The Crucible's Importance In American Society

The Crucible demonstrates importance in American society because it portrays relatable events and themes that are displayed all throughout history. This in turn, links our views of today’s society to the time period in the book; making it more relatable and of greater importance. The affair that John Proctor had with Abigail is an example of this relation that happens before the book begins and ignites the witchcraft scare. This unfortunate situation is illustrated throughout history, one example being the Lewinsky Scandal. This event affected an entire country instead of a small town, but still ended in almost complete chaos. Both of these situations resulted in the tarnished image of a once great man in their society. John Proctor was a powerful …show more content…
An example of this from the book is the hostile relationship between Mrs. Proctor and Abigail. Throughout the book Abigail does everything in her will to separate Mrs. Proctor and John Proctor, in order to have her own relationship with John. This connects to today’s society because this situation has become common, as demonstrated by the substantial amount of divorces and remarries in today’s society. In the early 1700’s less than 1% of the population got divorced, when the book was written in 1952, the rate had skyrocketed to 25%, and today the rate has doubled to about 50%. This concept of getting divorced was almost unheard of in the time period of the book, but considering how common divorce is now the story has a larger connection to modern society. The most significant connection between the book and American society is having the ability to maintain a good reputation with society. This example was a more important concept throughout The Crucible because in the story someone’s reputation was equivalent to their life. However, in today’s society it is weighted less, but maintaining a good reputation is still an integral piece of