The Crucible (1953)

In preparation for the kids' covering it for lit. ( )

Provocative, timely content mixed with a wildly inconsistent play format made this a mixed-bag read. It was engaging at an ideas level, but it frustrated me from a craft level. I want to see this performed to understand how they translate the pages and pages of contextual writing. ( )

I just finished The Crucible. Even after knowing the story and watching the movie version, I still found it haunting and chillingly similar to our current political environment here in the US. The group hysteria (Trumpsters) fed by those who recently gained power (the Republican Party), grounded in ignorance, fear, evangelical religious beliefs, and the desire to retain power has created a similar scenario.

Miller writes in such a way that we feel the utter disbelief, despair, and almost hopelessness of those accused of witchcraft. So many logical fallacies populate the mindset of the magistrates in charge of hearing the accusations and sentencing the accused that it’s hard to keep track of them all.

Some archaeologists claim that the downfall of the human race came with the rise of civilization during the Neolithic revolution 5,000-10,000 years ago. More specifically, I would add that the advent of organized religion was the true catalyst. Over the millennia it has set the stage for mass hysteria, persecution, genocide, ecological terrorism, and mass animal and plant extinction. I believe belief in organized religion allows adherents to deny climate change, and gives them an excuse to persecute those who are not like them, to drive to extinction plants and animal species, and to rape the earth, all the while looking to the sky for validation. They turn a blind eye to the reality of the Mother Earth we live on in favor of the invisible father they long to reunite with. They see no hypocrisy in their actions. Yet, they ignore the wisdom and words of the god they claim to follow (Jesus) in the name of seeking favor with the lie invisible sky deity.

The Crucible is a haunting example of the horrors that occur when church and state are not kept separate. ( )

I have wanted to read this one for a long time. It is a play so that is one reason why it took so long to get it done. I have this book but I also listened to the audio dramatization of the play. It pretty much fits with all the other books that I've red about the Salem Witch Trials. ( )

Until an hour before the Devil fell, God thought him beautiful in Heaven. ( )