The Play's The Thing: Introduction
Pointing the Finger
Have you ever seen one of those movies where aliens, monsters, cyborgs, or super-humans look just like the "normal" humans? Everyone is terrified and paranoid and doubly so because they are not only afraid of the evil that could attack at any moment, but they are also terrified that they will be accused of being one of the evil.
| Standing accused |
This scenario is brilliant for the movies, but when it happens in reality, it's devastating, and we call it a witch hunt. The term comes from the Salem, Massachusetts incident where dozens of innocent people were put to death as 'witches' by church officials. A witch hunt is defined as "a political campaign launched on the pretext of investigating activities subversive to the state." Sadly, they are more common than you might think. A few of the most widespread and devastating witch hunts include:
- Jim Crow Lynchings
- The Holocaust during WWII
- Japanese interment during WWII
- McCarthyism in the 1950's
- Apartheid in South Africa
- Bosnian-Serbian war
- Rwandan Genocide
- Immigration and ICE Raids
Witch hunts can also happen on a smaller scale in schools, when groups go looking for instigators of a prank, or in companies looking for corporate spies. In all cases, the causes are the same. Ignorance and fear of the masses are fueled by intolerance of a group singled out as "dangerous" to the status quo. In other words, everyone is whipped into a frenzy trying to find the people who are 'out to get them.'
In this section, we will start reading the play that made the term 'witch hunt' popular, The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. You can read a copy online by clicking this link. We will examine the elements of drama and continue our study of historical analysis.
