Name: Miles Friedman                                             Humanities

7th Grade     March                                                         

 

The Crucible, Mccarthyism, and Donald Trump, Oh My!

 

Have you ever been in a situation where things spiral out of control? Has someone ever blamed you for something you did not do because they wanted to bet the pressure off their backs. What if this happened on a much bigger scale with countries and cities? This is hysteria and scapegoating at work. Scapegoating is when someone blames someone else for something they did not do. Hysteria is when things get so bad that things get out of control. When there is hysteria people scapegoat others to get out of crazy situations. People also scapegoat to get the pressure off them. Hysteria causing scapegoating has happened throughout time. It happened during the Salem Witch trials of 1692, then later with Mccarthyism and the Red Scare in the 1950s, and even now in the world we know. In all of these time periods Hysteria and scapegoating has caused great commotion. People use scapegoating to get rid of people in their lives that they do not like or want. During times of hysteria people often scapegoat other to get the pressure of themselves. Then the people who were scapegoated scapegoat others to get the pressure off their backs. This is a recurring cycle.

In The Crucible hysteria and scapegoating come up a lot. Many characters are accused of being witches, which causes fear and hysteria. From this hysteria more people are being convicted. People are accusing others of scapegoating so they don’t get accused themselves. In Salem there is hysteria from the accusations of witches in the community. The reverend, who is the person that can ward off the devil, has a daughter who he thinks has been attacked by the devil and this causes mass hysteria. Parris does not like this attention so he decides to scapegoat the easiest possible person to scapegoat: his slave, Tituba. “PARRIS: I saw Tituba waving her arms over the fire when I came on you. Why was she doing that? And I heard screeching and gibberish coming from her mouth. She were swaying her arms like a dumb beast over the fire!” ( Miller, 1953). In this quote, Parris is scapegoating Tituba. Parris does this to get the pressure of his family and himself to get his reputation back to par. From this scapegoating Parris causes all the girls who were dancing in the forest to scapegoat other girls that they know and do not like. Basically Parris started a chain reaction in the whole community. The hysteria of these women convicting these people caused more and more people to be convicted. In Salem the hysteria caused for anybody to be able to be convicted of witchcraft, even a white landowning male. By doing this Parris kills many innocent people in Salem. Hysteria and scapegoating also happened an enormous amount during the Red Scare and Mccarthyism.

Two major themes during the times of Mccarthyism and the Red Scare the two major themes that occurred were hysteria and scapegoating. The Soviets with the bomb caused a bunch of hysteria. Some people tried to gain power from the fear of the Soviets having the H-bomb and the A-bomb. Some people also used this hysteria to get the pressure off losing their job and reputation. During the cold war Joseph Mccarthy decided to capitalize on the hysteria to gain power and get rid of the people he did not like. “The hysteria of the Red Scare made it easy for the public to believe Mccarthy’s charges- even though he offered no real proof,” (Red Scare, Fitzgerald, 2007). Mccarthy used the hysteria of the Red Scare to attack other people that he did not like. He also did this to enhance his power in the country. Although he did not have good evidence he could get away with scapegoating because of the hysteria in the United States.Also the Soviets used hysteria of nuclear weapons to gain power. With the nuclear weapons the Soviets almost gained one of the most powerful army and one of the most feared armies. The communist hysteria created the House of Un American Activities Committee (HUAC). This committee arrested people if anybody did one thing wrong or act different. They would scapegoat these people and ruin their lives. The Rosenbergs lost their life because of people convicting them. Another thing that the Red Scare caused was other countries becoming communist. This also caused hysteria. Many movie stars and and teachers would be scapegoated as a communists. Scapegoating and hysteria is even still happening today.

Today, hysteria and scapegoating are still taking place because of terrorism and Donald Trump. Donald Trump may be scapegoating Muslims because he is Islamophobic. He is also scared of the hysteria that could take place if another terrorist attack happened. “She wants to take away Americans’ guns and then admit the very people who want to slaughter us.” (Donald J. Trump New York Times). In this quote Donald Trump is talking about Hillary Clinton and what she wants to do with guns and Muslims. This quote took place during the run for the presidency. Donald Trump is saying every Muslim wants to kill Americans. He is scapegoating muslims. Also this quote shows how from fear and hysteria Donald Trump has for terrorist attacks he is scapegoating and presuming every Muslim wants to kill a American. Also by saying this he is saying that any American can have a gun, but if you are Muslim you can’t have one because they are a threat to this country. He is scapegoating Muslims because he thinks they are minorities to Americans so they can be the ones who commit all the terrorist attacks so everybody haters them and Americans will agree with him. Donald Trump made an immigration ban to get the pressure of doing something wrong with immigration off his himself. Because of Donald Trump Muslims and many people in the Middle East can not see their family, and travel in the United States.

People have used hysteria throughout history to get pressure off their own backs. Also people get other people in trouble by scapegoating others that they do not like and care about if their life gets ruined. Hysteria and scapegoating have ruined a larger number people’s lives. People are willing to scapegoat to keep their dignity alive. Unfortunately these people are willing to ruin people’s lives for their own. During the Salem witch trials, Mccarthyism, the Red Scare and now people have been scapegoating others and using their own greed to ruin people’s lives. If people could think about others more than themselves maybe scapegoating would end and people could be happier and safer. What do you think would change about our country and the world if this happens.

 

In this essay we had to write about a theme or themes we chose. My themes were hysteria and scapegoating. We also had to write about The Crucible which we read right before this, The Red Scare, and present day. One big thing we had to include was connecting all three time periods with our themes or theme. I found this surprisingly easy with my themes. During the making of of this essay I learned that history really repeats itself and what goes around comes around. I also learned some new writing skills. I learned that everybody might not know what you are talking about and that you have to explain more in depth. In other words I have to explain what I’m talking about more. I would like to work on grammar. This has been a week point throughout out the year so far. I can fix this by slowing down a lot while I write. Also I have to be more specific with my work and go in more depth about what I am talking about.