The Crucible and mcCarthyism - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

The Crucible and mcCarthyism

Drama and AllegorySlide2

The Rise of Communism

First Red Scare – 1917-1920

Russian Revolution - 1919

People accused/jailed with little or no evidence

1939 WWII – Russia, ally to USA

Alien Registration Act – 1940

Second Red Scare – 1947

Spread of Communism to Eastern Europe

Iron Curtain / Cold War

In 1949, Mao Zedong took power in China

Western Europe became increasingly Communist…especially ItalySlide3

The Iron Curtain

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an

"iron curtain"

has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.

- Winston ChurchillSlide4

The Spread Of Communism

Eastern European countries under control of the Soviet Union

Estonia

Latvia

Lithuania

Russia

Byelorussia

Ukraine

Moldavia

East Germany / East Berlin

Poland

Czechoslovakia

Hungary

Yugoslavia

Albania

Bulgaria

With Communism spreading, there was fear that it would spread to America as well. Slide5

Joseph McCarthy

American politician who served as a

Republican U.S. Senator from the state

of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death

in 1957.

February 9, 1950, when he gave a Lincoln Day speech to the Republican Women's Club of Wheeling, West Virginia.

"The State Department is infested with communists. I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.“ December 2, 1954, the Senate voted tocensure him, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion.Slide6

McCarthy Hearings

The

Army–McCarthy hearings

were a series of hearings held by the US Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations between March and June 1954. The hearings were held for the purpose of investigating conflicting accusations between the Army and McCarthy

The Senate decided that these conflicting charges should be investigated

In all, 395 executive session witnesses and 214 public session witnesses were examined. Ninety-eight witnesses were called before the Army–McCarthy hearings in executive session, including Cohn himself, while 44 were called for public testimony.

Later seen as a modern day witch hunt. Slide7

“Why I Wrote The Crucible

”

-

Arthur Miller

The State Dept. hounded and fired officers who knew China, its language, and its culture. Alien conspiracies dominated political discourse.Paralysis of liberals who were fearful of being identified as Communists.House Committee on Un-American Activities reached Hollywood and unleashed holy terror on actors, directors, writers. Head of Columbia Pictures sent Miller’s screenplay “The Hook” to the F.B.I.

Wanted to change the gangsters to Communists.Slide8

Why I Wrote…cont.

American thinking was “becoming so magical, so paranoid….I lacked the tools to illuminate miasma.”

(a dangerous, foreboding, or deathlike atmosphere)

Miller kept being drawn by the 1950’s hearings and by Salem witch trials which he began reading about at this time.

Read Mayor Upham’s 2 volume, thousand page account of Salem witch trials.

Read transcripts of witchcraft trials of 1692.Miller’s marriage was falling apart, like John Proctor’s…saw connection.Proctor trying to overcome his paralyzing guilt reassured and inspired Miller. Slide9

The Crucible

One of the most heavily demanded trade-fiction paperbacks

Over 6 million sold

Has been onstage for 40 + years…somewhere.

Starts getting produced whenever a political coup appears imminent or a dictatorial regime has just been overthrown

From Argentina to Chile to Greece to Czechoslovakia and China….etc…

Slide10

The Witch Trials

In 1692 girls started exhibiting bizarre behavior

This was attributed to being ‘bewitched’ by other people

The Salem interrogations turned out to be eerily exact models of those yet to come in Stalin's Russia,

Pinochet's

Chile, Mao's China, and other abusive regimes. Slide11

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Wrote: “The Minister’s Black Veil”

“Young Goodman Brown”

Was related to the Judge Hathorne in

The Crucible

. Wanted to distance himself from all the events of 1692.

Changed the spelling of his name as well as the pronunciation.Wrote in the American Romanticism period , often about the PuritansSlide12

The Puritans

Came to America to escape persecution and to “purify” the Church of England.

Their interpretation of scriptures was a harsh one.

They emphasized a redemptive piety.

In principle, they emphasized conversion and not repression.

Conversion was a rejection of the "worldliness" of society and a strict adherence to Biblical principles.

While repression was not encouraged in principle, it was evident in their actions.

God could forgive anything, but man could forgive only by seeing a change in behavior.

Actions spoke louder than words, so actions had to be constantly controlled. Slide13

Puritans p2

Doctrine of Predestination

kept all Puritans constantly working to do good in this life to be chosen for the next eternal one

God had already chosen who would be in heaven or hell

The wealthy were blessed by God and were in good standing with Him

The Protestant work ethic was the belief that hard work was an honor to God which would lead to a prosperous reward.

Any deviations from the normal way of Puritan life met with strict disapproval and discipline. There was no margin for error.