Arthur+Miller+and+his+relationship+to+the+Red+Scare-AS+2011

Arthur Miller




 * Background: **

 Arthur Miller was born in Manhattan in 1915 to Jewish immigrant parents. His family later moved to Brooklyn, after their family business failed. Witnessing the societal decay of the Depression and his father’s desperation due to business failures had an enormous effect on Miller. He worked a number of jobs and saved up the money for college. After graduating he worked as a freelance writer. Miller’s first play, “The Man Who Had All the Luck”, received horrible reviews


 * Relation with Red Scare: **

During the 1950’s, America was entering a period of political and social upheaval that had a lasting effect on his career and personal life. He witnessed the rise of the McCarthy hearings and the establishment of the HUAC in response to the “Red Scare” threat. Miller was his friends and colleagues, “name names” during their testimony. In 1953, he wrote The Crucible about the Salem Witch Trials, likening them to the so-called communist witch hunts.


 * Miller wrote his play about unwarranted persecution in response to the "Red Scare" of the 1950s, in which many artists (himself included) were accused of Communist ties or at least Communist sympathies
 * Many a career was ruined by these largely unfounded attacks.
 * Miller saw many parallels to the attacks of his time and the Puritan witch hunts.
 * He hoped that by presenting our past, the future might not continue to repeat itself.
 * Most known for not giving evidence to the House Un-Ameircan Activities Committee
 * found guilty of contempt of congress. Was fined $500, blacklisted and disallowed a US passpor. Because he would not giv enames up of his friends that where "in" the communist party
 * works banned from Soviet Union
 * The House of Un-American Actives- formed in 1938 to weed out the allege disloyal actives of people living int he United States. often pressure witnesses to give names and other information that would help them find people in the Communist party.

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