Like I'm pretty sure the conclusion I had was "oh haha I see your point mr. Vonnegut, too much equality can indeed be a bad thing!"
And I definitely don't remember my teacher suggesting anything about it being viewable as satire of red scare paranoia either
where in the hell did you go to high school where they were obsessed with existentialism?
the furthest my high school ever got into philosophy was "The enlightenment happened and there was some science stuff. Also America is the greatest nation ever to exist ever."
deleted by creator
this is one of the more surreal things I've ever heard and I can't express how envious I am
I also took AP English but we read stuff like George W. Bush speeches, evangelical propaganda, and all the puritan lit (Nathaniel Hawthorne, the Crucible, etc) but it was always framed in a way where Puritans were rational and good and cool
The Crucible was written in 1953 as a criticism of McCarthyism. It is definitely not about Puritans being cool and good. My source is covering it in AP English. I played Ann Putnam. It sounds like you had a really shitty class.
I've heard from several people that US schools teach The Crucible with all references to McCarthyism removed, so that it's ONLY about the Salem trials.
Reading it without context, you may not really know that it's allegorical.
What I meant was, as the wiki article mentions, that some versions of the play remove the narrator at the beginning of acts 1 and 2 that explicitly compare the witch trials to fears of Communism.
I forgot that was even in there. It's been a decade since reading it. I mostly remember doing a wicked witch of the west voice for my character
deleted by creator
Yeah, it's using an analogy to criticize red scare paranoia by comparing it to witchcraft hysteria. Although our teacher told us it was an example of how efficient Puritan courts were and also how close and strong their community bonds were
What the fuck
The teacher explained it as an exploration into Puritan community standards and their legal system. She would praise how close knit the community was and would make a point every time a character knew intimate details about another, essentially saying Puritans had a superior social structure, since they were all familiar with one another. She also would praise how the court system called so many witnesses. Half of the people in my hometown become klansmen by the way
Wow, that's some serious point missing.
deleted by creator
Religious fundamentalists are everywhere in my hometown. One time as a kid my yugioh cards were confiscated and they tried to pressure me into admitting they were tarot cards, since they wanted a record of me practicing Satanism. We were also never quite taught evolution either. The teachers danced around the subject completely.
deleted by creator
My sophomore year history teacher told us there were good and bad people on both sides of the American slavery debate if that gives you a clearer idea
My lit class taught it, and I went to a public school in [dox]. I figured it was kinda standard.
Yeah, I'm more and more realizing how fanatically weird and brainwash-y my hometown is.