Examples Of Mccarthyism In The Crucible

Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” a partially fictionalized play that depicts the Salem witch trials, is similar to the “Red Scare,” a series of government’s actions which were provoked by Senator McCarthy’s paranoia about the presence of communists within the American government. For instance, in “The Crucible,” Reverend Parris, the head of the Salem church and the village, uses the witch trials to assert his political dominance over the townspeople in the same manner that McCarthy used the “Red Scare” to justify the eradication of “the traitorous actions of those who have been treated so well by the [United States]” (McCarthy). Likewise, the gathering by McCarthy of “[fifty-seven] cases of individuals who would appear to be either card carrying

Meanwhile, McCarthyism caused many people to lose their jobs, because “they were labeled as ‘Communists” (“Senator Joe McCarthy”). False labeling generated an adverse effect on the psychological aspect of the people’s life, for “innocent people had to go through the trauma of being prosecuted by their own country” (“Senator Joe McCarthy”). Finally, “The Crucible” and McCarthyism both embody a type of logical fallacy, appeal of popularity. In Act One of “The Crucible,” Abigail claims that she saw several women, Sarah Good and Goody Osburn, “with the Devil” (Miller 48); once she initiates this idea, all other girls also jump on the bandwagon by accusing women that they do not like. Similar to Abigail, McCarthy could not have persecuted so many individuals “without the help of his staff members and supports” (“Senator Joe McCarthy”). Some of the key accomplices, who continued to add fuel to the fire by supporting McCarthyism, were Alfred Kohlberg, Roy Cohn, and Senator Pat