Witch HuntUNIT INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

What is a Theme?

A theme is the central message of a literary work. It is NOT the same as a subject – courage, survival, war, pride…. The themes is the idea the author wishes to convey about the subject. It is expressed as a sentence about life or human nature.

For example:“Love” may be a subject in a novel, but “Love if taken to the

extremes, can be more negative and damaging than positive” is a theme

Can a novel have more than one theme?

Yes!

What might be a possible theme of the following books and movies?

• The Lorax• Animal Farm• Avatar• Sneetches• I Robot• Ender’s Game• To Kill a Mockingbird

You will need to create a theme statement in The Crucible and

connect it with a modern event.Here are some topics to get you thinking right from the opening of the play:

Honesty Jealousy IntoleranceLying Deceit ReputationReligion Hysteria RevengeForgiveness Loyalty Sacrifice

What is a “witch hunt” and how has it happened in

America?

We will be studying this question, reading political documents, investigating persuasive methods and

considering the relationship to The Crucible by Arthur

Miller

The Red Scare

The Cold War

What Is Communism?• Communism is an

ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless, social organization based on common ownership of the means of production.

• To whom might this seem appealing?

The Cold War [1945-1989]: An Ideological Struggle

Soviet & Eastern Bloc

Nations“Iron Curtain”

US & the Western

Democracies

VS.

GOAL spread world-wide CommunismMETHODOLOGIES (The “silent” ways we were at

“war”)

1. Espionage [KGB vs. CIA]

2. Arms Race / Space Race [nuclear escalation]

3. Ideological Competition for the minds and hearts of Third World peoples [Communist government v. Democratic government]

The second half of the “Hot War” aka WWII

9

“McCarthyism”• McCarthy, a Republican senator from Wisconsin, did the most to whip up anti-communism during the ‘50s.

• On February 9, 1950, he gave a speech claiming to have a list of 205 Communists in the State Department.

• No one in the press actually saw the names on the list.

• McCarthy continued to repeat his groundless charges, changing the number from speech to speech.

• In Indiana, a group of anti-communists indicted Robin Hood (and its vaguely socialistic message that the book's hero had a right to rob from the rich and give to the poor) and forced librarians to pull the book from the shelves.

• Baseball's Cincinnati Reds renamed themselves the "Redlegs."

Cincinnati Redlegs primary logo in use from 1954-1959

Rumblings of the “Red Scare” House Un-American Activities Committee

• HUAC was an investigative committee of the Congress.

• In 1947 HUAC investigated alleged communist infiltration of the motion picture industry.

• Hearsay, innuendo, and rumor were perfectly acceptable forms of evidence.

• HUAC decided the Fifth Amendment did not apply in its hearings so those refusing to testify, branded the “Hollywood Ten”, were imprisoned for contempt.

• Through pressing witnesses to “name names,” HUAC claimed to have identified 324 communists working in the motion picture industry.

Ronald Reagan testifies to HUAC.

The “Black” List

• Created by House Un-American Committee• Anti-Hollywood• A list of directors, actors, singers who were

brought before HUAC and asked, “Are you or have you ever been affiliated with the Communist Party?”

• These people were basically publically tried and branded a U.S. traitor by the Senate and shut out of their profession. Nobody would hire them.

The Effects Hundreds imprisoned 10 to 12 Thousand lost their jobs.

Actors, politicians, college professors, authors, etc.

In film, over 300 actors, authors and directors were denied work in the U.S.

U.S. Films about the threat of Communism

• Films were distributed by the U.S. and state governments

• These films were shown in movie theaters, to school children and in public assemblies.

The RED Scare

• Because of films distributed by the U.S. government and the hearings held by McCarthy, fear of communism swept the US

• The US was also swept up into fear that the Russians were going to drop an atomic bomb on the U.S.

• DISCUSSION QUESTION – WHEN HAS OUR CURRENT SOCIETY BEEN SWEPT UP IN FEAR?

So What’s Arthur Miller’s Role in All This??

Appeared before committee immediately after his marriage to a famous

Hollywood Starlet

• Miller asked committee not to ask him to name names but…

They Did!

Miller refused, was found guilty of contempt of Congress. Fined $500, sentenced to 30 days in prison, blacklisted, and disallowed a passport