Trevor McLean

English
D Block
December 13, 2016

The Crucible Essay

The ideas of intolerance and fear are a part of human nature that have
always been predominant and seen through events dating back to when
humans first walked the earth. Patterns of events involving fear and
intolerance have been seen in history that can be compared and contrasted
to one another. The story of what happened The Salem Witch Trials back in
the early 1600s is a great example of a series of events involving fear and
intolerance. Fear and intolerance are dominant themes shown through
several different events and characters in the play The Crucible. In many of
the modern day events such as the 2016 Presidential Election, terrorism, and
religion, the ideas of fear and intolerance are shown.
To start, the themes of intolerance and fear were shown through the
2016 Presidential Election and the effect it on the citizens of America.
Because of some of the past actions and words that have been said by him,
Donald Trump is seen as a racist, sexist, man in many peoples eyes.
Therefore, all of his supporters are automatically seen to be racist and sexist
people that have all of the same beliefs as Trump. The opposite end of this

point is being a Hilary Clinton and democratic supporter. Clinton is commonly

accused of hiding secret emails from the government containing important
and controversial information. She has often been seen as a liar and sneaky.
The group of people that supported her were all seen as liars and feminist.
The final result of the election, which ended with Trump being victorious,
caused the country to go crazy, similar to what happened during the Salem
Witch Trials. In the United States, many people were afraid that Trump would
ruin the magnificent country we have today. In The Crucible, Reverend Hale
speaks his mind of what he thinks is going on during this chaotic time in
Salem. He says, I have seen too many frightful proofs in court - the Devil is
alive in Salem, and we dare not quail to follow wherever the accusing finger
points! (Miller p.68). The events that were going on during the Salem Witch
Trials and 2016 Presidential Election caused a huge population to be chaotic
because of the fear it caused people to have.
Next, acts of terror that have taken place in the United States have
caused a great amount of fear and intolerance. Many events in American
history have caused people to have intolerance towards certain types of
people because of the people involved traumatic events that have
happened. The attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001,
left a long lasting negative effect on the people of America. It killed
thousands of people in New York city that were in the buildings, around them,
or in the plane that was crashed into the large structures. In addition, an
event that took place in an Orlando, Florida gay nightclub in the summer of

2016 left our country in devastation. 49 people were pronounced dead after
this horrible action occurred. In both of these events, the people that
committed this horrible act on that day happened to be Muslim. Today, most
Muslims are seen as terrorist in the United States and are closely watched
when in public places. In The Crucible, many women are seen as witches
because of the actions they do. In one instance, Abigail Williams, one of the
main characters in this play, accused an African slave of practicing
witchcraft. Williams says, She sends her spirit on me in church; she makes
me laugh at prayer! (Miller p.41). She realizes she can get away with the
false accusation because Tituba is black. At this time, people with darker skin
were seen as inferior to whites. In both these two tragic events in American
history and in The Crucible, people are intolerant to certain groups of people
because of who they are and their past.
Finally, religion in today's society can be compared to the society
Salem, Ma had back in the early 1600s. In the early 1600s, Salem was
puritan society. They were very strict in the way they practiced religion. One
of their rules or traditions was that they could not read any other book
besides the bible. In The Crucible, a character named Giles Corey is nervous
about why his wife is reading other books that are not the bible. Giles then
gets the courage to ask Reverend Hale his question. He says, What signifies
the readin of strange books? (Miller p.37). Later in the book, his wife
Martha is found guilty by the court and executed for the practicing of
witchcraft. More recently, the Red Scare that took place in American in the

early 1900s happened after there was the fear of the rise of communism in
the United States. People were constantly being accused of being communist
for harmless acts. Both of the harmless acts done Martha Corey and the
people accused during the Red Scare were because of the intolerance for
those actions during these two times. The intolerance is caused by the fear
that people have because of past negative events and beliefs.
In modern day, the ideas of intolerance and fear are shown in events
such as the 2016 Presidential election, terrorism, and religion. These themes
and events can be compared to the play The Crucible. These series of events
that took place in the modern day and The Crucible are related in the sense
that they both involve groups of people making accusations because of past
events and feelings. Despite the events during these two different times,
humans have always been fearful and intolerant of certain things because of
events and group conclusions that people have. This will stay the same as
long as humans live.