Name: Milei Humanities
7th Grade Comparative Essay
Power and its misuse
Imagine living in a place where a person had enough power to control your life, take you out of your home, and/or eliminate all that is important to you. This is an example of misuse of power. Power represented a lot about who you were as a person in these three different eras. In the crucible, the court held a lot of power. Because they held a lot of power they were in control of everything. In the Mccarthy era it showed Mccarthy misusing his power by making false accusations and scapegoating others. In modern day there have been examples of marginalizing others. Power has been misused within these three different eras in American history because sometimes power has been used in order to scapegoat others and cause hysteria around them.
Power within The Crucible is a very important theme in the play because power is used to determine whether someone is right or wrong and to marginalize others. Power within The Crucible represented who you were as a person. It showed how you carried yourself and how you treated your religion. Power also represented knowledge. People thought that because you were in power you had more knowledge and maybe even wisdom than others. In The Crucible by Arthur Miller, Reverend Hale, one of the characters in the book, demonstrates a moment of power. “delighted: Mr. Hale! Oh! it’s good to see you again! Taking some books: My, they’re heavy! HALE, setting down his books: They must be; they are weighted with authority.” ( The Crucible, 58). This quote shows how much Hale misuses his power because of his egocentric personality.The way that Mr. Hale showed that he had power was in an egocentric manner. During the 1690’s books or knowledge in general, were represented as extensive and had loads of potential. So in other words knowledge in general represented power. power within the crucible relates a lot to a certain era in history. It was called the Mccarthy era.
Power has been misused by using false accusations to scapegoat others within the Mccarthy era and the Red Scare. Power was a very representative thing within the mccarthy era. It showed where and what your status was like in the crucible. Mccarthy had a lot of power. He was a senator in the U.S. Mccarthy misused his power in order to state his own opinions and false accusations. “Mccarthy claimed that traitors within the U.S. government were aiding The spread of communism” ( Fitzgerald, McCarthyism, 11) This quote shows how much Mccarthy misused power. Mccarthy was an important senator in the U.S. who used the amount of power he had to start spreading false accusations. Mccarthy used his power in order to spread lies and say that there were traitors who were spreading communism. Mccarthy also used his power to start scapegoating and spreading fear. He started the “anti communism”. The Mccarthy era is maybe being repeated a little because of its relation to modern day.
Power today has been misused by many. It has been used to scapegoat others. In modern day, politics have been a pretty big topic considering power. With the new presidency of Donald Trump there has been a lot of controversy and protests about him misusing his power. In an article from the huffington post, it talks about how trump is using “White power”. “President Donald Trump reportedly wants to temporarily stop most refugees from entering the country and halt immigration from ‘terror-prone areas’. In other words, he wants to ban Muslims.” This quote shows how Trump is misusing his power in order to ban refugees and immigrants from coming into America. This is quite similar to the McCarthy era and The Crucible because in the Mccarthy era Mccarthy mis used his power by spreading false accusations and scapegoating others. In the crucible many powerful people were egocentric and cared a lot about their status within their society. Power today has been relating to these two other eras. Power has also been used for the same reason as well. It has been used in order for things to go their ways and to cause chaos around them.
Power has been misused to cause oppression and hysteria amongst others. This has been shown in these three different era’s. In the crucible it’s been shown that power was something to be proud of but they were egocentric about it. In the mccarthy era Joseph Mccarthy used his power in order to spread false accusations about communists which caused hysteria and the red scare. Now today has been showing signs of these two eras. It has been showing loads of problems between immigrants. Power within these three different eras have been mis used and put in the wrong hands. In the future will power be put in finally the right hands? Will power instead of causing oppression, be used to help others?
