The Cold War was an era clouded by persistent
paranoia, not only between the United States and the Soviet Union. When it came
to its own citizens, the U.S. government was, in some cases, just as fearful as
it was about foreign threats—especially when it came to the Hollywood crowd.
Indeed, in October 1947, members of a congressional committee, the House
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), began investigating members of the
movie industry who they suspected were communist sympathizers. They banned the
work of 325 screenwriters, actors, and directors*. Among those blacklisted were
composer Aaron Copland, writers Dashiell Hammett, Lillian Hellman, and Dorothy
Parker, playwright Arthur Miller, and actor and filmmaker Orson Welles.
The Creative
Environment During the Cold War
The term McCarthyism
came out of this period and is now used more broadly to describe unfounded
accusations of one group or political party against its opponent, particularly
in discussions of patriotism and integrity.
In the 1950s, anyone suspected of communist
sympathies was thoroughly investigated with no mind paid for the personal
damage such an investigation may have caused. During this time, there were few
in the press willing to stand up against Senator Joseph McCarthy and the
anti-Communist hunt he led.
In 1950, ten individuals, known as the
Hollywood Ten, defied HUAC and refused to cooperate with the investigation.
They cited the actions of the committee as a violation of their civil
liberties, as the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution afforded them the
right to belong to any political organization. The men were sentenced to a year
in jail, although one of the Hollywood Ten, Edward Dmytryk, decided to
cooperate with the government and provided the names of more than 20 in
Hollywood he alleged were communists**.
Arthur Miller's
Response
In response to this period of intimidation,
playwright Arthur Miller penned some of his most notable works, including The
Crucible (1953), an interpretation of the events that occurred in 17th
century Salem, Massachusetts, where twenty innocent people were executed for
witchcraft.
The way in which Miller paralleled the witch trials with the era of McCarthyism earned
him a seat in front of HUAC. He was convicted of contempt of Congress for
failing to name names of communist sympathizers; however, his conviction was
later overturned. Nevertheless, the experience continued to impact the
playwright and his later works.
In The Creation of the World and Other
Business (1972), Miller is inspired by the Book of Genesis and its
themes of good versus evil; however, he gives a comedic rendition in The
Creation wherein God is powerful but lacks intelligence.
In the Incident at
Vichy (1964), Miller explores human nature, guilt, and fear while
depicting how the Nazis orchestrated the Holocaust without much resistance.
To better understand Miller and his thought
process, it is helpful to look to The Theater Essays. In the work, Miller discusses the roots of modern drama and
the state of contemporary theater with reference to other notable writers such
as Ibsen, Chekhov, and O'Neill. He also compares attitudes toward theater in
Russia, China, and the United States.
In short, Arthur Miller is one of the most
important playwrights of the 20th century whose work
often reflected the oppressive nature of the contemporary state, especially
during McCarthyism. In an era of fear and intimidation, Arthur Miller stands
out as someone who wasn't afraid to write his conscience.
Your comment must be at least 380
words. Due by Tuesday 4/17 at 11:59pm. Your reply to a classmate is due
Thursday 4/19 at 11:59pm.
-How was Arthur Miller using the events around
him to shape his writing?
-What influence did the Red Scare have on his
writing of The Crucible?
-What parallels can be found between the Red
Scare and the Salem Witch Trials?
-How was Arthur Miller using the events around him to shape his writing?
ReplyDeleteArthur miller was expressing how he felt about the events going on around him by putting it into writing, he hid it was about the events by using the Salem witch trials as a cover up.
-What influence did the Red Scare have on his writing of The Crucible?
The red scare is pretty much what the book is based off, also the salem witch trials. But he is trying to tell what he is going through without actually saying it.
-What parallels can be found between the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials?
The Accusations of people being communist and people being witches, one man started the red scare and 3 girls started the witch trials. Both people were wrongly accused or at least in the witch trials that is. In the red scare some were communist while others were not.
Anthony I really enjoyed your response.I think that we had the same idea while writing our response. I really love how you just got to the point while writing this one again. But I think you could have write a little more but thats ok since you actually did your blog.
DeleteGood Job on the answers. I agree
DeleteI agree with what you said. Many people were accused of doing witchcraft ir being a communist. People also died from being executed because of the accusations by others.
DeleteIn Arthur Miller's writings , he used the events around him to express how he felt about what was going on. He used those thoughts and feelings and spun them into a story that was different but had the same idea. He isn't afraid to express how he feels in his writings and show how wrong people can be when they let fear take over.
ReplyDeleteArthur Miller's " The Crucible" has the same concept as the red scare. People let fear take over and influence there actions. Arthur Miller has first hand experience in being accused of something that is not true and depicted that in the book "The Crucible". He was relating his own experience and feelings.
There are a couple parallels between the Red Scare and "The Crucible". One is the fear of communism in the red scare and the fear of witchcraft in "The Crucible". The next parallel is in the red scare people accused others of being communists and in "the Crucible" the townspeople accused people of being witches. They let fear take over and took action based on that fear. In both scenarios people who were mainly innocent were wrongly accused. In the Red scare innocent people's lives were ruined by being just accused. Others were ruined by going to prison. Some people were guilty but others weren't. In "The Crucible" the innocent woman were put to death just for being accused by three girls of being witches. It didn't matter that they were really innocent. In both the Red Scare and "The Crucible" people act from their feeling of fear and make bad decisions which usually have bad outcomes for the innocent.
Arthur miller was using the events around him to help his writing by during the red scare people were accusing others of being communist and he used that to make a historical fiction play. About the salem witch trials that had the same idea because others would accused people of being witches. He himself was also called a communist. He was seeing the comparison between the two events. He wanted to write this play because he wanted to show people what they were doing and wanted to see everything clearly.The red scare had influenced Arthur by he was a supposed communist.He was called out and he saw what happened to other people called a communist and i guess he heard about the salem witch trials and he saw the comparison. I think he wanted to not be a communist so he wanted other to see want will most likely happen if others start to accused if people something that they are not. Now the punishment between the two is very different but the way of getting accused and after effects of being called something even though you were innocent were the same. If you were called a with or communist,your whole life is already ruined and it will never be the same. The parallels between the two are very similar. One of them is that everyone was scared of being accused.There was a state of fear during each time period. Also between the two there was a lot of false accusations. So I think that was the biggest one between the two.Another ne is that people did die. There were over twenty people that died in the trails and I think over two people died for the scare. During both periods people supported it. People supported the idea of witches being real and communist were in the government. I think that final main impression is that there were no evidence when accusing people. I found out while writing this is that when the trails had ended the judge and jury had apologize to all the people affected.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your response. Many innocent people were being accused of being a witch when they really weren't. And the ones who were witches were sent to jail or got executed.
DeleteArthur Miller was using the ideas around him to shape his writing by writing about the main events back then. He wrote about communist sympathies and the committee violations. The influence the Red scare have on his writing, “The Crucible” is the events that occurred in 17th century Salem, Massachusetts, where twenty innocent people were executed for witchcraft. The parallels that are found between The salem witch trial and The Crucible, is they both occured in the 1950s and it was about judging people. People were being convicted of a crime they didn’t do and a lot of innocent people were sent to jail. The parallels between the Salem witch trials and the Red scare, people were accused of being witch or communist, and if they were, they would get sent to jail or get executed.
ReplyDeleteArthur Miller was using the things around him to shape his writing by writing about the past. He was using the ideas around him to help him with his writing.During the red scare people were accusing others of being communist and he used that to make a historical fiction play. Arthur Miller wrote about communist sympathies and the committee violations. The influence the Red Scare have on his writing of The Crucible is about the salem witch trial. Arthur Miller was also himself accused of being a witch which he really wasn't one.The parallels that are found between The salem witch trial and The Crucible, is that people were being accused of being a witch. They were basically judging people. People were being convicted of a crime they didn’t do and a lot of innocent people were sent to jail. And if they were a witch they would get sent to jail or get executed.
ReplyDeletei agree with your response. A lot of innocent people were being executed for what they didn't do.
Deletearthur miller uses the ideas of his writings he uses all of his main events to back him up. he uses the little things to build it. the influence that the red scare had on this writing was with the cruciable. the events that happened in the 17th century’s in salem massachusetts. there were twenty innocent people who were ex exited for which craft. they thought that they were withches and were being accused that they were witches. they both occurred in the 1950s. and they both had something to do with judging people. there were others being convicted of crimes that they did not committed. they both were a game of he said she said, and no one knew the truth but them selves.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your statements.
Deleteyes that is very right. i agree with your message. you used very good examples to back your writing up.
DeleteBack when Arthur Miller was writing his book it was during the time of the red scare when communism was the cause of everything bad in America. He was looking for a way to show people that things were getting out of hand so he referred back to the 1600’s when people were being accused, imprisoned, had there lives ruined as well as their family lives and killed because they thought “different” people were witches. Which is exactly what was happening during the making of this book except they weren't accused of being witches they were being accused of being communists or “reds” as they were called back then. The influence the red scare had on the writing of the crucible are if Miller said used communists instead of witches odds are he’d have been accused and his life would have been ruined just like everyone else's as well as his credibility and he'd never be able to help anyone.The similarities between these two are as mentioned previously 1600’s - witches, accusations, imprisonment, ruined lives, no way to fight, death 1950’s - communists, accusations, imprisonment, ruined lives, government officials being fired, no way to fight, the conclusion that i am coming to is that history repeats itself there were witches and communists but this is not the only time a “witch hunt” has gone down it happened when homosexuals started coming out they were harrased and many people were accused same things happened accusations lives ruined… etc i believe if everyone realized that we are reliving every issue multiple times maybe it can end one day
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteArthur Miller used the events around him helped shape his writing from random accusations and judging people off of little to no evidence. The Red Scare influenced his writing. He was accused of being a communist. Without directly stating he was being accused of a communist and being able to talk about it, he decided to write the crucible, based on the Salem witch trials.
I strongly agree with you.
DeleteHis world around him was surrounded by the influence of communism. He couldn't write his story about Mccarthyism so he needed to write about the same thing in a different time period.Tat is why he wrote about the Salem Witch Trial. The Red Scare was the time period when people assumed people were Russian Spies.The Trials and Red Scare both imprisoned people that said the truth. They based everything off of the "facts" of others in the society.
ReplyDeletei agree with what you said. it was good.
DeleteArthur Miller was an American writer. He used the events around him and put that into his writings. The events such as communism and The Red Scare helped shaped his writing. Arthur was a very smart man who was influenced by events that occured in his life.
ReplyDeleteAustin Macclemmy
ReplyDelete-How was Arthur Miller using the events around him to shape his writing?
He used the elements to shape his story by giving the structure of his story. It gave detail to the readers on how he felt about the topic of the writing. The elements also give the story character. It helped get his feeling acrost about the way he feels about the whole red scare.
What influence did the Red Scare have on his writing of The Crucible?
The book the crucible is based on the red scare. The whole book is about problems and little mishaps that happen during that time. It gives people more information about the true stories that happened at that time.
What parallels can be found between the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials?
The same about the both was that everyone was wrongly accused about being a witch and doing little witchcraft spells. The salem witch trials was started with one guy very scared and them the Red scare was made from 3 girls dancing around a fire. They both had many people wrongly accused for being a witch but some were killed. Also most where put in jail.
-How was Arthur Miller using the events around him to shape his writing?
ReplyDeleteArthur Miller based it on what was going on around him and how many innocent people were getting accused and executed for being a communist.
-What influence did the Red Scare have on his writing of The Crucible?
The Crucible was based off on the Red Scare. People accuse people of being a communist during the Red Scare. During the Salem Witch Trial, many people was accused and executed for doing a witch craft.
-What parallels can be found between the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials?
Both events had people accused others for doing witchcraft or being a communist.
-How was Arthur Miller using the events around him to shape his writing? At the moment that arthur miller was living in was the red scare and it was the same thing as the witch trials and all things that he put in the book was what was happening but he we was re wording it.
ReplyDelete-What influence did the Red Scare have on his writing of The Crucible? All the events that was happening to him he was just putting it on his writing and saying how it was a book by back then but reality it was what was happening around him but he was just covering it up.
What parallels can be found between the Red Scare and the Salem Witch Trials? They are very similar because it was basically the same thing just on a different topic and innocent people were getting accused and killed.