The Crucible vs Mccarthyism Research

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The Crucible and McCarthyism The Crucible is a famous play written by Arthur Miller in 1953. Miller wrote this play in a time of great conflict in American History. America was in the middle of the “Cold War” and many people feared the outbreak of communism. The Americans were scared of an attack by the Soviet Union and the Soviet Union was equally as scared of attack upon them by Americans. The leader of the Senate Party in Wisconsin at this time was Joseph McCarthy. McCarthy spread public accusations that more than 200 hundred “card carrying” communists had infiltrated the United States Government. Although eventually his accusations were proved untrue, his earnest campaigning ushered in one of the most repressive times in 20TH century American Politics. During this time Americans were driven by fear and paranoia and political tensions of the time were drastically increased. McCarthy saw this fear as an opportunity to rise to power. He ruthlessly used scare tactics to get people to believe and follow him blindly into his accusations as to innocent citizens supporting communism and either having them jailed or killed by providing phony evidence. Known as McCarthyism the overly-paranoid “witch hunts” for infiltrators began. People were accused of being communists and found guilty with barely any say for themselves. Anyone could be named and they would suffer, just because they were “outsiders”. Writers and entertainers were having a particulary difficult time at this stage, and were being labeled communist sympathizers. Some of them lost their job; some were trialed and jailed, and careers were destroyed. People also lost their respect, their friendships and the place in society that they’d earned. Arthur Miller was one of the accused but refused to be named. His novel the Crucible was written as a protest to the brutality of the “Red Scare”, an act of
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