Mccarthyism And The Crucible Essay

McCarthyism and The Crucible: How it Changed America Joseph McCarthy was the senator of Wisconsin from 1947-1957. During this time, America and the Soviet Union were involved in the Cold War. All throughout America, the Red Scare was in full swing, and the fear of communism was strong. McCarthy knew this, and used it to his advantage while re-running for his senate position. As part of his anti-communist campaign, McCarthy claimed that the Soviets had high-profile spies in the government. He then accused 205 people in the government and entertainment industry of being communists. This list of people was known as the Hollywood Blacklist. Those who were Blacklisted often lost their jobs and reputation, and were forced to give names of other …show more content…
As he states in an article in The New Yorker, he wrote The Crucible out of desperation. Miller was accused of being communist and wanted to prove to America that he was not communist, and most people on the Blacklist were not either. In order to prove McCarthy wrong and make America realize how silly the accusations were, he had to bring up the Salem Witch Trials. Because the Witch Trials have come and gone, people can realize that accusing people without prove is ridiculous and unfair. He hoped that writing The Crucible would make American citizens realize that McCarthy was just like Abigail …show more content…
The events were so alike that the analogy is nearly perfect. For example, in both scenarios, false accusations were made by one major character, and because the accusation was so scary, the people believed it. In both cases, the accuser did not have a valid reason for accusing so many different people. Abigail’s main reason for accusing people was to get Elizabeth Proctor in trouble, and Senator McCarthy only accused people to make his campaign sound better so he would be reelected. Neither of them had to blow it out of proportion, but that did not stop