An analysis of the innocence of youth concept in the crucible a play by arthur miller

Formed in and known as the Dies Committee for Rep. The Committee soon focused on Communism, beginning with an investigation into Communists in the Federal Theatre Project in

In casual encounters with the material universe, we rarely feel any difficulty here, since we usually deal with things that are clearly alive, such as a dog or a rattlesnake; or with things that are clearly nonalive, such as a brick or a typewriter.

Nevertheless, the task of defining "life" is both difficult and subtle; something that at once becomes evident if we stop to think. Consider a caterpillar crawling over a rock.

The caterpillar is alive, but the rock is not; as you guess at once, since the caterpillar is moving and the rock is not.

Yet what if the caterpillar were crawling over the trunk of a tree? The trunk isn't moving, yet it is as alive as the caterpillar. Or what if a drop of water were trickling down the trunk of the tree? The water in motion would not be alive, but the motionless tree trunk would be.

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It would be expecting much of anyone to guess that an oyster were alive if he came across one for the first time with a closed shell. Could a glance at a clump of trees in midwinter, when all are standing leafless, easily distinguish those which are alive and will bear leaves in the spring from those which are dead and will not?

Is it easy to tell a live seed from a dead seed, or either from a grain of sand? For that matter, is it always easy to tell whether a man is merely unconscious or quite dead? Modern medical advances are making it a matter of importance to decide the moment of actual death, and that is not always easy.

Nevertheless, what we call "life" is sufficiently important to warrant an attempt at a definition. We can begin by listing some of the things that living things can do, and nonliving things cannot do, and see if we end up with a satisfactory distinction for this particular twofold division of the Universe.

A living thing shows the capacity for independent motion against a force. A drop of water trickles downward, but only because gravity is pulling at it; it isn't moving "of its own accord. Living things that seem to be motionless overall, nevertheless move in part.

An oyster may lie attached to its rock all its adult life, but it can open and close its shell. Furthermore, it sucks water into its organs and strains out food, so that there are parts of itself that move constantly.

Plants, too, can move, turning their leaves to the sun, for instance; and there are continuous movements in the substance making it up. A living thing can sense and it can respond adaptively.

That is, it can become aware, somehow, of some alteration in its environment, and will then produce an alteration in itself that will allow it to continue to live as comfortably as possible. To give a simple example, you may see a rock coming toward you and will quickly duck to avoid a collision of the rock with your head.

Analogously, plants can sense the presence of light and water and can respond by extending roots toward the water and stems toward the light. Even very primitive life forms, too small to see with the unaided eye, can sense the presence of food or of danger; and can respond in such a way as to increase their chances of meeting the first and of avoiding the second.

The response may not be a successful one; you may not duck quickly enough to avoid the rock—but it is the attempt that counts.

A living thing metabolizes. By this we mean that it can eventually convert material from its environment into its own substance. The material may not be fit for use to begin with, so it must be broken apart, moistened, or otherwise treated.

It may have to be subjected to chemical change so that large and complex chemical units molecules are converted into smaller, simpler ones.

Anything which is left over, or not usable, is then eliminated. The different phases of this process are sometimes given separate names: A living thing grows.- The Role of John Proctor in Arthur Miller's The Crucible Arthur Miller wrote the play 'The Crucible' to show the historical parallel between the Salem witch trials of and the McCarthy 'witch' hunt of the late ' and 50's.

An archive in Canada holds prints of many of this series, and it really is past time for some enterprising business to release it on to dvd. It's no masterpiece, but it does have the distinction of being the first British made filmed crime series shown in Britain.

"You will only find in the Jews an ignorant and barbarous people, who for a long time have joined the most sordid avarice to the most detestable superstition and to the most invincible hatred of all peoples which tolerate and enrich them.".

The Crucible is a play by Arthur Miller. The Crucible study guide contains a biography of Arthur Miller, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

The timeline below shows where the character Abigail Williams appears in The Crucible. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. Innocence and Redemption in "The Crucible" Analytical Essay by johnnyoutsmart Innocence and Redemption in "The Crucible" Examines the themes of redemption and innocence in the play, "The Crucible," by Arthur Miller.