"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 30th, 2013.
posted by Greg T at Friday, October 25, 2013
25 Comments:
The political cartoon, "Stand fast, men -- They're armed with marshmallows" and "The Crucible" show many visible similarities. This cartoon has a book that mentions witchcraft which is similar to the main idea of The Crucible, witchcraft. This cartoons also references McCarthyism which during that time point many people turned against each other and said certain people in society were communists. That is very similar to The Crucible because many people are turning against each other and accusing them as witches or have associations with the Devil.
These political cartoons and the Crucible are connected. These political cartoons are a perfect representation of why Arthur Miller wrote the crucible in the first place. These cartoons are really bays and have a really strong message, but most of them are extremely exaggerated and all have different views. With so many opinions and all the arguments being so strong it's very hard to know which one is right and which is wrong. That is the same idea as in the crucible. There are so many sides to the story that is hard to know which one is right.
The political cartoon "So You Read Books Eh?" has plenty of similarities to "The Crucible". For instance, in the cartoon the government is falsely accusing a teacher of conspiring against the government and teaching students to stand up to the government just because she can read. This is just like how the town of Salem is falsely accusing innocent people of having some connection to witch craft just because they might have said something such as (pardon my french) "Go to he**". From this we can learn from their mistakes. Everyone deserves Justice. A corrupt system is a failing system.
The political cartoon, "Here he comes now" and "The Crucible" both depict the power of smearing. The cartoon makes fun of Nixon's speeches, where he would accuse other politicians of being soft on communism. However they worked and he was elected and re-elected as Vice President. In "The Crucible" Abigail accuses people of being witches who may be of threat to her and they get rid of the people she accuses. Both pieces of literature show that accusing and smearing can go a long way.
The cartoons “It's okay – We're hunting Communists" and "We now have new and important evidence" connect to the book, The Crucible, for several reasons. “It's okay – We're hunting Communists" plays with the idea that it’s okay for the court to do what they want when they are hunting something they can’t see or truly know about, just like in the crucible. "We now have new and important evidence" plays with the idea anything can become evidence even if it is just graffiti on a wall, just like in the crucible where anyone could point a finger as evidence.
The cartoon commentary that relates most to “The Crucible” in my opinion, would be the, “Stand fast, men--- They’re armed with marshmallows.” The men can be compared to the townspeople because they are afraid of the girls hanging out in the woods. Just like how Parris was afraid he had seen Abigail and the girls dancing in the woods. Everyone is cautious of the situation, and they are all afraid. They are going against the girls with their own beliefs, and do not trust them.
The political cartoon “Fire” is a representation of the fear of communism after the events of world war two and the start of the cold war. The American people were terrified that communism would take away their freedom because of the propaganda that was put through the media such as this cartoon. The man walking up the latter with a bucket represents communism, the latter is a metaphor for how it is spreading through the world and the bucket of water is how communism puts out freedom. The latter is on the statue of liberty and the man is going to pour his bucket on lady liberty's torch in turn showing that communism will destroy the freedom of America.
“So you read books, eh?” is very almost directly connected to “The Crucible”. In the play, “The Crucible”, people are investigated and accused on account of very little information. Miller’s play portrays lots of people pointing fingers based on very little evidence, such as when one accuses another of witchcraft because he was given a pig by her, and ever since, he couldn’t keep a pig alive. The cartoon, “So you read books, eh?” portrays people accusing teachers of being communist, based on the very little evidence that they were just teachers. The interrogation system portrayed in both the cartoon and the play is highly unfair.
I felt that the cartoon "I Have Here In My Hand..." connected most with "The Crucible" because McCarthy was accusing people of being communist or helping other communists, but he had no solid evidence or proof of the people. That is almost the same exact situation in the Crucible because the girls are all accusing different townspeople of witchcraft or affiliating themselves with the Devil, but they didn't have any real proof of that. In both situations, a person or group of people are accusing others of crimes that had no solid evidence. Even though there was no real evidence, the accused people still got charged with the crimes and were sentenced to prison or death.
The Political Cartoon "It's Okay... We're Hunting Communists!" Depicts a car that on the back says "Committee on Un-American Activities" driving through the streets. Inside the car are two men one of which who is looking back and smiling at those they pass with a smirk. They don't car who is in front of them or who they are accusing or harming for they believe that they are bettering their society by "Hunting communists." This is very similar with the society of "The Crucible". Everyone tries to uphold their reputation and better their society by what ever deems necessary. The children (girls) don't care who they harm in the process of accusing many of witchcraft as long as they get what they want in the end. Generals and those of the court listen to evidence but like those who hunt for communists would rather go with the norm and convict maybe someone who is innocent then chance having a witch or communist loose in society. This cartoon relates to "The Crucible" and both societies resemble one another.
I believe that the cartoon commentary that most relates to the "crucible"is the "stand fast, men- they're armed with marshmallows." in the cartoon there are men that are watching girls in the forest and are suspicious of which craft. Just like in the crucible when reverend Parris sees Abagail and the girls in the forest. It also shows how people are accused of things right away without thinking it through before throwing out blame.
The cartoon of the elephant "I'm supposed to stand on that?" This cartoon relates to the crucible because people are being forced onto a stand that cannot hold them, and relates to people not being able to prove their innocents but they are guilty by suspicions. This is also like many Americans that were accused of being communist that the cartoon is representing.
"You read books, eh?" In this text many elementary and high school teachers were investigated and lost their jobs. relating to the crucible, when something is done wrong then it is to the higher authorities to act upon them whether they agree or not. It is a bummer, but it is what it is and that's that, so to speak.
In the political cartoon "Fire" is a representation of our government. The writing on the guys pants shows the hysterical or joke in our government. The man with the bucket of water is going to dump it on the Statue Of Liberty to show how communism puts out our freedom.
The political cartoon “You read books,eh?” pertains to several ideas conveyed in “The Crucible”. The hysteria caused by the Cold War gripped those in the community tightly, and caused them to make accusations against elementary, and high school teachers. Herb Block had this to say about the actions during the Cold War, “If you can’t crush the commies, you can nail a neighbor.” And people did just that. They began compiling blacklists of others they felt could be guilty and these were accepted quickly by those frightened to be accused themselves. Because of the level of paranoia hundreds of teachers lost their jobs based on minimal or irrelevant facts. These activities done by people during the post war closely relates to that done by the town of Salem in “The Crucible”. When children in their town fall ill and witchcraft is thought to be the source the town goes into chaos. People began accusing enemies of theirs for personal reasons and do what is needed to uphold their reputation. Even when the source of the problem is brought up by Proctor and he says that the girls are pretending it’s too late. Although the hysteria was caused by two totally different events what it made people do was similar in “The Crucible” and the political cartoon “You read books,eh?”
The cartoon “I have here in my hand” shows a picture of a man supporting fraudulent evidence in court. This relates to the crucible because people say false things used as evidence and the judge would use it against them even though they had no idea if it was correct or not.
The political cartoon, "Stand fast men, They're armed with marshmallows" and The Crucible specifically connect in many ways. For instance, it shows in the cartoon that just because many people thought the girl scouts stood for 'un-american' ideals, that many other people jumped on the bandwagon without even considering other points of view or logical arguments against it. This is similar to The Crucible because it relates to the fact that everyone during this time period blamed seemingly unexplained occurrences on witchcraft before even really exploring logical reasoning or different perspectives.
The political cartoon, "Say, what ever happened to 'freedom-from-fear'?" and "The Crucible" show many similarities. This cartoon shows how people are still controlled by fear of the authority above them, which of whom hold all the power. They scare people into doing what they want, such as admitting to witch craft or voting for certain parties in the government. In both societies, the authorities are trying to create fear and suspicion among the citizens by using slander, unproved accusations, and just plain lies; this keeps the public in control of the upper authority.
The Political cartoon “We Now Have New and Important Evidence” can be seen as being very similar to “The Crucible” by the way it humored the circus like events. In the cartoon it makes fun of the way when Senator McCarthy claimed to have new evidence about the communists in our government, people of the time really did not know what to believe. Because he sounded so sure of what he had found people started to believe the evidence he had brought forward. And like the cartoon’s caption said he created a circus like environment of the government. A similar thing happened in “The Crucible” when Abigail Williams and the other girls of the town kept acting of during court. When they pretended to faint and see spirits attack them; the court did not know how to respond because they themselves could not see the “devil”. So in turn they went with the girls actions and created the witch trials, killing many innocent people. Like the cartoon, Abigail and the girls make a circus like environment of the court house and the whole town.
All of these cartoons point out fallacies that the crucible contain. "It's okay - We're hunting communists," for example, is similar to the Crucible's witch hunts of killing people, even though they say not to.
The cartoon Fire! relates to the Crucible because in the cartoon it says that people were fearful of the spread of communism and that the 40s and 50s were a dark time. Like the crucible people were fearful of witchcraft and it was a dark time for them. People were doing anything they could to keep communism from spreading just like the townspeople were accusing anyone they could just to try and stop witchcraft from happening.
The cartoon Fire! relates to the Crucible because in the cartoon it says that people were fearful of the spread of communism and that the 40s and 50s were a dark time. Like the crucible people were fearful of witchcraft and it was a dark time for them. People were doing anything they could to keep communism from spreading just like the townspeople were accusing anyone they could just to try and stop witchcraft from happening.
"Stand fast, men -- They're armed with marshmallows" relates to "the Crucible" the most because there are girl in the woods just like Abigail and the others. The girls in "the Crucible" were dancing and the girls in the cartoon were just roasting marshmallows but the idea is still the same. In the bottom right corner, a man is holding a book that says "How to Detect Subversion and Witchcraft" and people in "the Crucible" are looking for "signs" of witchcraft.
"Stand fast, men -- They're armed with marshmallows" I think can connect to The Crucible because they both show how they don’t really know much about a topic or issue but they still jump to conclusions. In The Crucible a group of girls were accused of witchcraft, and in "Stand fast, men -- They're armed with marshmallows" they are calling girl scouts un american “In the summer of 1954, a branch of the American Legion denounced the Girl Scouts, calling the "one world" ideas advocated in their publications "un-American."
I think the political cartoon "Stand fast, men -- They're armed with marshmallows" best represents The Crucible, it is almost like an unknown power, the council is armed with marshmallows and the towns people are unaware of what can be done with that power.
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