passed some sort of law against radicals/radical activity. Thirty-two states made it illegal to display the red flag of communism.
The national mood, however, began to shift back to normal in the spring of 1920. In May, twelve well-known attorneys issued a report detailing the Justice Department's “violations of civil liberties”. Industry leaders, who were early proposers of anti-communism, began to realize that deporting immigrants (as many of the communists were alleged to be) took away a major source of labor, which would result in higher wages and would also decrease profits. Suddenly, political cartoons in newspapers that, months earlier had been greatly opposed to Reds now depicted Red-hunters in a form of ridicule. The Red Scare quickly ran its course and, by the summer of 1920, it was largely over. Arthur Miller, author of the Crucible, was one of the many American citizen accused of being a communist and put on the 'Red' list. I think that it is because of this, that the play, in its emotion, is almost identical to the feeling of the Red Scare. Even in the preface of the play, Arthur Miller warns that “this play is not history, but it is certainly dependent on historical events for its story”. To support my reasoning once more, McCarthy is represented by Judge Danforth in the play by the way that both of them lacked any evidence for accusation. It has been said that one of McCarthy’s favorite techniques of proof was to pull out a stack of papers from his old briefcase and claimed that he has the evidence in his hands, when in reality, they were simply old, useless sheets of paper that he had on his desk. He denied requests to see the papers by claiming that they were top-secret documents given to him by his “network of informants”. Now, in the play, Judge Danforth never did such a thing, but in a way, I sensed that the attitude of both, he and
