"The Crucible" And Cartoon Commentary?
Please Read The Linked Political Cartoons And Blog About How They Specifically Connect With Arthur Miller's Intent For Writing The Crucible http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/swann/herblock/fire.html Please Quote Which Cartoon You Are Referencing When You Respond. This blog response should be completed by 2:30p.m. on Wednesday, October 26th, 2011.
posted by Greg T at Sunday, October 23, 2011
23 Comments:
Most of the political cartoons specifically connect with Arthur Miller's intent for writing The Crucible, especially the political cartoon titled, "Fire!”. In this particular cartoon, an image of a man walking up a ladder with a bucket of water wearing a shirt labeled hysteria, is aiming to put out the fire that is lit on the torch of the statue of liberty. This cartoon specifically targets the rise of communism overseas which frightens many Americans who feel as though communism is evil. In The Crucible, the people in Salem Massachusetts are feeling unstable as people have been accused of witchcraft which is especially frightening in a theocratic society. In the cartoon, a man is trying to put out a fire lit on top of a torch. I feel as though this is ironic, as a torch is supposed to have fire. In The Crucible, a fire has been started by such a small thing as an accusation with no evidence and the courts are trying to put it out when in fact nothing is there. The political cartoon, “Fire!” and The Crucible have many similarities.
The political cartoon "Stand fast, men -- They're armed with marshmallows" Most relates to Arthur Miller's "The Crucible." The two relate because in both the cartoon and the play, characters have a fear of something that seems unnecessary. The characters in the cartoon are afraid of the girlscouts simply because they are armed with marshmallows, while the characters in the novel are afraid of people they had known most of their lives simply because a teenage girl (Abigail) states that they are witches. The authors of these pieces were probably trying to convey that people have a fear of society that was not needed.
"I have here in my hand..." specifically connects with Arthur Miller's intent for writing The Crucible due to all the false information that everyone had given the court. A man is presented at his desk holding up a "Faked Letter" and "Doctored Photo" this represents the false accusations within The Crucible. It seems as if a main theme through out The Crucible was false accusations. The court simply believed everything that was thrown at them weather it was accurate or not.
Almost all of the political cartoons relate to The Crucible in one way or another. The political cartoon, "It's okay - We're hunting Communists" relates to The Crucible. Like in the cartoon the characters in the car are hunting the Communists while in the play they are hunting for people that are witches or believe in the devil. Both the cartoon and the play have similar ideas because they're both hunting something they don't like or something they don't believe in.In the cartoon they don't like Communists and in the play they don't want people who are involved with witchcraft or praise the devil in their community. "It's okay- we're hunting Communists" and The Crucible have similar ideas.
All of the cartoons portray an image of a hysterical anti-communist American society after WWII. The cartoons can relate to Arthur Millers The Crucible because the play is about a society focused on purging all of the devils work and witchery. The cartoon named "Its okay-We're hunting communists" relates the The Crucible because the devils people(witches) were like The Crucible's communists. The theocratic society was very set on doing anything it could to oust the people of the devil. Much like the cartoon shows Americans would do anything to get rid of communists. The cartoon also shows that the men said to be "hunting communists" are tearing through a city and causing havoc much like the accusations of witchcraft did to the people in The Crucible
The cartoon labeled, “You read books, eh?” relates to the Crucible because during the anti-communist campaign many teachers were investigated and lost their job. Sometimes because of being named by growing groups and individuals who were against the cause the destruction of constituted government. This is very similar to the Crucible because when the witchcraft trials were happening in Salem, many individuals blamed everyone else for taking part in witchcraft. Many people lost their lives because they wouldn’t confess to taking part in witchcraft so they were hanged.
These political cartoons looked at relate very closely with "The Crucible" especially the political cartoon "Fire!" because of not only the hysteria but the overall idea of trying to end something that in a sense doesn't exist. In the cartoon a man tries to carry a bucket of water up a later to put the fire in the statue of liberty's torch out when he is clearly marked hysterical. The connection I found was that of which the man was trying to end something that was none existant because it is a fake fire that just is a simple symbol. The devil in "The Crucible" marks the same status as the flame since it is none existant to the point of no proof but is a symbol of fear only that causes no harm to the people though they try to tell the people it does and end it.
Arthur Miller's intent for writing The Crucible connects mostly with the political cartoon titled, "Fire!”. In this cartoon, Hysteria, being the American people, is climbing a ladder, while carrying a bucket of water to the fire ignited on Lady Liberty's torch. Which I think symbolizes the frenzy the Americans were in during the Red Scare. They were so intent on fretting about the communists that their own community and nation was taking a fall for the worst. The havoc was having an effect on the economy and their patriotism. The Crucible ties into this cartoon by symbolizing how just one belief can rip apart a community. Mass hysteria broke out amoung the people as they were riding of the village witchcraft.
Arthur Miller’s intent for writing “The Crucible” was to show how hysteria and chaos can lead to an immoral and irrational society. Multiple political cartoons also illustrate this idea. For example, in the “It’s okay—we’re hunting communists” cartoon, a man is allowed to run over random people with his car because they might be communist. This is similar to “The Crucible,” when any towns person could be accused of witchcraft and hanged because one girl mentioned their name in court. There was no rationality during the Red Scare or during the Salem Witch Trials, which caused many people to be wrongly accused.
The political cartoon titled "We now have new and important evidence" relates to "The Crucible" because they are bringing in a fence that says "Joe Zilch is a red" this could have been written by anyone but the government is considering it a serious piece of evidence. In "The Crucible", the court trusts the reactions and accusations of young girls who had been caught dancing in the woods and chanting. The evidence they provide shouldn't be considered evidence and yet the hysteria causes it to become real evidence.
The cartoon titled "We now have new and important evidence" relates to how different characters were accused with no real proof in "The Crucible". The judges kept accusing different characters of using witchcraft even though there wasn't any real proof. The girls would also set up proof against some of the characters. For example, the doll that they found at Proctor's house and accused Elizabeth of stabbing with a pin was set up by Abigail. However they had no proof that it was Elizabeth's doll. This relates to the cartoon because in the cartoon they are using a piece of wood with writing on it as evidence against someone. They also make it sound as though this is what will end the case. So in both "The Crucible" and the cartoon illustrate how people are being accused with evidence that the court takes as concrete when it really isn't.
In the political cartoon "We now have new and important evidence" it depicts several men bringing in a fence with graffiti written on it saying the accused is a red or communist. In this cartoon it pokes fun of this idea that what ever anyone says is right which is also what The Crucible promotes as well. In The Crucible the court believes a group of young girls over the word of over ninety people. This proves how gullible these people are.
Each one these cartoons connect with The Crucible. Each one portrays an image of fear causing a society to go completely insane. The cartoon "Say, what ever happened to 'freedom-from-fear'?" really sticks out to me as one of the cartoons that directly illustrates The Crucible. This cartoon is about Truman speaking out against "scaremongers and hatemongers" who "are trying to create fear and suspicion among us by the use of slander, unproved accusations, and just plain lies." The Crucibles has certain sane people speaking out against the girls who are giving false accusations and forcing the society to suspect everyone in the town. The use of fear and suspicion is used many times throughout history. Government use this fear to keep their people from questioning authority. Suspicion is used by many groups to manipulate another group into going along with their program. When accusations are made and there is believable evidence (unproved evidence) people start to question their beliefs and even change what they believe in just to go along with the beliefs of others.
"Stand fast men-- they're armed with marshmallows." This political cartoon connects with Arthur Miller's intent for writing The Crucible play. Miller wanted to show how outrageously elevated the conflicts during the time of the Salem Witch Trials had become. The political cartoon shows a band of soldiers out to arrest some Girls Scouts for being Communists. This cartoon ridicules the initial reaction many Americans had to Communism. It shows how the conflict is completely blown out of proportion. It also shows how the people just want to find someone to blame so their conflict is"resolved". In The Crucible play, Arthur Miller ridicules the reaction people had to the Salem Witch Trials. He shows how ridiculous and ignorant people were acting through his characters. Both the political cartoon and the play ridicule overreactions.
"I have here in my hand..."
In this cartoon, McCarthy is holding a false letter and a doctored photo. This brings to mind how anytime someone was accused of witchcraft, everyone believed it. The accusations were obviously false, yet everyone was so paranoid they bought in. In the explaination of the cartoon, it said how this made McCarthy disenchanted. So they have opposite effects. One, the cartoon, has a straight thinking mind's beliefs, while The Crucible shows the thoughts of a society gone mad.
The political cartoon named "On this order for a new typewriter
ribbon -- did you know you forgot to
stamp ‘Secret'?" most relates to Arthur Miller's writing of The Crucible because of the connection they have. In the cartoon they forgot to label the mail 'secret' or 'top secret', which shows that there are certain things that only certain people should be allowed to see. This connect with The Crucible because in the acts, some things are meant to be secret, such as the girls dancing naked in the forest, but when things are meant to be secret, usually someone finds out about it.
The cartoon named "Fire!" connects with Arthur Miller's The Crucible the most because of the similar themes they both display. The man labeled hysteria in the cartoon is like the hysteria that goes on in the town of Salem. In the cartoon the man is on his way to put out the fire on the statue of liberty which shows he has lost his common sense by doing something unnecessary this is just like the people of Salem who will accuse anyone out of fear.
The comic, "You read Books Ey" is funny because The Crucible is really black and white thinking and people can believe whatever they want. Books are only mentioned a couple of times throughout the entire play. This also leads into the censorship these people in the Crucible had because they really had nobody go against what Abigail had to say. If the people would have been able to read books, they could have stopped the "murders" before they happen. Also this cartoon relates to the Crucible because all of the people are investigating on just one person. In the Crucible Abigail would be the one all the people are investigating around. The whole court is trying to get to the bottom of this through testimony investigation.
Most of these cartoons reflect the views of the Crucible perfectly. Some of them show the lack of evidence, and some of them show that there is not reasoning behind their suspicions.In the "you read books, eh" one it shows how silly the reasoning is. They are accusing the man in the cartoon of something, because he shows intelligence from reading.They are searching everywhere and the only thing they could find was a book, so they had to use only that against him. This really reflects how the Crucible works because in the trials, there was never hard evidence and nothing that anyone should have been prosecuted for. Another cartoon that is like the Crucible is the "it's ok we are hunting communists". This explains how if everyone is on board then what the people do is ok, even if non of it makes sense. These cartoons reflect a lot of the same meaning as the play The Crucible.
All of these political cartoons were written during the red scare period, as was Arthur Miller's "The Crucible", so they have many similarities. The cartoon " Its ok....... We're hunting communist" illustrates a car running over innocent bystanders claiming its ok because they are looking for communist. Like the book, the common people are in mass hysteria about a communist scare. They dont care who they hurt in the way of their hunt, and many innocents are hurt in the process like the book.
The political cartoons from the '50's are connected with The Crucible, because in the 1950's, the Red Scare was happening in America, and anyone and everyone was being blamed and persecuted for being communist. Senator Joseph McCarthy was eager to take responsibility for the "witch hunts" and reminds me of Abigail Williams. They both knew that there was a very slim or nonexistent chance that anyone they named was a Witch or Communist, but they had support. In one cartoon, soldiers are staking out a group of Girl Scouts, bearing posters with pictures of the senator, and the tagline "Our Hero".
I think the "You read book eh?" cartoon connects with Arthur Millers book The Crucible beacause in the cartoon all the guys in the library are looking for a way to blame the girl of being a communist. In The Crucible everyone is suspicious about one or another for the smallest reasons and are blowing the situation way out of proportion. Right when I saw the political cartoon it reminded me of the crucible and it makes me believe that we did the same thing the people in Salem did about witchcraft about communism during the cold war.
Most of the political cartoons specifically connected with Arthur Miller's intent of writing "The Crucible". One that stood out to me was the cartoon "We now have new and important evidence". This cartoon has two men carrying a portion of a fence that has painting on the wood. The paint spells out 'JOE ZILCH IS A RED'. I think that the writings on the fence could be drawn by anyone and then brought in as evidence towards anyone. This is like "The Crucible" because Abigail goes around town and to the court stating false which craft and accusing others. In the cartoon there are two doors, and through those doors seems to be a judge in a court full of people. In "The Crucible" a good portion of the play takes place in the town's court. As you can see the similarities between the cartoon "We now have new and important evidence" and "The Crucible" can go on forever.
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