Similarities Between The Crucible And Civil Disobedience

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Elie Wiesel, a writer and Holocaust survivor says during his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” This idea states that the act of keeping quiet and not questioning an immoral authority only gives power to the oppressors. By speaking up for what is right, the power is given to the people to repair an unjust government. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., author of Letter From a Birmingham Jail, Henry David Thoreau, author of Civil Disobedience, and Arthur Miller, the author of The Crucible all discuss the necessity of protesting against a government if it acts immorally. All of the texts argue that protest in necessary to fix problems in a corrupt government.

Although others may express their disliking for an unjust authority, King stresses the importance to act upon these injustices in order to fix it. King addresses the Christian churches and how their actions have changed over time:
There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christian rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
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While the story revolves around the Salem Witch Trials, Miller’s message is directed towards the American population, which is terrified of communism at the time. Joseph McCarthy lied to the Americans and spread lies and accusations of communist spies. Because he refused to acknowledge that his claims are false, many Americans were either unemployed or deported. Miller connects how the people of Salem are to suffer when they refuse to face their flaws to the potential fate of the Americans when they choose to follow

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