The Crucible

What creative ways we humans invent for persecuting each other.  Isn't it

amazing that despite all our scientific and humanitarian advances we, as a race,

still feel the need to persecute each other? 

The Crucible is set in Salem, Massachusetts during the famous witch hunt

held there in the late seventeenth century, but it was written in the United States

during the famous witch hunt held there in the 1950s.  Isn't it simply astounding

how similar these events are?  They are incomprehensible in their simplicity, if

you dislike your neighbor then you accuse them of being a witch (or a

communist). 

You would have thought that through two hundred and fifty years of

developing our democratic government and eliminating the scourge of Christian

religion(sorry...)  from our governmental system that we could have avoided

another witch hunt, but of course being human we could not.    

The ultimate message in The Crucible seems missed by the masses, we

still blindly accuse others of pseudo-crimes, and follow wholeheartedly and

blindly, when others accuse.  Is it perhaps simple human nature to fear and hate

that which we do not know?  Is the human race, as a whole, really this close to

the swamps and oceans from which we pulled ourselves?  Has evolution really

just played some sort of immense prank on us, bestowing upon us the gifts of

reason and  judgment, but blurring them with prejudice and blind hatred?  (Too

many question...Not enough answers...  Isn't that always the case?)           

The Crucible is an incredible book, through the medium of a historical

event it manages to shine a light into the cold, dark, depths of human existence.

Anyone who is willing to put forth the time to read and truly understand is in for

quite a shock, the truth.

As for recommending this to my school's reading list, I cry out, "Yes!", let

them read it.  However, the content of the book would probably be questionable,

for it deals with the ugly truth, something not very popular in school.  The Crucible

would probably be acceptable because it does not portray the Salem witch trials

in a particularly "graphic" way.  (However, I still stand by my proposition that the

truth is disliked in school)

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, although as always I found all the

different characters hard to follow in play form.  I think it's because I have a

tendency to skip over the name of who is speaking and jump right to the dialog,

thereby missing quite a bit of information.