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The Crucible vs Mccarthyism

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The Crucible vs Mccarthyism
Torres, Manuel
Ms. Berman
English
Feb-10-13 The crucible The McCarthy Era and The Crucible can relate in many ways, in both of these times people were accused for wrong doings. People were put to punishment and the only way out was to confess and give the names of your accomplices. If not you were put to death In the case of The Crucible, but in The McCarthy Era you were denied work and many times were not able to travel out of the country. In The McCarthy Era it was said that there was spies in the US that had gotten control of the atomic bomb. This was right after World War II had ended and America feared of Germans and Japanese. This is very similar to what happened in The Crucible. In The Crucible the children of Salem were running the courts as said by John Proctor “I’ll tell you what's walking in Salem - vengeance is walking in Salem. We are what we always were in Salem, but now the little crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! This warrant's vengeance! I'll not give my wife to vengeance!" This happened to McCarthyism also. If you didn’t like someone you could accuse them of being a communist and they were jailed. This was just one of the main reasons why people got killed in both The Crucible and The McCarthy trials. The two situations were run be vengeance and the fact that everything flew out of control and when people are in fear of something that is when they are most vulnerable. Eventually McCarthy took his power to far by accusing officials in the government of communism. He accused officials of the Army of communism. This led to him being accused of fraud as well as the people that worked with him in this lie. McCarthyism was a major factor in a change in feelings about both politics and society.

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