The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, was a devastatingly sad, yet intensely interesting study about religious persecution, hysteria, and society. Throughout the world man has seen many cases of these types of phenomena. Some of these cases include, but are not limited to, the Holocaust, the Inquisition, and McCarthyism. Unfortunately, a lot of these beliefs stem from lack of education and antiquated beliefs. The intention of this paper is to prove how the underlying message in The Crucible has a direct relationship to the persecution of Communists and Communist sympathizers, and how it now relates to health care workers being killed in Africa for the belief they are spreading Ebola. The movie The Crucible began with a group of girls
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According to History.com, in 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy became infamous when he gave a speech claiming to have the names of 205 known members of the communist party. Even though his claims were unsubstantiated, this still created hysteria among Americans (2009). History.com quotes President Eisenhower as saying, “I will not get into the gutter with this guy.” Eisenhower made this statement knowing McCarthy’s claims were uncorroborated. McCarthy and Abagail Williams were both protagonists; they both led a witch hunt, McCarthy against communists, Williams against witches. Both McCarthy and Abagail caused mass hysteria among their communities. Another parallel between The Crucible and McCarthyism was the way the trials were conducted. Anyone accused of being a witch or being a communist in the public’s eyes were already condemned. Innocent people were then put on trial, and to save themselves, the accused were forced to reveal the names of other guilty parties. Sadly enough, after writing The Crucible, Arthur Miller himself was put on trial for communism and in turn blacklisted. Persecution of innocent people is not a thing of the past; it still goes on today all over the …show more content…
BBC news recently published an article covering eight health care workers that were murdered in Guinea. The BBC article went on to say that these healthcare workers were persecuted because the people of Guinea postulated that these workers were in their country spreading the disease as a way for the white man to kill the black man. Some villagers even believed that Ebola did not exist (BBC, 2014). FoxNews wrote that BBC reported treating this virus has become harder because of these beliefs: Complicating efforts is the lack of education in remote areas, where some residents don 't believe the virus exists. Last month, in the same area where the aid workers were killed, people rioted out of fear that workers disinfecting a market were contaminating people. (FoxNews,
According to History.com, in 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy became infamous when he gave a speech claiming to have the names of 205 known members of the communist party. Even though his claims were unsubstantiated, this still created hysteria among Americans (2009). History.com quotes President Eisenhower as saying, “I will not get into the gutter with this guy.” Eisenhower made this statement knowing McCarthy’s claims were uncorroborated. McCarthy and Abagail Williams were both protagonists; they both led a witch hunt, McCarthy against communists, Williams against witches. Both McCarthy and Abagail caused mass hysteria among their communities. Another parallel between The Crucible and McCarthyism was the way the trials were conducted. Anyone accused of being a witch or being a communist in the public’s eyes were already condemned. Innocent people were then put on trial, and to save themselves, the accused were forced to reveal the names of other guilty parties. Sadly enough, after writing The Crucible, Arthur Miller himself was put on trial for communism and in turn blacklisted. Persecution of innocent people is not a thing of the past; it still goes on today all over the …show more content…
BBC news recently published an article covering eight health care workers that were murdered in Guinea. The BBC article went on to say that these healthcare workers were persecuted because the people of Guinea postulated that these workers were in their country spreading the disease as a way for the white man to kill the black man. Some villagers even believed that Ebola did not exist (BBC, 2014). FoxNews wrote that BBC reported treating this virus has become harder because of these beliefs: Complicating efforts is the lack of education in remote areas, where some residents don 't believe the virus exists. Last month, in the same area where the aid workers were killed, people rioted out of fear that workers disinfecting a market were contaminating people. (FoxNews,