Am. Lit.

11A David Sprague Nathan, Hannah, Nick, Joe, Tanya Period 5 10/29/11 The Crucible The story The Crucible is mainly focused around the conflict between John Proctor and his accusers. Its a constant and never ending struggle until his death. He is accused multiple times by Abigail Williams, on accounts of which craft and conspiring with the devil. She uses the judges to her advantage by accusing multiple people including John Proctor and his wife Elizabeth Proctor. The judges have significant control over the people of the town because they are the authority. This has a lot in common with a significant amount of problems that we face in todays world. Including 9/11 and Guantanamo Bay, the prosecution that occurs in The Crucible is very similar because in Guantanamo Bay the captives can only really confess to what they are accused of, otherwise they will continue to be held without possibility of being released. Abigail Williams has a deep love for John Proctor, this is what eventually becomes the destruction of him. She wants to take the place of his wife Elizabeth Proctor, and soon came close. John Proctor at one point was cheating on his wife with Abigail. It ended abruptly and John vowed to never be unfaithful to Elizabeth ever again. Abigail becomes powerless against John as his decision of ignoring her cause he to have no way to sway it in any direction. She then begins to grow an extreme and uncanny hatred for Elizabeth, and begins to spread false

rumors about her around the town of Salem. This only makes Johns dis-taste for Abigail even stronger. He then becomes extremely harsh and very angry with her when he explicitly tells her how he wants absolutely nothing to do with her anymore and he never made any promises. This is right about when Abigail accidently stumbles upon something that will give her the ability to get her way with John Proctor. From this point it only gets worse as rumors start to spread even deeper and the innocent are accused. Abigail, while in the woods dancing and casting spells with other women from the town are caught. They are deemed witches and while at first they strictly deny the accusations against them, they soon realize that if they confess the judges forgive them. Abigail Williams takes this even farther and begins accusing other people in the town of being witches or having a compact with the devil. This becomes easy for her as the judges are easily fooled and begin arresting anyone whose name is even so much as mentioned. In Salem Abigail now has the power of the court at her fingertips. John Proctor hears of this news from the town and begins worrying that she may call out his wife as being a witch. He may not have the best relationship with his wife but you can tell by the way he defends her that he still loves her very much, and cares about her a lot. This is especially noticeable when the officers from Salem come to take his wife after Abigail finally accuses her of performing witch-craft. He becomes increasingly defensive of her and fights with a few of the officers in a desperate struggle to free his wife. It is to no avail though, and he goes to see Abigail in the forest and yells at her and tells her to take back the claim of his wife being a witch. Abigail is clearly only trying to get in Proctors pants. She says that she feels immense love for him, and wants to be his wife because he said that he loved her. He denies ever saying

that and says he only has that sort of affection for his wife and boys. He seems very sincere and has great remorse for what he did with Abigail behind his wifes back. Seeing as though Abigail cant get what she wants with John she decides to accuse him of having a compact with the devil and coming at night to force her to sign his book. She is using the Authority of the judges directly now instead of indirectly like how she did when she accused his wife. I think that she hopes to force him into conforming to what she wants. But the way she goes about it actually does the opposite. John seemingly falls even more in love with his wife and it backfires on Abigail. Never the less Abigail still has the complete power of the courts and is the major authority over Proctor, he has little say in what happens to him and how the court will prosecute him. John Proctor and the three judges are the perfect examples of an individual going up against authority. John knows that everything he is prosecuted for is a lie. Danforth, the head judge, has prosecuted many people already based on what the towns people have told him. John does not believe in witch craft or anything of that nature but he knows he cannot escape prosecution without lying. Do to Abigails lies John is sentenced to be hung for working with the devil. He can choose to deny it but suffer the consequence of death. John realizes that the judges are corrupt and will only continue to live free with the authority standing in his way. The judges have the town and the armed guards on their side. Its an unfair balance and John realizes this, he sees straight through Abigails lies, and he tries so desperately to prove it, but seeing as though he is a lone man standing up against such a massive amount of people and accusations there is really no grounds for him to stand upon. It also does not help that he himself is now accused of compacting with the devil and his book. This nullifies all of his arguments and

makes them all look like cop-outs and as a way to distract the judges from the truth. The worst part is that its completely the other way around. The authorities of the town have the ability to create and reject any truths. What they say is law and what John may say (if it goes against their ruling that is) is then declared a lie. Its a vicious and untamable cycle, it drags everything down with it and has virtually no end. This cycle has plagued man-kind since the very beginning. Its been well documented just look at the Holocaust, millions of innocent individuals murdered in cold blood and why because the AUTHORITY said so. Look at the African American community, they as individuals were personally persecuted and looked down upon, and why? Because the AUTHORITY said so. The greater power always seems to set the rules for the less united or lone view point. An excellent example of an Individual vs. and opposing authority is Guantanamo Bay. Here is some Background on Guantanamo Bay which is located in Cuba, was created by the United States to create a loophole in our system. Just three days after the terrorist attack on the U.S on the 11th of September in 2001, Congress passed the Authorization for use of military force (AUMF) authorizing the president to use all necessary and appropriate military forces against any terrorism threats. Since its construction, 779 individuals have been detained at Guantanamo Bay and 171 prisoners remain there today. Recently due to the assassination of Osama bin Laden, those who support Guantanamo have further justified the injustice by linking the interrogation taken at the prison that led to information to bin Ladens whereabouts. Im my personal opinion, I believe that just like the people from The Crucible, they fail to recognize that the use of interrogation, detention, and trial should be fairly done. In Guantanamo, the prisoners are held there without proof and without the ability to have a trial; they just wait in

limbo until they either confess to something or until Congress confirms their innocence. The way that the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay are treated relates to those who were accused of witchcraft in The Crucible. All of it comes down to fear, people hunted other people because they believed that they were witches, they were in a few words just expressing their fear of differences and their belief that they would harness evil powers over society. Prisoners are thrown into a camp because they are considered a possible terrorist and therefore might create or organize another terrorist attack upon a country. I think that these discriminations are very similar to the actions in the Salem witch trials. Its led by fear and controlled by the Authority.. what a coincidence.