‘ The Crucible’ written by Arthur Miller and my related material ‘ Happy Feet’ by George Miller is true to this statement “ Understanding nourishes belonging…a lack of understanding prevents it” that represents the interpretation of belonging. To define belong is to have the correct personal and social assets to be a member of a particular group or it could be to fit a particular environment. By a sense of place, people you meet, and context and environment can affect belonging. The place that affects belonging in ‘ The Crucible’ is set in Salem Massachusetts, USA, in 1692.
What arises in this specific setting is only a theocracy based on a very literal Christianity. By changing the setting of ‘ The Crucible’ it wouldn’t have the same meaning, for that reason the events that occurred in Salem in 1692. The Crucible Characters John Proctor, Abigail Williams and Mary warren will provide support to my claims. Belonging can be influenced by the character’s own circumstances. For instance Abigail Williams is in a situation where she longed to belong to the adult world – especially in John Proctor’s arms once more.
This is due to the fact that she is in the pre-teen stage and how throughout the play adults kept strengthen the border line between a child and adult. Furthermore realise how in the beginning Abigail is very intimidating and headstrong character due to the fact that she led a group of girls and threatens all who oppose and those who stood in her way. This comes to show that she wants to prove that she is a grownup – one with power in town much like some adults in this play like, Reverend Parris, The Judge and John Proctor. John Proctor, A man who has not put a high priority on ‘ belonging’ in his life.
Proctor doesn’t belong in his own family due to his affair with Elizabeth’s assistant, Abigail Williams which had a negative influence on his relationship with his wife, Elizabeth Proctor. Proctor (Page 55 Act 2) “ Spare me! Your forget nothin’ and forgive nothin’”. Mary Warren, Like Abigail Williams, she does not have status or rights in adult society in Salem. To belong she has to conform and obey the rules. Warren belonged to a sub-culture but was known as an ‘ outer member’. She finally triumphed belonging by belonging with the court and Abigail’s group.
Mary chooses to belong to the court and Abigail’s group to accuse John Proctor of being evil. Mary’s statement (Page 104 Act 3) “ I’ll not hang with you! I love God, I love God” this captures Mary’s decision to belong with Abigail rather than with John Proctor. Arthur Miller’s play is reflected upon the events of the Salem Witch hunt and the McCarthyism and acknowledged the similarities between the two experiences. In the society of each event was operating on the basis of fear, overdo of threats by denying individuals their normal rights. By naming the suspects people are rewarded and those accused can only avoid judgment is to confess.
In these circumstances it’s impossible to be honest and fear would overcome the society. As mentioned earlier in the Crucible’s setting, Happy Feet was able to convey the idea of belonging being swayed throughout the film by context. The setting of [Happy Feet] the movie was inspired by the current global warming Antarctica landscape state which was famous for its large population of emperor penguins. Throughout the introduction of the film, the film had constantly reminded their audience that togetherness is everything for the emperor penguin’s survival of the harsh icy land.
Thus audience reflect on their binding bonds to personal level. For instance, Happy Feet had depicted a colony of penguins which strong faith in the “ Great Gwen who put songs in our hearts, and fish in their bellies’ during the tradition of the fathers huddling together to survive the icy blast of the endless Antarctica night. In the film as well as real life, father penguins endure the harsh winters without food for a long periods of time, this quote mentioned how the Great Gwen’s ideology gave the fathers gift of singing as a substitute as food.
In contrast to all the penguins who willingly obeyed every line in the book, Mumble in this settling who had apparently “ upset the Great Gwen”. This was done by the fact that mumble possessed a trait that the Great Gwen did not successfully ‘ imbued’ into Mumble during time of birth, instead Mumble danced. As such, the film also stated that the colony was suffering from food shortage which the blame fell to Mumble for ‘ defying the Great Gwen’. The use of the Great Gwen as a motif of a god-like figure and a symbol of religion itself, the way the film used the idea in a repetitive manner reinforced that this was the everything to them.
Also the Elder Emperor Penguin stated ‘ together we shall prevail’ with the use of archaic language such as shall to create an air of all-knowing character. With huge number of penguins supporting the Great Gwen, Mumble alone and his ‘ amigos’ cannot stand a chance belonging into the group. Thus the setting in Happy Feet portrayed a strong message of majority versus minority. “ Understanding nourishes belonging…a lack of understanding prevents it” is true to my prescribed text and related material in numerous ways. The theme inclusion and exclusion would be discussed to prove my point.
One of the most important elements that have lead injustice and destructiveness to the situation of the Salem in that the young people are being excluded from society. This has encouraged young people to be rebellious. By giving suspects to Hale and Danforth, the teenagers was rewarded respect, this was seem when Mary Warren tells John Proctor that she would not keep being punished by him anymore. Being excluded is a common factor than inclusion in Salem. If anyone is different and non-conformist they will be exclude from the community. Truth and lies is another theme chosen to discuss the idea in the crucible.
Originally Abigail tells reverend Parris the truth but not all of it. As audiences we learn what seemed to be the truth in a conversation with Mercy Lewis and Mary Warren when dancing in the woods conjuring spirits of Ruth Putnam’s dead siblings. Abigail had confessed her crimes of dancing and had put Tituba in for conjuring spirits. Then she cleverly creates a situation where the girls are innocent victims of the devil and his agents Sarah Good, Goody Osburn and other accused victims. An interesting aspect of truth is the only way an accused can avoid hanging is to confess.
At the end of the play, no one believes in the truth of the confessions but Danforth had allowed Elizabeth and John to be together in hopes that Proctor will sign one confession which is highly hypocritical of Danforth because he wouldn’t accept a false confession. Dramatic irony is the language technique the will be used to provide examples. Dramatic irony works when the audience knows more than the characters in the play. Only the girls and the audience knows what had happen in the woods, and only Proctor and Abigail know that she still expect them to be together.
Elizabeth and Proctor are the only ones that know about the affair with Abigail. Furthermore, with the use of modern technology aided the film maker George Miller in allowing his audience to be able to relate to these characters in general on a personal level. With the aid of modern Computer graphics system, the composer was able to bring the story to a life like level. For instance the quote “ I wouldn’t do that around folks, son. It just ain’t penguin. ” is a simple quote by Mumble’s father which portrayed a simple idea of belonging is influenced by Happy Feet setting.
Also it is essential to comprehend the criteria of belonging within a society and the film does this through the use of contrasting values of each character. The significance that controlled Happy Feet was the music in general. It was apparent that in order to be one of the colonies was: one to be looking like a full-fledged penguin, two supports willingly to the Great Gwen and lastly able to sing from the heart and soul. This idea is supported by this quote “ Raise your voices, brothers! Cry out in defiance of this jiggity-joggity!
Yes, yes, call upon the wisdoms! Let the world tremble! For when all others leave … WE REMAIN! ” the tone of this quote has a negative effect because the way they emphasise ‘ let the world tremble! ’ In contrast to the previous point, Happy Feet also portrayed a negative sense of belonging due to the main character’s lack of understanding of his own world through contrasting values. Naturally during the young stage of anyone’s life, one would have not developed a strong sense of understanding one’s world and the rules that comes with it.
In Happy Feet, the composer chose to show the series of events in Mumble’s life as he highlighted the reason for his ‘ uniqueness’. During the early stages of Mumble’s life for example, Mumble quirkily and innocently said “ its freezing, fre-fre-freezing” with shaky tappity feet. This quote is significant in reinforcing this point due to the fact that Mumble clearly was not aware of the new world that his young life has been exposed to. With that being said, values in the Happy Feet world were the music and the heart song.
This brought two purposes: one, find a mate and second to support Great Gwen in maintaining food balance for their colony. Subtly, the film portrayed science against religion. This was shown during Mumble’s exile scene where he constantly stating ‘ aliens’ who he referring to humans which the seagulls had told him about, whereas the majority said otherwise. It is logical that of one was not being entirely the same level in all proved difficulties in establishing tight bonds with other, either neutral relation or friction will occur as seen during Mumble’s exile in search to prove his theory of ‘ aliens’ causing the shortage of fish.
Therefore understanding criteria of any given society enables the individual to see the limitations of society or even enable the individual to have a ‘ yes or no’ choice in terms of belonging. In conclusion I have argued that I believe that understanding nourishes belonging and a lack of understanding prevents it. The themes and symbols in both my prescribed text ‘ The Crucible’ and my related material ‘ Happy Feet’ indicates that belonging can be affected by a sense of place, people you meet and context and environment.
