Myths and heroes : witches in America

BAC ANGLAIS : THE MYTH OF WITCHES IN AMERICA

Notion : myths and heroes

The notion I am going to deal with is about « myths ans heroes». First of all, I would like to define this notion.

 A myth is a popular story or belief that evolves over the time and that conveys the ideals of a society. Heroes are often the characters of myths. A heroe is seen as someone special, who do things other people can't. It's a person who is admired for his or her achievements.  In this case, we can talk about witches and scapegoats who had been Persecuted through time. Thus,

 I will ask the following question :How the myth of the witches evolved through the time, since 17th century. We will focus on the witch hunts, in particular the Salem's witch-hunts of the 17th century , then on McCarthyism three centuries later and finally on scapegoats who were hunted down in the USA.

In 17th century, puritanism was present in New England, in the North of the actual USA. Puritanism wa based on a really strict moral code. People weren't allowed to dance, to have fun. Social pleasures like card playing, or holiday celebrations were regarded as sinful. They were dressed all in black. Adultery was a sin, and was punished publicly. The forest was the home of the devil, and was considered as a place where witches meet at night.

In 1692, a group of girls from Salem became strangely ill. Nobody knews what they were suffering from, so these girls were believed to be under the influence of the devil. Girls started to accused some people, that they were tormented by. In salem everyone believe at this story and this became an obsession. 20 people were hanged and 200 were accused of witch craft.

Three centuries later, between , there were two another witch-hunts in the USA. The first is called the ‘Red Scare’, it was from 1917 to 1920. The second, McCarthyism was during the cold war, in the fifty's.  During this period the US government was afraid of communist foreigners who, according to them, might ‘infiltrate’ the country.Th USA feared a possible communist conspiracy.  McCarthy, a republican senator, claimed to have a list of communists. Thousands of Americans were accused of being communist sympathizers. Many of them were send to jail for refusing to give the names of others communists. Indeed, Arthur miller charlie chaplin were blacklisted and the holywood Ten were sentence to serve one year in prison.

→ Not you ! From doglas Kennedy

The crucible is play written by arthur Miller in 1953, that set the salem witch trials that took place in 1692. It's ,in fact,an allegory for Mccarthyism which aim was to fight communism. It shows, even today, how hysteria can tear a community apart.

We can add that America has known other periods when scapegoats were hunted down . For example, Sacco And Vanzetti were two innocents persons but they were accused of two robbery and murder. It was an unfair prosecution that raised and stiil raises protestations. There weren't evidences, but they were nevertheless, condemned to death on the electric chair.

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