Belonging: Salem Witch Trials and Society
“An individual’s interaction with others and the world around them can enrich or limit their experience of belonging”. Discuss this view with detailed reference to your prescribed text and choosing ONE other related text of your own choosing.
The natural human need to belong is a characteristic of most human beings. The interaction with others and the world around an individual can be a positive, enriching experience or can be a negative, limiting experience. These experiences are part of belonging, and an individual is often left with the choice of choosing wether the sacrifice of loosing ones individual identity and conforming to a group, wether it be a society, belief or authority or choosing to hold onto individuality, independence and freedom is right for them as an individual. This moral dilemma is displayed in the stage play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller written in 1953, based on the Salem witch hunts of Massachusetts in 1692 and the 1950s anti communist extremist of McCarthyism. The characters of the play are faced with moral dilemma of self righteousness and belonging to ones self or conforming and sacrificing their own beliefs to avoid persecution and isolation from society. ‘Into the Wild’, a film by Sean Penn, is based on the true story of Christopher McCandless, a man who is faced with the ultimate struggle between belonging to society, a family and relationships between other people and the independency and freedom that he so surely seeks. Both texts use techniques such as irony and contrast and setting to convey the ideas of interaction with the people that are around them and the world that they live in and how the experiences shared can change an individual’s perspective on belonging.
In the opening scenes of the play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller, key ideas of persecution of those who don’t belong and of those who choose not to conform to the strict rules of the Puritan society that the city of Salem believed in and the consequences and
The natural human need to belong is a characteristic of most human beings. The interaction with others and the world around an individual can be a positive, enriching experience or can be a negative, limiting experience. These experiences are part of belonging, and an individual is often left with the choice of choosing wether the sacrifice of loosing ones individual identity and conforming to a group, wether it be a society, belief or authority or choosing to hold onto individuality, independence and freedom is right for them as an individual. This moral dilemma is displayed in the stage play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller written in 1953, based on the Salem witch hunts of Massachusetts in 1692 and the 1950s anti communist extremist of McCarthyism. The characters of the play are faced with moral dilemma of self righteousness and belonging to ones self or conforming and sacrificing their own beliefs to avoid persecution and isolation from society. ‘Into the Wild’, a film by Sean Penn, is based on the true story of Christopher McCandless, a man who is faced with the ultimate struggle between belonging to society, a family and relationships between other people and the independency and freedom that he so surely seeks. Both texts use techniques such as irony and contrast and setting to convey the ideas of interaction with the people that are around them and the world that they live in and how the experiences shared can change an individual’s perspective on belonging.
In the opening scenes of the play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller, key ideas of persecution of those who don’t belong and of those who choose not to conform to the strict rules of the Puritan society that the city of Salem believed in and the consequences and