answered: Critical Response Paper: “The Crucible” American Literature:

  

Critical Response Paper: “The Crucible”
American Literature: Beginnings to 1865
This assignment requires that you submit a paper on one of the topics below. The paper should include a primary analysis of Miller’s play, The Crucible, supported by secondary materials. These will include the Christopher Bigsby overview of the play, as well as one source that you will select on your own. Please format the paper and citations according to MLA style.
The topics below are meant as guiding ideas. Ultimately, I’m interested in reading a paper that sets out a thesis direction and explores Miller’s play with well supported ideas, grounded both in your interpretation of the play and secondary sources. Take liberty to explore the prompts for a direction, but feel free to refine your thesis as you see fit. The paper should be five pages in length
THE TOPIC- Individual Conscience: John Proctor as tragic hero. Explore the character of John Proctor as a tragic hero and the individual conscience as corrective. Miller, in choosing Proctor as the tragic hero of this tale, settles on a man who is both flawed and self-correcting. Proctor is set apart from the Salem community and his imperfections weigh on his conscience. Miller wrote, “There are moments when an individual conscience was all that could keep the world from falling apart.” What is compelling about the character of Proctor? What is important about his strengths and weaknesses? Determine the importance of his role as tragic hero at the center of this drama. How does Miller, in the figure of Proctor, champion the role of the individual over the magistrate? How is this same role of the individual related to the Hollywood trials?
Penguin Classics Introduction by Christopher Bigsby (available electronically via CCM library). Many of you already have this intro in print if you’re using the Penguin Classics edition; those who do not have the Penguin Classics can still find the Bigsby overview in our Learning Modules folder for this week.
You will also need to select one scholarly article of your preference from the CCM library. You must use the databases in the CCM library to find a good scholarly article (from JSTOR, MLA, Literary Sources). Please don’t use generic web-based sources that fall below academic caliber. Stick to the CCM databases and you’ll be sure to find quality articles. Miller wrote of the Salem Witch Trials, “I had known this story since my college years and I’d never understood why it was so attractive to me. Now it suddenly made sense.” In his construction of “The Crucible,” Miller draws clear parallels between the Salem Witch Trials and the HUAC communist trials in the earliest years of the Cold War. Try to account for some of these parallels in your paper. Your discussion of one of the following topics can include the historical context of how the two stories (Salem and Hollywood) resemble one another.