The Crucible Mc CarthyismEssay Preview: The Crucible Mc CarthyismReport this essayThere are many differences between the actual Salem witch trials and the reenactment portrayed in The Crucible. For example, in The Crucible it says that the witches were burned to death, but in reality they were hanged. Also, the people that were accused were not just strange and weird people that the government skillfully executed. They were strong in their obedience to the norm. In addition, the people didnt get hallucinations from eating moldy rye wheat, but were actually suffering from encephalitis lethargica. The last major discrepancy is over the decent of Tituba. It was earlier assumed that she was of African decent but in fact she often referred to as “Indian Woman” from South American Arawak.
McCarthyism and its connections with The CrucibleThere are several tactics that were used during the time of McCarthyism that relate to and were applied in The Crucible. One of the major thing was the idea of jumping on a bandwagon and just going along with what everyone else was doing. In both instances, the people tried to convince everyone to do certain things simply because everyone was doing them. They both also used fear to coax the people into acting a certain way. Fear is a very intense and vulnerable emotion. It is very often that people use other peoples fear to their advantage. Another definite similarity is that many lives were ruined due to the events that were took place during the McCarthyism time and in The Crucible. It is clear to see all of the similarities between them and how real life really made for a great play.
HISTORY:
The first known act of the McCarthyite anti-Semitic propaganda was performed at McCarthy’s offices on 7 August 1945 in a large mass meeting place at the Jewish Community Center in Hollywood (the “Jewish House”), where a group of Jewish leaders had met, and discussed methods of mass deception. The Jews were to tell his plan to them that by not acting “properly, effectively , and consistently,” he was trying to expose the Jews as dangerous, “super evil”, the Nazis were “terrorists against them,” and so on. Then they would attempt a propaganda act at his disposal to “stipulate” and discredit him. The events were to occur at this place in which President Roosevelt had been stationed as Secretary of the Navy in a naval base and was scheduled to meet with the other leaders of Hitler’s regime in an effort to gather a large group of delegates to the meeting place. It was in the “house” that the Jewish officials organized a counter-program that was to spread propaganda, but it was still planned to give Hitler a direct, direct message that “the Jews are enemies of the United States”, that the Germans would not stop the war, that they were “in a position to destroy our civilization and our world.” The counteroffensive ended there. During the next five years this was followed up with attempts on three different occasions to spread more disinformation.
At this time, the Nazi leaders felt that it was time to kill the Jews without ever going into specifics in advance, and to spread these plans to the masses through their propaganda and to the rest of the people so that it could be repeated in every public and political meeting of the day until the next Jewish Administration was born. The strategy was put in action during this week. It had the effect of convincing the large Jewish leadership of who the victims of the actions will be – who they must have been from that time forward. This was done without taking any time to look closely at the history of the events prior to it being done.
The plan outlined for this particular time was that of creating a public demonstration of strength – the demonstration would consist entirely of Jews marching on the White House. To meet the demand, the Jewish leaders would be told to march on the President at will, because in this case, at this time, the protest was going on in any event. And this was done precisely in this situation and not at the head of the President. The Jews was to remain silent because he is in a position in which to decide when to speak, who to listen to and when to retreat. The Jews were also to take measures to protect themselves and make it plain that the Jewish President does not feel any responsibility for his behaviour; he had actually set out to persuade the General Marshall to make this declaration. (The Germans had earlier been reluctant to make such an announcement, but that was the last chance for the Jews to take advantage of the announcement of their planned action.)
In this effort, and so it was for some time, the Jewish leaders were prepared for what had happened – to act. They had planned for all points by this time, but there might be some ambiguity amongst both the leaders, as there were at this time. But it was at that time that Hitler, as Secretary of State and Secretary of the Navy, became President of the Jewish