Expository Essay: Salem Witch Hunt
Chloe
Mr. Lesandrini
AP English 11 Language and Composition
10 December 2012
“Witch Hunt” Expository Essay A witch-hunt is not limited to one particular event in history. Many key events throughout time relate very closely to these acts of misunderstanding and unjustified killings. For instance, The Crucible by Arthur Miller was written to portray the Salem Witch Trials in a fictional view although based on true events. Miller in fact based this play after Joseph McCarthy’s Red scare as a fictional foreshadow to more modern times. Another thing closely tied to the witch-hunts is the treatment of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. They were completely stripped of their humanity and marked as something to look down up or fear. In all these cases it is begun with a simple belief that becomes too strong for one to keep in control. Most of the people in all of the situations were completely innocent but branded with a mark that cast them off as threatening to ones self and family. It marks historical repetition, as human kind is not able to let go of the past although they may or may not have lived through it. …show more content…
Humans are naturally prone to letting their imaginations run wild to a point beyond reason. The hysteria that was presented in all three cases proves that humans do not take in to account what really surrounds them, only an opinion glorified through irrational outbursts from on singular person that escalates into something way out of proportion. If one could take into consideration all of the logical components of every “witch-hunt” they would not have occurred to that great of an extent. If reason were to overcome the emotional factor many lives would have been spared and hysteria and fear would not have spread like a wildfire taking its victims one by
Mr. Lesandrini
AP English 11 Language and Composition
10 December 2012
“Witch Hunt” Expository Essay A witch-hunt is not limited to one particular event in history. Many key events throughout time relate very closely to these acts of misunderstanding and unjustified killings. For instance, The Crucible by Arthur Miller was written to portray the Salem Witch Trials in a fictional view although based on true events. Miller in fact based this play after Joseph McCarthy’s Red scare as a fictional foreshadow to more modern times. Another thing closely tied to the witch-hunts is the treatment of Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. They were completely stripped of their humanity and marked as something to look down up or fear. In all these cases it is begun with a simple belief that becomes too strong for one to keep in control. Most of the people in all of the situations were completely innocent but branded with a mark that cast them off as threatening to ones self and family. It marks historical repetition, as human kind is not able to let go of the past although they may or may not have lived through it. …show more content…
Humans are naturally prone to letting their imaginations run wild to a point beyond reason. The hysteria that was presented in all three cases proves that humans do not take in to account what really surrounds them, only an opinion glorified through irrational outbursts from on singular person that escalates into something way out of proportion. If one could take into consideration all of the logical components of every “witch-hunt” they would not have occurred to that great of an extent. If reason were to overcome the emotional factor many lives would have been spared and hysteria and fear would not have spread like a wildfire taking its victims one by