The Harm of Betrayal and Fear

Fear and betrayal caused a great deal of harm in Farewell to Manzanar, The McCarthyism trials, and The Crucible because of the way people responded towards the events. Farewell to Manzanar showed how Japanese Americans were treated after the attack on Pearl Harbor. The McCarthyism trials were about people spreading Communism around the United States during 1954. The Crucible was written in 1953 about the 1600s Salem Witch Trials. All of these events caused fear and betrayal in many Americans around the United States.

Farewell to Manzanar was a first person point of view of how the Japanese Americans were treated by Americans after Pearl Harbor. In the story “Others wanted to boycott the oath altogether in a show of noncooperation or through the mistaken fear that anyone who accepted the form would be shipped out of camp: the NO NOs back to Japan, the YES YESs into American society full of wartime hospitality and racial hate” (Paragraph 28, J.W. Houston and J.

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Houston). Japanese Americans had the fear of saying no was being sent away from their family and back to their hometown. Even if they said Yes they feared being drafted into the war, with a high possibility of not coming back alive.

That is what made the decision for them very difficult and challenging. Papa would argue his side “At the meeting, When Papa stood up to defend the YES YES position, murmurs of “Inu, Inu '' began to circulate around the mess hall. This man then jumped up at the speakers table and made a charge aloud.

Papa went for him” (Paragraph 34, J.W. Houston and J. Houston). People started to have so much fear that they started to betray each other and cause more fear and commotion. Japanese American started to trust each other less and less because of all the new rumors and gossip about other people. Altogether, Japanese Americans weren’t treated right and was unfair.

The Interview with George Takei was what George witnessed himself of how Japanese Americans were treated after Pearl Harbor. George Takei says “We were taken from our home and loaded onto train cars with other Japanese-American families. There were guards stationed at both ends of each car, as if we were criminals. I still remember the barbed wire fence that confined me. I remember the tall sentry tower with the machine guns pointed at us. I remember the searchlight that followed me when I made the night runs from my barrack to the latrine” (Paragraph 5, George Takei).

Japanese Americans were taken out of their homes and prisoned inside a camp without their say in it. It caused fear in many because soldiers would come to their house and take them out of their houses and they couldn’t do anything about it. George Takei states “the president of the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, ordered all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast of America to be summarily rounded up with no charges, with no trial, with no due process” (Paragraph 3, George Takei). Even though Japanese Americans did everything they had to do and some were US citizens they still were taken to the camp. They were given no rights, they were just taken to the camps because they were Japanese American. Japanese Americans weren't treated fairly and nothing like that ever should have happened in the history of the United States.

The Crucible was all about people accusing people they didn’t like of witchcraft which caused fear and made people betray their friends. In The Crucible Arthur miller states“the girl, the williams girl, abigail williams, sir. She sat to dinner in reverend Parris’s house tonight, and without word nor warning’ she falls to the floor. like a struck beast, he says, and screamed a scream that a bull would weep to hear. and he goes to save her, and, stuck two inches in the flesh of her belly, he draws a needle out. and demanding’ of her how she came to be so stabbed, she—to Proctor now—testify it were your wife’s familiar spirit pushed it in”(Page 76 line 352, Arthur Miller). Abigail Williams stabbed herself with a pin and accused John Proctor's wife that her spirit pushed it into her. She did this so Elitibeth would be accused of Witchcraft and that she would get John Proctor to herself.

Abigail betrayed Elitibeth because Elitibeth had what she wanted. Abigail says “I want the light of God. I want the sweet love of Jesus! I danced for the Devil; I saw him: I wrote in his book; I go back to Jesus; I kiss His hand. I saw Sarah Good with the Devil! I saw Goody Osburn with the Devil! I saw Bridget Bishop with the Devil!”(Page 52 line 481, Arthur Miller). Abigail accused other people of being apart of the devil so she won't be accused of witchcraft. Abigail doesn’t want to get in trouble because she fears what will happen if she is accused of witchcraft. People fear Abigail and the other girls because if they get on their bad side then they will accuse them of witchcraft and be hung. The Crucible was written because of McCarthyism which was similar to each other by both having people accused of terrible things even though they are innocent

McCarthyism was very similar to The Crucible by people accusing other people of spreading communism causing fear in many people. This said “In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture industry. After conviction on contempt of Congress charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, 'The Hollywood Ten' were blacklisted by the industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists – including directors, radio commentators, actors, and particularly screenwriters – were boycotted by the studios” (“The House Un-American Activities committee” 2020).

It made it hard for people during this time because they could be accused of Mccarthyism and ruin their whole careers. This caused many fear in Americans because they didn’t want to be accused of anything so they ended up doing whatever people said so they wouldn’t be accused. This says“The cause of anti-communism, which united millions of Americans and which gained the support of Democrats, Republicans and independents, was undermined by Sen. Joe McCarthy ... McCarthy addressed a real problem: disloyal elements within the U.S. government.” (“Joseph McCarthy”, 2020). The fear of people trying to spread Communism in America was a big threat to America. That was why McCarthyism became a big thing because America was strongly against Communism and was trying to get rid of it all over the world. McCarthyism was a huge threat and many people lost their lives because of people think other people were spreading Communism even though they weren’t.

Fear and betrayal brought good out of people and changed the world in a better way. Arthur miller states “Now look at you. All of you. We danced. And Tituba conjured Ruth Putnam’s dead sisters. And that is all. And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you (Page 32 line 160, Arthur Miller). Abigail accuses other people to protect herself, like in the quote she blames Tituba so she doesn´t get in trouble. It changed the way people act, instead of taking the blame for themselves they blame it on someone else so they don't get in trouble. In Farewell to manzanar “The more of us who go into the army, the sooner the war will be over, the sooner you and Mama will be out of here (J.W. Houston and J. Houston). Woody is saying that the sooner people say yes to sooner the war will be over and they won't have to deal with any of this. He would betray his family and go into the war so they could all be together after it is all done. The way people used fear had a positive and negative outcome on the events and people during their time

Fear and betrayal may have had some good outcomes but they were not as impactful as the negative outcomes. George Takei says “My father gave my brother and me small luggages to carry, and we walked out and stood on the driveway waiting for our mother to come out, and when my mother finally came out, she had our baby sister in one arm, a huge duffel bag in the other, and tears were streaming down both her cheeks. I will never be able to forget that scene. It is burned into my memory.”(Paragraph 4, George Takei). The United States made Japanese Americans move out of their homes which impacted so many who have lived there for their whole life.

They were all scared of what was happening to them and most of them didn’t even know if they would ever return. Arthur Miller says“I have confessed myself! Is there no good sentence but it is public? God does not need my name nailed upon the church! God sees my name; God knows how black my sins are! It is enough” (Page 133 line 274, Arthur Miller). Abigail and the girls hurt Proctor and the people he loved which made him say that he was guilty even though he wasn’t. He doesn’t want his name everywhere saying he's guilty or not guilty and he doesn’t want to deal with the situation at all. Fear and betrayal can impact people more than others know, like it has in all of the storys.

The way people responded to Farewell to Manazanr, The McCarthyism trials, and The Crucible was fear and betrayal. Farewell to Manzanar showed what it was like from a family's perspective of how Japanese Americans were treated after Pearl Harbor. TheInterview with George Takei showed how Japanese Americans were treated from a young boys point of view. The Crucible was people accusing people of witchcraft so they wouldn’t get in any trouble. McCarthyism was Americans accusing people of spreading Communism in the United States. Fear and betrayal can cause people to do things they didn’t mean to do and end up hurting people in many ways.