Nature of Belonging

How does your core text and related text explore the nature of belonging to community?

In the texts The Crucible and Milk we gain an understanding as to how characters and community’s react under the threat of non conformity through the use of hysteria and religion to justify morale corruption.   In both texts we see how characters use their status in society to isolate others in the pursuit of gaining complete acceptance within the community.   The comparison between the threats of homosexuality and witchcraft on American society highlights how a community’s façade of belonging is often revealed as mere complacency of the individual. Both texts not only explore the faults in community belonging but also how a community will fight progression in order to remain comfortable stable.
As the respective societies of San Francisco and Salem respond to the threat of social change the use of religion becomes a tool of power to ostracise those who don’t belong.   The characters of Anita Bryant and Reverend Parris use their high status and Christianity to preserve the fragile state of their respective communities.   Bryant, a conservative politician attempts to “preserve the American family” from the “evil forces” which are presented by a group of homosexuals seeking civil rights through the election of Harvey Milk as a district supervisor. Through the use of television screen shots and interviews, she is portrayed as typical public sentiment of the time and the general fear of those who were different.   Her fear of community change gives us insight to the insecurities which are constantly felt by those who belong to a community. By utilising the power of religion, she persuades the majority of the American community to shift their own moral values in order to assert her own prejudices.   This inevitable tension within an evolving community is also evident in The Crucible where Reverend Parris feels constantly victimised by the Salem community and uses his divine right of...