Name: Oni Thornell Humanities
7th Grade Comparative Essay
Outline for Crucible/McCarthy Comparative Essay
Theme: Oppression/Scapegoating
Paragraph #1: Introductory Paragraph (GIT)
Grabber Statement (G): Think back to your childhood. Do you have a brother, maybe a sister? Maybe there was a time that they stole or broke something and instead of them getting in trouble you were always the one to get the blame? Were you the one to get punishment? If you have ever experienced this was a small act of scapegoating as well as oppression.
The introduction of Theme (I): Oppression was prevalent during Colonial times, The Red Scare and modern day events. It was an undeniable part of many people’s lives. They were unfairly judged and often scapegoated for the simple fact that they are seen as marginal to the society.
Thesis Statement (T): During a witch hunt, people oppress others because they see them as inferior or marginal. Power hungry people commit these transgressions in an effort to get more power.
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Paragraph #2: Crucible Thematic Connection
Topic Sentence (T): In The Crucible oppression and scapegoating is forced upon many people because of their class, race, and religion, as a result, many of those who are oppressed are marginalized.
Explanatory Sentence (E): People in the Crucible were scapegoated because others in power wanted to control them. These people of higher power were often power hungry. In this next quote, it shows that Abigail while trying to take the blame off herself scapegoats the black, disempowered, slave.
Evidence (E): “ABIGAIL, whispering: Not I, sir-Tituba and Ruth.” (The Crucible, 41).
Analysis (A): The Crucible depicts mass oppression and scapegoating in Salem in 1692. In this quote, Abigail blames Tituba so that no one knows the truth about her. She comes to realize that anyone who doesn’t conform to the society’s standards could be seen as inferior or not likable. These standards would be being a white and Christian. She was taken from her homeland and unfairly oppressed because she is a black, and a servant of a household. Tituba was an easy target she was someone that was not viewed as Central but marginal to the community. If it had been Procter or Rebecca the community would have been in an uproar. Tituba was merely a slave from the Barbados.
Concluding/ Transition (C): The Crucible Holds many truths and life lessons within it’s writing. Many of these lessons you can also see reappear during the McCarthy era.
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Paragraph #3: McCarthy/Red Scare Thematic Connection
Topic Sentence (T): Oppression is a force that throughout history has played a very important role, It is often exploited by people in power. This was very prevalent during the McCarthy era.
Explanatory Sentence (E): Oppression was also enhanced with the help of fear and scapegoating. In this next quote, you will see a historically accurate example of oppression as well as scapegoating.
Evidence (E):”His first major raid rounded up hundreds of Russian immigrants who were suspected radicals. Nearly 250 of them were deported back to their homeland. Many of the deportees had not done anything wrong.” (page 21, McCarthy Packet).
Analysis (A): The McCarthy era was another era of scapegoating and false accusations. In this quote, you can see that McCarthy with the assistance of J. Edgar hoover misleads people with inaccurate info. 250 people were deported back to their homeland for no reason. The information distributed through the McCarthy era could never be trusted. It was Invalid. For the citizens of America, they did not know what to do anymore. They had been lied to on multiple occasions. Even if some info was true you could never know what because they claimed it was all true.
Concluding/ Transition (C): The McCarthy era was an oppressive and dreadful time and unfortunately, you can see many similarities to Modern day Occurrences.
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Paragraph #4: Modern Day Witch Hunt Thematic Connection
Topic Sentence (T): President Trump has affected many lives and has deported many Citizens due to his oppressive behavior.
Explanatory Sentence (E): According to The Huffington Post Trump’s campaign is based on the idea of oppression.
Evidence (E):”This is because Trump’s campaign, down to his outrageous fan base, is founded on oppression.
Trump hopes to appeal to white, middle-class Americans who feel that they are being deprived of their American Dream. He channels their anger and insecurity to target groups of people who do not identify with his extremist principles. That group includes me, too.” (Huffington post, Donald Trump’s Campaign Is Oppression)
Analysis (A): Trump’s Campaign is based on oppressions and scapegoating. He, like McCarthy, portrayed many people of one belief as terrorists. He also said that Mexicans were rapists and murders. He leads people to believe these false accusations. Even in modern times, when you would think that we learned from our mistakes, we seem to be having a conflicts that are taking us steps into the past. Trump had gotten rid of transgender rights to using the bathrooms they want to use. He was tried and enact a travel ban. These are just some of the many executive orders that Donald Trump has created.
Concluding/ Transition (C): Even in Modern times we still seem to be encountering problems like oppression and scapegoating.
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Paragraph #5: Concluding Paragraph (ROC)
Reflection on Thesis (R): Oppression is often misused and given into the hands of the wrong people.
Overview of Main Points (O): This results in events like The Crucible, McCarthy era and modern day times. During the Salem witch trials, people were often oppressed on the only superstition and not on actual facts. It was the oppressive behavior of the people in power that caused the Salem witch trials. Another event quite like the witch trials arose during the McCarthy era. People were scapegoated and oppressed because of fear. Fear was a force that was often taken from people and used against them because they were ignorant to what was happening. Trump has also proven to us that some are blinded by ignorance and their greed to see that history is repeating itself. As we live in the modern day and have experienced many events we can see many similarities between McCarthy era and The Crucible. They have some big themes between all of them but something that has proven to play a big factor in all of it is Oppression.
Concluding Idea (C): Although we have tried to learn from our mistakes, we clearly have some work to do. Oppression is real and it can kill and hurt people. Some believe that just because it isn’t happening to them that they don’t have to address the fact that others are getting hurt. People consciously or unconsciously are ignorant and blinded to what is happening and it is not only hurting them but also the rest of us. Will we ever recognize what is happening? Will it be too late for us? And the biggest questions of all, can we get rid of it?
This essay I found was very relevant and interesting to write. I think that the formatting of the body paragraphs was really helpful. The TEEAC form was incredibly helpful in helping us organize our thoughts as well as keep it in a consistent format all the way through. This helped me write my first draft and also reminded me of the Giver essay. Since we also used the TEEAC form in the Giver essay there were many similarities to them. I believe that with this formatting they can become high school and college level essays. Git, Teeac and Roc formatting has been incredibly helpful and I dont think that we could have learned or written such great essays without them.