Mccarthyism, communism, and the Salem Witch trials How Arthur Miller’s experiences with the McCarthy trials inspired the writing of The Crucible.

Directions You will participate in an activity in which you will form groups based on your secret identities. You will each receive a piece of paper. Some are blank Some have a dot drawn on them There are fewer dots than non-dots When you receive your piece of paper, you must secretly look at it. If you receive a dot you must NOT reveal it to anyone! Hide your card after you look at it!

Goal of activity The goal of the activity is to form as large a group of “non-dot” members as possible. POINTS The largest group of “non-dot” students will win points. The whole group will lose if there is even ONE “dot” member in your group! “Dot” members will win points for being the only dot in a group.

advice Since everyone in the class will deny having a dot, you must look for any indication of suspicion. If you suspect someone has a dot, you should say out loud “Bob is a DOT!” If you are a “Dot” then you must bluff to convince others that you are NOT a dot!

Ready? What questions do you have? On “GO!”: you will have 5 minutes to talk to each other and form groups with “non-dot” members. When I turn off the lights, you must freeze in your place and talking must end immediately! NO EXCEPTIONS!

GO! http://www.timeanddate.com/stopwatch/ (Online Stop Watch)

So what? This activity was designed to allow you to experience the anti-communism hysteria and suspicion of the McCarthy Era in US history during the 1950s. During this era, Americans turned on their fellow citizens and denounced them as Communist sympathizers based on little to no evidence. If you were a “dot”, what were you? Guilt by Association: if students were friends with suspected “dots,” they were accused of being “dots” too.

McCarthy’s Purpose Republican senator Joseph McCarthy wanted to be reelected He needed a good issue to run on, and which would make him famous. He claimed that Communists were taking over the government and that he had a list of 205 known Communists working in the U.S. Department of State. He used sensationalism and bullying in his campaign against Communism.

The HUAC HUAC – House Un-American Activities Committee Congressional Committee whose original purpose was to investigate ALL radical groups in the U.S., including fascists and socialists, but over time it came to focus only on the communist threat. In their interviews, they attempted to bully people into confessing to Communist sympathies and to name names of other Communists.

Hollywood 10 Hollywood Ten was a group of screenwriters who were accused of being Communist during the McCarthy Era They did not cooperate with the HUACs investigation. They refused to admit to being in the Communist party They wouldn’t provide any names of others who might be Communists They were fined and sentenced to one year in jail and were blacklisted from working in the film industry until the 1960s

McCarthyism (1950-54) and Arthur Miller McCarthyism is the practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty with little to no evidence. Arthur Miller was one of the artists accused of Communist sympathies by the HUAC. He was brought to trial and asked to name names and confess. Miller recognized that what was happening to him was similar to the situation in Salem, Mass in the 1690s. So he wrote The Crucible as an allegory to show the problems with accusations based on little to no evidence.

Arthur Miller 1915-2005

Miller’s Play An allegory is a story in which the characters and events are symbols that stand for a political or historical situation. The Crucible is symbolic of the McCarthy trials. With The Crucible, Miller tried to warn against extremism and the power of hysteria to ruin people’s lives. However, most people didn’t want to hear it! (The play didn’t become popular until after the end of the McCarthy trials.)

Miller was born in New York City’s Harlem He was raised during the Great Depression and was shaped by the poverty that surrounded him The Depression demonstrated the fragility and vulnerability of human existence. He was not the best student and was more interested in sports than books.

When he graduated from high school, Miller worked in a warehouse to be able to afford to go to the University of Michigan He majored in journalism and playwriting He began to write plays His first play, The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944) closed after only 4 performances

Miller’s Dark Period In 1955 Miller was divorced In 1956 he was brought before the House Committee on Un-American activities He refused to name the so-called “Communist Sympathizers” with whom he had met 10 years before and was convicted of contempt of Congress in 1957. 10 years later he won an appeal.

A short year later Miller married Marilyn Monroe – although they were divorced by 1961, a year before she died. Miller then married a Swedish photographer The tabloids called him a playboy

Miller did not write frequently for film, but he did write an adaptation for the 1996 version of The Crucible staring Winona Ryder. He was nominated for an Academy Award Miller’s contributions to the stage and to dramatic literature continue to be important parts of American culture.