A Cultural Bias

The Crucible depicts just how ignorant and superstitious people could be in the old days.  The days where simple cultural practices can be misconstrued and taken as devil worshipping.  The witch hunt in The Crucible was all just a big misunderstanding, where scared people wanted nothing more than to blame someone else for their feelings of fear at the sight of odd behavior in the woods, and being part of the accused.  As far as a modern day “witch hunt”, the only thing I could think of was actually more of a man hunt.  A movie was directed called Hotel Rwanda, which is a true story, which included people of a specific faith being slain for no real reason other than the fact of their beliefs.  The difference between The Crucible and Hotel Rwanda was that in The Crucible everyone got a trial, including Tituba who stood the most accused.  Hotel Rwanda consisted of people being killed on sight before any words could be shared.  The Hutu (belligerent rebel faction) hunted the Tutsi people as they felt threatened by these people’s way of life.  I feel like both these stories revolve around the simple truth that people fear, or are intimidated by things they don’t understand.  I also believe that each of these stories had a character that defied the system (The Crucible) or the thought of natural selection (Hotel Rwanda).  John Proctor would not sign his name to the confession list, which would give some false truth to the trials.  Paul Rusesabagina (Hotel Rwanda) refused to hand over the Tutsi people that sought refuge in the hotel he was managing.  Both men showed signs of courage and an unwillingness to give in to the fear and pressure to hop on the bandwagon and do as they were told, not what they felt, was right.