In humanities, we had to write an essay about the crucible, modern day and McCarthyism. We chose a theme that was shown in these three topics to write our essay about. I chose fear, hysteria and scapegoating because they all connect to each other. We wrote a paragraph for each time period and how it connects to our theme. I learned that very similar things have happened throughout history. Lots of people have been scapegoated over time who are innocent. As a writer, I learned how to go deeper in the analysis and analyze my quote more.
Overall, I think I did pretty well on my essay. I have definitley improved my writing this year. I think one thing I still need to work on is using more descriptive language in my writing to make it sound better. I think something I did well was finding good quotes to support my thesis. This is something I have improved in on this essay.
Name: Freddie 3/6/17
Humanities Comparative Essay
Don’t get Stuck in Mass(Achusetts) Hysteria
Fear and hysteria have caused many tragedies and ruined people’s lives throughout our country’s history. Hysteria has often been the outcome after something fearful has happened. Many times, this has lead to scapegoating. Scapegoating is when a person or group of people gets blamed for a problem that they did not cause. In The Crucible, during the McCarthy Era, and in modern day, people in power have scapegoated innocent people out of fear and hysteria.
The girls in the book The Crucible, which was written about the Salem Witch Trials, scapegoated many innocent people as witches out of fear and hysteria. The girls were scared of being hung as witches, so they started accusing other people of witchcraft. At the end of Act I, Abigail and Betty (Abigail, a 17 year old girl, is one of the main characters. Betty, a 12 year old girl, has a smaller role but plays along as a witch.) were getting close to being caught as witches. When Reverend Hale was trying to purify Tituba, Abigail pretended that she was a witch and asks to be purified as well. When they were asked if they had seen anyone with the Devil, Abigail and Betty started to accuse innocent people as being witches. “ABIGAIL: I saw Goody Hawkins with the Devil! BETTY: I saw Goody Bibber with the Devil! ABIGAIL: I saw Goody Booth with the Devil!” (Miller, p.65). Abigail and Betty were trying to get other people accused of being witches so they don’t get killed themselves. The rule in their society was that if you were a witch you would be hanged. They were scapegoating other people which stopped them from being hanged. They were “helping” the community by accusing other people. The church officials thought they were getting rid of witches, when really they were killing innocent people. They were doing this in an act of hysteria. Abigail and Betty were scared that they would get hanged, so they made other people be hanged instead. The girls in The Crucible scapegoated many people as witches, similar to what Joseph McCarthy did during the red scare.
Joseph McCarthy, a former senator from Wisconsin, created McCarthyism after World War II. Many people were scared that America would turn to communism. McCarthy knew this and took advantage of it. He claimed to have over two hundred names of communists in the government, which was later shortened to nine. “When pressed for names, McCarthy finally gave the names of nine people. Each of the accused was called in to answer the charges, and each time, McCarthy’s case against them quickly fell apart,” (Senator Joseph McCarthy’s speech in front of the Tydings Committee in March of 1950). McCarthy accused innocent people of being communists, so he could gain power in the government. During the trials, he did not have strong enough evidence against the nine people and lost the cases against them. This shows that he scapegoated innocent people for his own benefit. He did this out of fear of losing his credibility and power. He didn’t want to get caught for making up lies, so he accused others. Joseph McCarthy scapegoated many innocent people, and so did Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has scapegoated innocent Muslim people as terrorists. Soon after he was sworn in as president, he made a ban against immigration from seven different countries. He claimed that it was to stop terrorism in the United States, but it shows that he was banning Muslims from coming to America.“The list of targeted countries is Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen—all Muslim-majority countries. Trump’s order says that it protects American people from the threat of terrorism. It doesn’t necessarily do that. But it does show that the new president was serious about putting the islamophobia that was a central part of his campaign into practice. That’s because none of the perpetrators of the major US terrorist attacks carried out in the name of Islam in the past 15 years have come from the nations on that list,” (http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/25/14383316/trump-muslim-ban-immigration-visas-terrorism-executive-order). Donald Trump was claiming that he was trying to stop terrorism in the United States by banning Muslims from immigrating to the country. He was scapegoating all Muslims as terrorists from the seven countries. Like Joseph McCarthy, he was finding fake evidence to get rid of people he does not want in the country. His actions were causing a lot of hysteria. Many people disagree with him because it goes against the US Constitution. The Constitution allows freedom of religion, which Trump was not following. This is similar to how the the country was first started. The main colonies; Massachusetts Bay Colony, Plymouth Colony and the Virginia Colony all didn’t allow freedom of religion. Trump was going back to how our country was started. He was overusing his power to get rid of Muslims. Trump was blaming Muslims for acts of Terrorism. He was scapegoating Muslims, like what Joseph McCarthy and the girls in The Crucible did.
Scapegoating has often been the result of fear and hysteria. The girls in The Crucible accused others of being witches to cover up that they had been proven as witches. Joseph McCarthy started a movement to get rid of “communists” in the U.S.A. so he could have more power. Donald Trump has made false accusations against Muslims to disguise the fact that he doesn’t like Islam. Scapegoating has ruined many innocent people’s lives during the past and present. Hysteria has caused all these things. Imagine what the world would be like if there was no hysteria in the world? Would the world be better without as much conflict, or would it be worse?