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Conformity In The Crucible

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In Arthur Millers play, The Crucible, many themes are displayed through his writing. One of the main themes in his piece is the idea of conformity. There are so many situations that people conform in, some of which include; trying to fit in, not knowing what is the right thing to do, and often time people conform due to fear. Fear is something that can cause you to make both good and bad decisions. In The Crucible, fear is one of the main reasons for conformity, there are many reasons for why this happens and all of those are explained in the play. While depending on the situation while conform, or choose not to conform, based on the conditions they are in.

In some situations we will often accuse others of actions they did not do in order …show more content…
When people refuse to conform they may often times face punishment. One of the questions asked when this happens is, “What kind of punishment face those who refuse to conform?” As we have previously read in a poem we read in relation to The Crucible, “The rope was an improvisation with time they’d have thought of axes.” (Atwood). Being hanged by a rope was punishment for Mary, but as we read in the quote, they said it could have been worse than that, an axe. Not all times will your consequences be fatal, but in extreme cases that might be what happens. In other situations refusing to conform might not even be that big of a deal, this will depend on the individual condition and the severity of your refusal to conform.

Conformity has always been apart of our human nature; sometimes it is for the good, and other times for the bad. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson she states, “There’s always been a lottery.” This shows that they are stuck in their old ways and even though they don’t necessarily need to have a lottery, they continue to have one because it has always been like that. They may even feel the need to keep having one each year because they have never not had one, or done anything another way. The Lottery has simply become apart of their culture and human nature; it is just what they

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