Witch Hunts: A Narrative Fiction

The Salem witch trials and the Hollywood communist hunt are both the worst examples of the purification of American land and one of the worst moments of American history. Over hundreds of people were innocently killed or died because of the accusations against them. They both had ridiculous ways to point people for what they were hunting for. Life was hard back then and so were the beliefs of their certain customs. But I never said there was never supporters, but many lacked confidence and courage to be in the public and that silence costed many, soon it was a phase of American history.

In 1692, when the Salem Witch Trials thrived, everyone feared a common enemy, witches. Abigail Williams, the niece of the powerful Reverend Parris, begins accusing women of being witches after she herself is accused of conversing with the devil. “...I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”(45) The people of Salem originally had nothing to fear until Abigail William’s wild accusations. These claims led to the majority fearing that anyone was capable was witchcraft. This turned friends and even family members against each other. John Proctor, a seemingly innocent man, had been accused of participating in dark magic. Reverend John Hale is conversing with his wife to convince her to persuade her husband to confess to his sins.

Imagine, if you will, having to spend 25 years in prison for a crime that you didn’t commit. It may seem absurd and ridiculous, but it has happened before. Meet Dan and Fran Keller, a couple that ran a daycare that was accused of exposing children to satanism in many different ways. This was all because of a witch hunt in the 1980’s and 1990’s surrounded around accusing people of different acts of satanism.A witch hunt is when many innocent people are wrongly accused of crimes they didn’t commit, mainly with little, uncredible, or no evidence to back it up. The term witch hunt was derived from the Salem witch trials in which hundreds of people were accused and hanged for witchcraft. During the Salem witch trials many people were sentenced

During winter, there is not enough light or water for photosynthesis. The trees will rest, and live off the food they stored during the summer. They begin to shut down their food-making factories. The green chlorophyll disappears from the leaves.

It was a bright cold day in Salem, where the sun seeped through overcast skies above and the mist danced around in the street. The wind hissed and howled, and swept through the narrow streets. In the centre of the town, stood the proud house of Reverend Parris. But that day, Reverend Parris was not a proud man as the accusations of witchcraft drifted through the town, overwhelming him completely.

I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!” (48). With great concern for their own souls, not a singe soul openly doubts the accusations made by the group of young girls. Sent into complete hysteria, the people of Salem break into uncontrolled and irrational feelings of fear; a mere accusation from one of Abigail’s troop is enough to incarcerate and convict even the most well respected inhabitant of Salem. Moral values are lost amidst chaos, with people acting in a primitive way of self-survival.

The people in Salem must seek out and destroy the Devil that corrupts many young girls by having Puritan Church officials take charge in this matter. The Puritan Church will help the situation by looking more into the deposition of the witnesses.

A wave of intense puritanism was ruling upon Salem by the time of our story,1692, and alongside them came various witch-hunt attempts. Backed up by religion, These witch-hunts intended to eliminate any possible threat to puritans and their beliefs. In the quest to “sabotage the devil” many innocent lives were lost. People capable of saving those in trouble, albeit innocent themselves, mostly hid their heads behind their walls, kept their mouths shut and left their ink to dry, leaving their fellow citizens to die. Reverend Hale, a witch-hunter himself, had an embodiment of the hunts and their purposes and consequences figured out; Therefore, he tried to make victims confess to things they did not commit, including witchcraft, to save their lives.

As a struggling minister with a generally low-public opinion by the residents of Salem, the trials filled Parris’ meetinghouse with distressed congregants looking for guidance and support to deal with the events overwhelming their community. Without the existence of the trials and the fear they induced, the conclusion can be drawn that Parris’ worries of possible ousting as town minister may have come true. (In fact, a few years after the end of the trials, when the villagers’ finally felt confident that their troubles with witchcraft were finished, Parris’ concerns proved legitimate when the town voted to oust him as their minister.)

Their actions break the cohesion in Salem’s tight knit community. Reverend Hale sees this and warns the officials that they are courting rebellion. As a result of the trials, “cows are wandering loose, crops are rotting in the fields, and orphans are wandering without supervision”. Many homes have fallen into neglect because their owners were in jail or had to attend the proceedings. Everyone lives in fear of being accused of witchcraft.

It was a cold dark wintery night in Salem Mass. Titubia could feel the wind bellow through the cabin as she gently rocked the baby in front of the fireplace. Two older children sat by her feet listening to a wild tale.

She'd have to clean it up and pay Nealie MacGowan, her mother's best friend, and owner of the bar for the glass, but she figured it was well worth it. "Get outta here." She screamed at him and pointed to the exist door. "Is this jerk giving you problems, Lannie?" Alannah looked up and saw her best guy friend, Finn Cassidy. The bar must have been so loud that she didn't hear him come in and walk up until he had spoken. Finn was thin with shoulder length dyed black hair, and dark brown eyes, covered in mascara and eyeliner and dressed in all black expect for his silver lip ring. He had been Alannah's best friend since 3rd grade, and had been the only kid to pay attention to her and play with her on the playground, and she was the only one who didn't judge him for his appearance or attitude. "No, he was just leaving," She said glaring at the man. He looked like he was going to challenge her request, until he looked up at Finn, who looked like he had stepped out of a horror film or a metal music video. Finn flashed him a big grin with sparking, straight, white teeth and the man scrambled out of his stool, and hurried

Witch hunts blazed across Europe over the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries not just killing innumerable innocent people, but stripping women of much of the power they had once held, and changing society's perceptions of women all together. The economic hardships, religious rivalries, and troubled politics of the time made accusing your neighbors of witchcraft convenient. Where there was war and poverty, or merely bad luck, peasants would assume witchcraft and rush to blame an old, defenseless woman in trials which involved unbelievable cruelty and horrible sadism. As religion and the Catholic Church began to complement and perpetuate the increasing hysteria, European society as a whole could do nothing but

The sunset came forward as Young Goodman Brown arrived at Salem Village. There he saw his wife, Faith, whom he had only being married to for three months. Faith and Goodman Brown watched as the villagers tied up a so called “witch” to the stick. The villagers had accused the Indian woman of being a witch when she was seen dancing around. They had planned to get rid of the evil by burning her next morning. Tragically, in the old times this was a common practice. The people of the village considered themselves pure Christians. At least that is what Young Goodman Brown believed, till one night it he thought otherwise.

My eyes drifted around the room before settling on the tea, now lukewarm in my hands. Maudie’s nonchalant face came to mind, and her firm, strong voice commanding Jean Louise and I back into the kitchen played in my head. The sudden news of Tom’s death had upset her, but she revealed nothing as such. She said to Jean Louise to stop her shaking and instructed me to control myself. Maudie maintained her composure, and assisted in upholding mine. I wondered how she had done it, but nevertheless I was grateful.