Salem Witch Trials Vs Mccarthyism Essay

The salem witch hunts and the Red Scare caused big problems and death in the U.S. In 1950 everyone was scared that communism would spread to the united states and McCarthy wanted to get rid of all communist in the united states but instead accused innocent citizens. In salem 1692 multiple girls were out in the woods dancing and were thought to be possessed and working with the devil. Girls accused many citizens in salem claiming they were witches and causing the witch trials.The Crucible by Arthur Miller is an allegory for the Red Scare in the McCarthy Era because of false accusations and ruined lives.

The search for commies and witches happened at different points in time but had many similarities with very few differences. George Santayana said that, "Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it." this quote I feel directly goes along with McCarthyism and the Salem Witch Trials.

What is The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism? Well, The Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are somewhat similar. Both happened around the same time and in the same year. The Salem Witch Trials had to do with witches. Girls committed sins by dancing in the woods and drinking blood, while guys had affairs and tried lying for the girls in the courthouse.

In this process essay the reader will learn how the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism are similar. Both situations ended up taking on a mob mentality. The Salem Witch Trials started in 1690s when the Trials began, and by the end, over 200 people were accused of witchcraft. The people had a strong belief of the devil and were very religious. The outside threats that were surrounding the people of Salem had created a fear and suspicion within the town. Eventually, the people in Salem realized their mistakes.

McCarthyism and the Salem Witch Trials are notorious events in American History. Although they weren’t contemporary, it is undeniable that they are related. McCarthyism was from about 1950 to 1954, or when World War 2 had finished and the Cold War was “heating up.” There was anxiety in countries all over the world and people were beginning to panic. First term senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy, did nothing to comfort the nation. In February of 1950, Joseph McCarthy presented a speech that claimed he had a list of 205 communists in the State Department (History.com). Joseph McCarthy’s egotistical action resulted in people losing trust in America’s government. President Dwight Eisenhower and other

The American Heritage dictionary defines McCarthyism as “The political practice of publicizing accusation of disloyalty or subversion with insignificant regard to evidence”. Arthur Millers ‘The Crucible’ is an extended metaphor representing the parallels between the Salem witch-hunts and accusations of communism during the McCarthyism era. Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible in resins to the unwarranted persecution of many Americans, who were accused of communist ties or association with Communist government. two of the themes presented throughout The Crucible are Witchcraft and Personal Integrity. Miller sets up the parallel between The Crucible and McCarthyism by presenting Salem to be a puritan society and a theocracy, which would make the devil and those communing with him enemies if the town. It follows that America, then, us a democracy, which would make communism the modern devil and communists enemies of America.

Most witch hunts were by government authorities in response to chaos and death (Hunter,2015). During the Salem witch trials in "The Crucible" and "The Heretic's Daughter" the government persecuted and killed many innocent people because they felt as though those people had supernatural powers. As a result many people were seen as evil witches and blamed for societies evils regardless of guilt or innocence (Beaudoin, 2011). “According to Arthur Colman…in order to survive and remain whole” (Hunter,2015). Society uses fear of those that are different to choose scapegoats. This is not done in search of justice but because they need someone else to blame. McCarthyism is the panic that came from Joseph McCarthy

The Salem Witch Trials show a lot about how this world’s beliefs grew and developed in early America and Europe. Much of the prosecution of witches started because of the Roman Catholic Church; they created the belief of witches that led to the Salem Witch Trials. The Trials in Salem were a time when the people were scared of magic and what it could do, that led to the deaths of multiple people. The McCarthy Trials also show a resemblance to the witch trials in Salem as the idea of what happened was similar. All the ideas that were used then can be found in America through some way shape or form. That leads to the idea that people have always worried about the

Who can people trust in a world filled with self-centered and ambitious enemies? Are their neighbors friends or foe? Those are questions many people faced in the seventeenth century and in the 1950s when mobocracy enveloped America. The Second Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials were both tragic events that took place during these time periods; during this time, people were in a constant state of paranoia and fear. Many respected people lost their lives because they were accused of sinister deeds. For the Salem Witch Trial this meant being associated with witchcraft or conspiring with Satan; in the same fashion, during the Second Red Scare it meant being accused being a Communist or a spy. To make it more alarming, once accused, it was extremely difficult to get one’s name cleared because there was very little room for rebuttal against witness testimony. Many factors that caused such a frightening outcome of the Salem Witch Trials and general mobocracy include the dissension among citizens, the repressed girls of Salem and the Puritan religious beliefs.

McCarthyism, like the Salem Witch Trails can be unbelievable. It is, though, interesting to see how people thought and blamed each other. McCarthyism is an unfair public blame of treason without a large number of evidence. This campaign was started by Joseph McCarthy to expose communists. “McCarthy’s accusations were so intimidating that few people dared to speak out against him.” Citizens were scared to speak out about anything because they could be censured for being a communist for whatever reason. This made people scared of the Soviet Union as well. Over 2,000 people lost their jobs because of lack of proof of treason. The Salem Witch Trials are a good example of McCarthyism because anybody could be criticized for being a witch. They would

The people of the U.S. were scared of communism because communist countries were usually led by dictatorships and the thought of having communists in the American government led to the concern of a security threat. Since McCarthy had “knowledge” on possible communists, people let him try many innocent people who were falsely accused. I think that this is extremely unconstitutional and it reminds me of The Crucible, which is why I enjoy researching this topic. This reminds me of The Crucible because the hysteria in Salem during the Witch Trials allowed Abigail to get away with having many innocent hanged, comparable to how hysteria within the U.S. encouraged McCarthy to gain attention through accusing others of communism. The hysteria in Salem was called the Salem Witch Trials, and in the McCarthy/Cold War era it was called the Red Scare. I had seen the term “The Red Scare” associated with McCarthyism before, but I didn’t know until researching that The Red Scare was the time period of unrest caused by the fear of communism, largely instigated by Joseph McCarthy himself. This discovery is very exciting because now the difference between McCarthyism and the Red Scare is clear: McCarthyism itself is the false accusation of someone innocent while

In characterising McCarthyism as a ‘witch hunt’, the above view invites one to consider whether the internal communist threat and persecution of such during 1940s and 50s America was justified. A ‘witch hunt’ would suggest that McCarthyism represented a random, irrational targeting of innocent people in a hysterical fashion, and was therefore an aberration, and something to be condemned. There has indeed been a historiographical consensus that McCarthyism represented an intensive attack on innocent Americans. However, in the light of recent evidence presented by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, it appears that the majority of those persecuted were indeed communists, and many had been

Fear plays an important role in both stories. Citizens of the United States during the McCarthyism era were scared of communism and communists infiltrating the United States or worse, that they were already there. Likewise, townspeople of Salem in “The Crucible” were scared of witches. Witches very similarly represented communists in “The Crucible” as the townspeople and the citizens alike were not well educated about either suspected villain. The fear stemmed from this lack of education. Not only were the American

Hello, I am Jesse and I’ll be discussing the relationship amongst four topics which bear striking resemblance to one another. The first topic is McCarthyism which centers on the Red scare in the 1950’s. Second is Saudi Arabia’s War on Witchcraft which is what the name implies an inter-regional hunt for anything witchlike. Third is the Moral Panic that occurred mostly in Christian nations at the time. Fourth and final is The Salem Witch Trials which was in-link to moral panic due to both centering on absurd hysteria amongst a populace. Though many at the time and even now viewed these acts as just which may be so since views differ from the individual and so forth. I wish to object to that view point since what one group desires may be

Robertson Davies once said,“The eyes see only what the mind is prepared to comprehend”. Which strikes much resonance to the topics of mass hysteria and how it applies throughout history as a political and social force. With prevalent topics that include white supremacy and Islamophobia, the tactics of those involved in these radical movements still continue to this day. The biases and the political and social agendas of the perpetrators of the Salem witch trials, Japanese internment camps, and McCarthyism was successful in the oppression of the group who opposed the views of the perpetrators.