Arthur Miller’s The Crucible

A play with more than meets the eye!

Arthur Miller’s play premiered in 1953.

• Check out what else was going on in 1953:– http://theomahaproject.org/module_disp

lay.php?mod_id=108&review=yes#965

– And see this map too: http://flatrock.org.nz/static/frontpage/assets/history/cold_war_map.jpg

• What was happening in the world after World War II?

Communism Scare

• Check out how people felt about communism:

• http://theomahaproject.org/module_display.php?mod_id=108&review=yes#946

• How did people react to communism?

• What did the government do about the fear of communism?

Why were people so scared?

• Check out the Alger Hiss story:• http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.u

k/USAhiss.htm

• Why was this event so troubling to the American people? What did it seem to prove to them?

The Rise of Joe McCarthy

• Check out Senator Joe McCarthy:• http://theomahaproject.org/module_

display.php?mod_id=108&review=yes#974

• How did Joe McCarthy make himself known?

• Why did he make himself known?

McCarthy’s claim

• Check out what McCarthy claimed to the American public: http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6456

• What does McCarthy claim?• How does he make his argument

sound convincing to the American public?

• What does he say that makes it sound “bad” to go against him?

McCarthy Hearings

• Check out how Senator McCarthy went about “proving” his claims: http://theomahaproject.org/module_display.php?mod_id=108&review=yes#969

• What sort of proof did McCarthy use for his claims?

• Why might people have believed his proof at first?

Reaction to McCarthyism

• Check out this video from President Truman: Follow the link, scroll after the picture to the small letters saying “Truman on McCarthy.mpg”

• What was Truman afraid people might do with McCarthy’s accusations?

• How did Truman want the American people to act?

Connect with The Crucible

• Take out your theme HW from last night – look at the themes you found in the story. Do any of those themes run through the events with Senator McCarthy? How so? Explain in complete sentences?

• How might the stories of the Crucible and McCarthyism be similar? Make a Venn diagram that shows the similarities and differences between the Crucible and the events of the 1950s.