| To Kill a Mockingbird and "The Crucible" are two | | | | on the right button. |
| classic American works that, though set centuries | | | | Despite both Tom Robinson and John Proctor's |
| apart, have a remarkable amount in common: | | | | unhappy end, To Kill a Mockingbird ends on a |
| both use children as a means of exploring the | | | | decidedly happier note than "The Crucible." |
| social mechanisms behind wrongful persecution in | | | | Interestingly, this has a lot to do with each story's |
| small-town America. Admittedly, there are | | | | portrayal of children. In Mockingbird, children largely |
| significant cultural differences between the two | | | | reflect their parents' thinking when it comes to |
| stories (the whole racism-vs.-witchcraft thing | | | | prejudices. Scout's classmates tease her at school |
| jumps to mind), but what really stands out is how | | | | after their parents tell them that Scout's dad is |
| different the take-home message of each story | | | | defending a black man in court. A young Dill Harris |
| is. Let's take a look. | | | | cries during Tom Robinson's trial because social |
| Set in 1930's Alabama, Harper Lee's To Kill a | | | | convention hasn't "caught up with [his] instinct |
| Mockingbird is narrated from the point of view of | | | | yet." When Scout's life is unexpectedly saved by |
| Scout Finch, who is a mere six years old when | | | | the creepy local shut-in, Scout remarks that "he |
| the story begins. Her and her brother's formative | | | | was real nice." "Most people are," her father |
| years involve a trial in which Tom Robinson, a | | | | replies, "when you finally see them." Social |
| black man, is accused of raping a white | | | | conditioning may be ugly, but at least the ugliness |
| nineteen-year old. Although Tom is clearly innocent | | | | isn't inborn. |
| of the crime, the local attitude toward race | | | | Not so in The Crucible. Although witchcraft is |
| makes it all too easy for his accuser - whose | | | | obviously an idea that the girls picked up from |
| advances he rejects, by the way - to cast blame | | | | their community, the phenomenon behind the |
| on him in order to save her own hide. | | | | Salem witch trials does not have the feel of a |
| Arthur Miller's "The Crucible" takes us back to | | | | longstanding social institution like racism. Instead, |
| Colonial New England in the late 1600's. Giving its | | | | the girls go along with the accusations |
| own version of the Salem Witch Trials, the play | | | | spontaneously, meaning that it's impossible to |
| follows a group of young girls spearheaded by | | | | predict who will fall on what side of all that |
| one Abigail Williams, whose favorite pastime is | | | | finger-pointing. Whereas the bottom line in To Kill a |
| ruining the lives of people she doesn't like. At the | | | | Mockingbird is that people start off good and |
| center of Abigail's storm is John Proctor, who | | | | become corrupted along the way, "The Crucible" |
| ends up being sentenced to death after breaking | | | | leaves you with the distinct impression that mass |
| off their illicit love affair. As in Mockingbird, the | | | | hysteria only survives by playing on the dark side |
| townspeople's small-mindedness is easily bent to | | | | inherent in everyone. |
| the will of one misguided accuser with her finger | | | | |