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- How has the exploration of “The Crucible,” deepen your understanding of diverse, complex ideas about identity, others, and the world?
Through further exploring the many themes of the Crucible, it has allowed me to capture a greater insight into humanities strive for an idealistic societal and emotional rule. For me personally, the main themes that arose while reading the play were those of: reputation, mob-mentality and dishonesty. Though we might not want to see it as the truth, a good reputation is a basic human need; and through my findings, not only from the play, but outside research, I have found that humanity will continue following “destructive” tactics to reach this goal. We have become inclined with the construct of a social hierarchy, not necessarily of authority but of majority. Here however, is where our society differs from that of the Crucible. In The Crucible the citizens thrived from their ideology to look acceptable not only to the towns people but to god, whereas (though god may play an important factor in certain people’s lives) we mostly strive ‘fit-in’ by obliging to the vast majority. Often times, I have found people tend to look down upon this behaviour of following or adapting to another personality, however majority of us are guilty of this exact ‘crime’. I feel, the idea of self-identity/belief has become somewhat lost, but we must remember that (like the crucible), we are only behaving such ways as a result of the fear of being deemed different.
- How have you personally connected to, “The Crucible?”
Often times, I have found myself changing my behavior around certain people. Although, I am not intentionally doing this, it has become a recurring habit. This type of personality change is quite evident in The Crucible, with majority of the primary characters changing to what they believe others want to see. I have been in positions where (although I do not want to believe it), the idea of being liked by others through my reputation has been important to me. However, many others can sympathize with this; with the current up-rise of social media platforms being used for ‘personal expression’, it seems as people are more likely to simply show the parts of their lives that are beneficial to them (myself included). The characters in The Crucible were able to see how quickly their reputation can change, and we [ the youth] have experienced that, whether through social media, peer-pressure or even internally. I see myself as a follower, likewise to most of the characters. Therefore, more prone to falling into these ‘traps’ of mob-mentality and into the whirlpool of reputation.