Crucible and McCarthy
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Arthur Miller's play The Crucible tells the story of the witch trials which took place in Salem, Massachusetts during the 17th century. The story shows how fabricated stories can turn a city upside down. During the time the play was created there was another hunt going on; much like the witch hunts in Salem, the Communist hunt persecuted people that may have been communists or communist supporters, which was started by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Both hunts are related in the way they were organized, but are also different.
The society in Salem during the late 1600's was much like that in the whole United States in the 1950's, both were afraid of something they couldn't confirm unless they witnessed it. Witnessing the practicing of witchcraft and communism didn't stop people from accusing others of these and getting them locked up and killed with little evidence and mostly here-say. Both incidents of scare followed a justification for the scare, in Salem it was a sickness that cause hallucinations and seizures, while in the United States the scare started after the Cold War with Russia had begun. In Salem there were no confirmed witches, while in the United States there were people that were communists this makes those locked up or killed in Salem more tragic then those in the United States.
In Salem and in the United States people were prosecuted because they weren't liked or they could ruin how society viewed them, like in the case of Abigail and John Proctor. In both times people suspected of being witches/communists were sometimes forced into to confession and told to give up others, even if they were not a witch/communist...