Qtr 1: Essay - Break with Charity

Alluding to The Crucible, author Ann Rinaldi titles her young adult novel A Break with Charity as she further tells...relates...the intense time of the Salem witch trials.  Main character Susanna English knows the truth, keeps the truth, hides the truth, all in an attempt to save her family from the very accusations that fly in the face of the innocent.  Such occurrences span the centuries since, proving that mankind fails to learn from and accept the lessons history speaks to its seemingly death audiences of the repercussions of breaking with charity.

Arthur Miller's  drama's characters Rebecca Nurse and John Proctor best illustrate the "break with charity."

Centuries later, Arthur Miller himself (along with others) would face such accusations as Rebecca and John when the House Committee on Un-American Activites (HUAC) accused him of having Communist affiliations.

Today, such breaks with charity occur as Americans gather around such groups Muslims, immigrants, women's rights...

Ann Rinaldi's final assessment, through the voice of Susanna's husband, concludes, "...we've seen how easily neighbor can mistrust neighbor, and how a crowd can eagerly attend the hanging of one they've known all their lives.  And how doubts can gnaw away at all solid thought, like a mouse on cheese."