Justice In The Crucible And The Mccarthy Era

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Introduction
Hook: Guilty... until proven innocent? This inverse philosophy of justice is used in the short story “the Crucible” as well as many historical events, like the McCarthyism Era.
Thesis: In ‘The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, hysteria is escalating as characters are being falsely accused of association with witchcraft, which is similar to the manhunt of anyone appearing to be a communist from the McCarthyism Era. These historical events show how paranoia and fear can destroy a community.
Body paragraph #1
Topic Sentence: The characters from The Crucible and Joseph McCarthy exploited the fear of their society, which caused the exchange of logic for hysteria.
Evidence: The play takes place in Salem, Massachusetts in 1692. Salem represents the Puritan community, whose culture is dominated by church and belief of …show more content…
A Senator by the name of Joseph McCarthy took advantage of this uneasiness to scare the country into alienating many innocent Americans. These rumors of communist in the government led to a hunt that many agreed with because they were afraid.
Body Paragraph #2
Topic Sentence: Because of the mass hysteria of the time in both The Crucible and the McCarthy Era, people, who often were innocent, were accused and prosecuted with little to no evidence to back it up.
Evidence: “Abigail: ‘I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!’ Betty:’I saw George Jacobs with the Devil! I saw Goody Howe with the Devil!’”(p. 934).
Explanation: The girls continue to list name after name, even though they did not have evidence to back them up. Girl after girl were making accusations suddenly, because they were consumed by the hysteria. Despite this, the townsfolk believed them.
Evidence: The senator, Joseph McCarthy, made public, unsubstantial claims that 205 people were “card-carrying” communists members that infiltrated the United States government (U.S
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