The Crucible - Belonging Essay - 1644 Words

The sense of belonging humans naturally seek in life reflects the feeling of security and being accepted. They struggle with their identity as they make the choice whether to reject the individuality and belong to a community or group. When individuals seek to belong and rigidly follow society’s norms and practices, they must adhere to the strict rules of their society. In doing do, the desire to belong comes into conflict with the need to be an individual. These ideas are powerfully evident in Arthur Miller’s play â€Å"The Crucible†, â€Å"Catcher in the Rye† by J.D Salinger and the Gurinder Chadha film â€Å"Bend it like Beckham.† In each of these texts, most desire to belong but need to restore the balance between the need to belong and the†¦show more content†¦Their actions break the cohesion in Salem’s tight knit community. Reverend Hale sees this and warns the officials that they are courting rebellion. As a result of the tria ls, â€Å"cows are wandering loose, crops are rotting in the fields, and orphans are wandering without supervision†. Many homes have fallen into neglect because their owners were in jail or had to attend the proceedings. Everyone lives in fear of being accused of witchcraft. One character in particular, represents Miller’s view of individuality and is seen as a hero figure because he chooses to defend his individuality. This play shows one man, John Proctor, in his struggle to keep his pride and name from being destroyed with lies, deceit and accusations of consorting with the devil. Proctor tries to expose Abigail and the girl’s deceit but he is punished for it because children were thought of as the voice of god and they were innocent. When the trial was brought in front of the court officials, Deputy Governor Danforth feared that he will lose power therefore weakens the testimony from the girls which broke the power of theocracy in Massachusetts. The most important scene in the play was act two, scene three, where John Proctor is able to talk with his wife, Elizabeth, one last time. He is accused of practicing witchcraft and at first he decidesShow MoreRelatedBelonging Crucible Essay1187 Words   |  5 PagesBelonging Essay All individuals unmistakably experience a sense of belonging in a multifaceted and convoluted process. Arthur Millers play â€Å"The Crucible† and George Clooneys film â€Å"Good Night and Good Luck† are both texts where acceptance into society is explored in characters through various and complex measures. While the play and film both illustrate the complexities of assimilation into society to an individuals identity the Crucible further presents this as an ironic situation as peopleRead More‘the Crucible’ and ‘the Island’ - Belonging Essays1121 Words   |  5 Pagesopinion can seclude them, and cause them to become an outsider. Belonging to a community or group can be very beneficial, and not belonging can cause an individual to face consequences. Hysteria and fear can be caused throughout a community by outsiders who don’t belong. We are able to view these experiences of belonging and not belonging through the use of characters and e vents throughout a variety of texts. Arthur Miller’s play â€Å"The Crucible† and Armin Geder’s picture book â€Å"The Island† display how anRead MoreEssay about Belonging - The Crucible/Bend It Like Beckham13332 Words   |  54 Pageslimit their †¨experience of belonging.’ The foundation for an individual’s sense of belonging is often determined by the quality of relationships forged with others and their immersion within the wider community. As a result, these relationships have the ability to enhance an individual’s connection with others and personal identity, whereas negative interactions with others can damage their connection to place and self. This idea is central in the 1952 play ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller, as theRead MoreBelonging Essay1376 Words   |  6 PagesBelonging Essay It is a well-known fact that belonging to a group can make an individual feel not only accepted, but more powerful that if they were on their own. Whether it is a community, youth group or even religion, belonging is an everyday occurrence of like that many of us do not even realise. Belonging to a group is more influential than belonging to an individual. We can see this in the texts The Crucible by Arthur Miller, 1984 by George Orwell and the listening task. Belonging to a groupRead MoreThe Paradoxical Nature of Belonging Depicted in Arthur Millers The Crucible1318 Words   |  6 PagesIn Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, we are positioned to see belonging as paradoxical, in that the positive, human quality of belonging inevitably carries with it the negative and dangerous corollary of exclusion. By belonging, we are automatically excluding others and excluding ourselves from other groups. The Crucible achieves this complex presentation of belonging through a variety of interco nnected techniques which will be explored in this essay. These techniques may be categorized into four mainRead MoreThe Crucible Essay1784 Words   |  8 Pages------------------------------------------------- THE CRUCIBLE ESSAY ‘The Crucible’ written by Arthur Miller and my related material ‘Happy Feet’ by George Miller is true to this statement â€Å"Understanding nourishes belonging†¦a lack of understanding prevents it† that represents the interpretation of belonging. To define belong is to have the correct personal and social assets to be a member of a particular group or it could be to fit a particular environment. By a sense of place, people youRead MoreArthur Miller and His Theater of Mirrors. Reflections on the Persuasiveness of Miller’s Multiple Portrays of American Society2367 Words   |  10 Pagesit. Some others are struggling to make sense of their world while being bombarded by their own families with the confusing truth that they are a failure for pursuing individual freedom instead of being part of the big machine’s mechanism. In this essay, I comment and analyze in a brief manner the plays and short stories read and discussed in the American Society Through Drama/Literature course identifying some of the key elements that Miller criticized with his work in order to conclude at what extentRead MoreBelonging Essay4112 Words   |  17 PagesHSC Subject Guide Belonging 2009 HSC: Area of Study – English - related material English HSC 2009 - 2012 is Belonging. What does belonging mean? From the Oxford Dictionary and Thesaurus: belong, verb, 1) to be rightly put into a particular position or class; 2) fit or be acceptable in a particular place or environment; 3) belong to be a member of; 4) belong to be the property or possession of. Belonging, noun, affiliation, acceptance, association, attachment, integration, closeness, rapport,Read MoreWhiteness as a Field of Study2712 Words   |  11 Pagesspecifically the in the Jewish community whiteness came linked to male privilege. Matthew Frye Jacobson‘s Whiteness of a Different Color explores the importance of racial classification to the American identity, and the delimitation of white racial belonging. The author shows what it means to be and not to be white throughout American history. The dominant classes used the law to assimilate whiteness with American citizenship, as Jacobson shows with the European immigration from the late eighteenth centuryRead MoreRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 Pagesprimary data on the movement but to analyze and re-analyze the growing body of scholarly and popular literature on the movement, including sociological and anthropological studies, biographies, monographs, dissertations, published and unpublished essays, and periodical articles. Archival sources, such as newspaper reports, policy statements, pamphlets, and organization manuals have also provided useful information. Chapter 1 reviews and reï ¬ nes Webers theory of charisma and routinization, using