The Crucible by Arthur Miller

Oh, McCarthyism. Because it has no bearing on me, I absolutely do not care about any of it. Horrible as it may sound, this is true. So blacklist me.

The Crucible was not as bad as Death of a Salesman, but it was still Arthur Miller. Obviously a product of his partially impoverished upbringing, Miller's politics were ridiculously leftist, and therefore irrational. People should not have to rely on the government to take care of them. Freedom means being able to do that for oneself. Why don't people see that?

In the play, Puritan girl Abigail sleeps with otherwise law-abiding John Proctor. In an effort to throw attention from herself, Abigail accuses Proctor of dealings with the devil, and soon the entire countryside is in hysterics over supposedly satanic happenings. Lots of Puritans are hanged under suspicion of occult loyalties. Abigail gets off scot-free. The end.

McCarthy was a terribly misguided man and he wreaked havoc on quite a few individuals' reputations with his alarmist legislative tactics in a manner similar to that of the rabidly self-righteous Puritan authorities. Thank you, Miller, for attempting to exculpate yourself with this play that makes that connection. Your politics were bad, but that does not justify McCarthy's campaign against you. The political sphere is so interwoven with ambition and emotion, that we may never have a national platform for rational discourse, and so literature may be one of the few arenas in which such a conversation can occur.