Uncanny Resemblance
In the Salem Witch Trials and the Mccarthy hearings, both the accusers were famous people, Abigail was the niece of Parris, a revered man and Mccarthy was a politician. They both took scapegoats of the community which were witches and communists. Both in a twisted way used the things society feared for their personal benefit. The personal benefits in either case were for a land dispute and faith in church in the first, and then campaigning in the second. A difference spotted is actually the fact that the Salem witch trials were conducted at a point and a place where society did not know too much about biblical doctrine which is why the trials arose out of Puritan Movement while the Mccarthy hearings took place in the 1950’s when the United States was considered to be a melting pot of all kinds of cultures. This in turn leads one to think why people of the Mccarthy period followed Mccarthy even though they had open minds. Nathaniel Hathorne actually wrote the Scarlet Letter on the idea of the social stigma and punishment from the Salem Witch Trials and Arthur Miller did the same from the Crucible. A certain Critic named Thomas Brattice during the Trials noticed that Judges perverted the Justice System, while Senator Margaret Chase Smith criticized him and voted for him to be censured.
(Berry)