Salem Witch Hunts and McCarthy Hearings - Contrast
Uploaded by myusername on Aug 11, 2001
Does history repeat itself? Lots of people think that the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s are a repeat of history from the Salem witch-hunts of 1692. All of the accusations were false, and also fictitious. The main reason people were blamed was so that ones who were condemning would receive their own personal gain. Both parties (McCarthy and the girls in Salem) accused people to make themselves look better to others and gain respect. They both gained respect from others, which was something they did not have a lot of, especially the girls of Salem, Massachusetts. In 1692, people blamed of being witches were used as scapegoats for society’s problems, and then again in 1950, those blamed of being communists were used as scapegoats for society’s problems. In the long run, both cases were worthless except for the lessons that it may teach those who look back at the awful experiences. Many people were killed in the diminutive town of Salem and the ones who weren’t killed had their reputations forever lowered. Everyone who was charged by Joseph McCarthy had his or her own reputation diminished also. All of this would have never happened if the people, who were involved, would have only opened their blinded eyes and saw the truth, which lied right in front of their faces.
One night in the minute New England town of Salem, Massachusetts, three young girls and a slave from Barbados were caught dancing naked in the forest around an immense kettle. This wasn’t something that girls normally did in the 1600s and was also socially unacceptable. These girls, Abigail Williams, Betty Parris, Mercy Lewis, and Tituba were immediately accused of being witches just because they were dancing. To get themselves off the hook, the girls pointed their fingers at other women in the town of practicing witchcraft. They indicted some women because their names popped into their heads, but one particular girl, Abigail Williams, accused a woman named Elizabeth Proctor because she had lust for her husband, John Proctor. Abigail Williams and John Proctor had already had an affair. However, unlike Abigail, John wanted to leave that horrible mistake in the past and forget about her. Abigail also did not like other women in Salem because they called her names. They knew of her lust for...