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The Crucible

This material has been written by Adam Johnston, Hunter River High School

Understanding the Concept
Food for Thought
Personal Reflection
Why keep a Journal?
Building an understanding of Context - Belonging
Building an understanding of Context – The Crucible
Considering The Crucible - Extracts
Considering The Crucible – Seven Slips of Paper
Considering The Crucible - Interviews
Selecting Additional Texts
Example detailed analysis of a visual text
Possible Assessment Task
The demands of the Higher School Certificate

This Area of Study holds particular relevance to you at this point of your personal experience. As you undertake your final year of high school you will be confronted with notions of belonging that will alter not only as the year progresses but also as you enter the next phase of your life.

Regardless of whether you are studying The Crucible as an Advanced or Standard text the core concept remains the same. Therefore the first action you must undertake is to develop your own understanding of the term belonging.

Understanding the Concept

It is vital that you are able to construct and define your own understanding of the term belonging. Some students may choose to turn to the dictionary, some may choose to research quotes for increased depth of understanding. Regardless of where you turn for inspiration some common themes will emerge.

Belonging relates to the connections we make through life at personal, social, geographical and global levels.
Belonging can provide identity, relationships, acceptance and understanding.
Not belonging can be either an active choice or one that is externally forced upon an individual.
Groups and communities can be challenged or enriched by those who do or do not belong.

To succeed in this Area of Study you must become aware of how:

Belonging is represented in and through texts (e.g. language modes, forms, features and structures)
Context influences the perspectives of belonging presented in each text (personal, cultural, historical and social)
You do or do not develop a sense of belonging to the world of the text and that your opinions about this matter.

Food for Thought

Read the following quotes and take the time to contemplate each message individually.

“If you are alone you belong entirely to yourself. If you are accompanied by even one companion you belong only half to yourself, or even less, in proportion to the thoughtlessness of his conduct; and if you have more than one companion you will fall more deeply into the same plight.” Leonardo Da Vinci.
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” Mother Teresa.
“You cannot belong to anyone else, until you belong to yourself.” Pearl Bailey.
“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well” Voltaire.
“We may have different religions, different languages, different coloured skin, but we all belong to one human race.” Kofi Annan

These quotes were located at <http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/belong/ >

Perhaps one of these matches your understanding of belonging? Perhaps they have challenged or enhanced your perceptions of the notion? Look for alternative quotes from a range of sources and pick the three that in your opinion best espouse the notion of belonging.

Personal Reflection

In your study journal record your answers to the following questions.

How important is it to have a sense of belonging?
What does belonging to a group mean for you personally?
Can it only ever be – “You’re with us or you’re against us”?
Do belonging and exclusion exist symbiotically?
What is the reward or cost of belonging?

Having completed these questions it is time to consider broader reasons for belonging and not belonging to any given group. Consider how the following factors can impact on one’s sense of belonging or not belonging.

FACTOR	IMPACT
Choice Circumstance Coercion Context Culture Desire for acceptance Duty Family Jealousy Love Motivation Nationalism Peer group Possession Racism Religion Xenophobia

Write a definitive statement regarding belonging that you can use as a thesis to frame your responses throughout the Area of Study.

Why keep a Journal?

Some students are studying subjects for the HSC that require the maintenance of a learning journal. If you are studying one of them that means you should appreciate how important they are for refining your understanding and recording your progress so that you may make informed judgements as your study progresses. It is for this reason that I strongly suggest you keep a learning journal.

If you treat your journal with respect and make the necessary effort you will find that not only will it act as a record of your learning but also as a tool that will enhance your personal reflection regarding the texts studied as part of the Area of Study. You should utilise your journal to trial run potential supporting texts. For each potential text you encounter take the time to fill in the following.

TEXT TITLE:	COMPOSER:	SOURCE:	DATE:
Context:
Target Audience:
Composer’s intended purpose:
Text synopsis:
Representations of ‘Belonging’:
Technique 1:
Technique 2:
Technique 3:
Links to The Crucible:
Links to additional texts of own choosing:

Used correctly this table acts as a scaffold for study notes and essay planning as it directs you to produce a clear analysis of each text.

Building an understanding of Context – Belonging

Visit www.belonging.org supported by the Centenary of Federation. This is an online exhibition that seeks to represent the range of experiences that people have had of belonging in the last century. The website divides the exhibition into People and Place allowing for effective dissemination of the site content.

There is access to audio files, quotes and photos under the following categories:

PEOPLE – Arrivals, Not Welcome, Making Communities, Dressed to Belong, At Work.
PLACE – Building the Nation, Place in the World, Home, Knowing the Country, Special Places, We Belong to the Land.

Explore the website to familiarise yourself with the content and identify areas of personal interest.

Using your learning journal record your personal responses under the categories mentioned above.

Outline which exhibition component you related to the most and reflect on why.
Outline which exhibition component most shocked or surprised you and reflect on why.
Define an additional component that you would include in the exhibition.
Select three images from the online exhibition and complete entries for each using the following headings:
1. Subject: Who or what is the subject of the image?
2. Location: What is the location of the image?
3. Date/period: When was the photo taken? What period does the image belong to?
4. Description: Is it a photograph, poster, coloured, black and white?
5. Composition: What is happening in the image? What are the people wearing? What are they doing?
6. Message: What message do you get from this image?

Remember that the website itself or any of the entries within the exhibition could be considered for use as additional texts.

Once you have completed these tasks it is valuable to discover what is deemed necessary to know so that an individual may belong as an Australian citizen. What does it mean to be Australian? Go to http://www.citizenship.gov.au/test/resource-booklet/citz-booklet-full-ver.pdf and analyse the Citizenship booklet and the Online Citizenship Test using the questions below.

Consider the purpose and intended audience for this document.
How does the composer utilise layout and language techniques to target the responder?
What sentiments are reflected as being uniquely Australian?
How do the views represented here relate to your own views?
Why have these images been selected for this section?
What meaning could be garnered from the images alone?
Outline your opinion of how well this document is tailored to a particular audience and its effectiveness in attracting people to belong as Australians.

Building an understanding of Context – The Crucible

As a means of quickly developing an understanding of the context that surrounds your core text The Crucible visit the following websites:

National Geographic: Witchcraft Hysteria: Salem
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/salem/

This web quest will provide you with a simulated personal experience of the Salem witch hunts.

Once you have completed the web quest record in your journal how it felt to belong/not belong to particular groups of individuals.
The Crucible Project
http://www.curriculumunits.com/crucible/stage/boveyphotos.htm

This site provides you with images taken from a stage performance of The Crucible. Notice how the images correlate to a key quote from the text?

In your journal record how three quotes combined with their accompanying images portray elements of belonging.
Research Triangle: Miller
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/4191/MILLER/millers.html

This site discusses why Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible. It is important to understand the impact of McCarthyism in the construction of the play and the resulting impact on the composition of the text.

In your journal record how belonging or not belonging had both positive and negative implications both within the text and at the time of Miller’s composition.

Considering The Crucible – Extracts

To accompany what you learn in class you need to be recording your personal responses to the text in your journal. By doing this you will identify not only your opinion and thesis but also techniques and quotes that resonate with you and your understanding of belonging.

Below are five extracts from the text, each of which presents a particular interpretation of belonging. For each extract record your initial response in your journal. Consider composer intentions, positioning of audience and relevant techniques.

Extract 1

“The Salem tragedy, which is about to begin in these pages, developed from a paradox. It is a paradox in whose grip we still live, and there is no prospect that we will discover its resolution. Simply, it was this: for good purposes, even high purposes, the people of Salem developed a theocracy, a combine of state and religious power whose function was to keep the community together, and to prevent any kind of disunity that might open it to destruction by material or ideological enemies. It was forged for a necessary purpose and accomplished that purpose. But all organisation must be grounded on the idea of exclusion and prohibition, just as two objects cannot occupy the same space.” (Arthur Miller The Crucible, p. 16)

Extract 2

Parris:	(conversation with John Proctor) There is a party in this church. I am not blind; there is a faction and a party.
Proctor:	Against you?
Putnam:	Against him and all authority!
Proctor:	Why, then I must find it and join it. (p. 35 Act 1)

Extract 3

Elizabeth:

(to Proctor) … There is a promise made in every bed – (p. 60 Act 2)

Extract 4

Proctor:

(to those who come to arrest Elizabeth and Hale) … now the crazy children are jangling the keys of the kingdom, and common vengeance writes the law! (p. 72 Act 2)

Extract 5

Danforth:

(to Francis when he has 91 people on a list defending Rebecca’s good name arrested) … But you must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between. (p. 85 Act 3)

Considering The Crucible – Seven Slips of Paper

This is a simple activity that you can use when finalising your study notes for the Area of Study or writing an extended response. It is a really simple and effective idea for rationalising your thinking and organizing your points into a logical order.

Directions:

Take seven thin slips of paper.
With a topic question (for instance, ‘Sometimes it is better not to belong’) in mind write one quote/technique/context point/composer intention per slip.
Sort the slips into a logical and sequential order.
Using the seven slips as a scaffold write an extended response based on the topic.

If you have filled in the analysis tool that we discussed in the ‘Why keep a Journal?’ section you will notice that each time you utilise that tool you are creating easily accessible slips of information that you can use for this exercise.

Considering The Crucible – Interviews

This is a creative exercise that will require you to adopt the persona of various characters from the text. If you are feeling particularly adventurous it would be highly recommended to also adopt the persona of the composer.

Because belonging or not belonging is a driving force within in The Crucible we are able to explore the concept through a variety of viewpoints.

Assume the persona of the following individuals and write separate responses for each of the following questions.

CHARACTER BASED QUESTIONS – Complete for Abigail, Proctor, Elizabeth, Parris and Danforth.

What is your experience of belonging?
What are the benefits of belonging?
What do you feel are the costs associated with belonging/not belonging?
Which event in the text best demonstrates the benefit or problem with belonging?

Remember to try and use quotes from the text when forming your responses. Stay true to each character while also expressing your opinion.

COMPOSER BASED QUESTIONS – Complete on behalf of Arthur Miller

What did you hope to highlight about the notion of belonging?
Justify why you chose to demonstrate how a society can provide security for some but alienate others.
Evaluate which scene best represented your personal opinion regarding belonging.

Remember to discuss the deliberate selection and use of techniques as well as the desire to communicate the composer’s intentions to the audience.

Selecting Additional Texts

When selecting additional texts for the Area of Study you MUST keep two things in mind:

Additional texts should be varied
Additional texts should further your understanding of the topic.

You need to find texts that are presented in different formats (film, prose, media, internet, image, lyrics) and represent belonging in a sophisticated manner that you can discuss in your responses.

By utilising the analysis tool that we discussed in the ‘Why keep a Journal?’ section you will be able to effectively determine which texts will be best suited to your argument.

QUICK TIPS

If you choose a song as an additional text remember that as well as the lyrics you can also analyse the music and film clip to strengthen your response.
Don’t retell the plot of a film or novel! Select specific segments and discuss how these extracts communicate the intentions of the composer.
If you choose a visual text your analysis must discuss techniques such as elements of visual grammar.
It is all about identifying which techniques are employed by the composer to communicate an intended message and how the audience in turn interprets them.

Use the following table to brainstorm some potential texts. Here are a few to start you off.

Prose	Film	Poetry/Music	Media/Internet	Image
Wide Sargasso Sea	Life as a House	Father and Son	Cronulla Riots news article	Frank Hurley's photography
The Wave	Schindler’s List	Heaven	Olympic profiles	Propaganda Posters
			www.belonging.org

Example of a detailed analysis of a visual text

Examine the image located at <http://www.anat.org.au/inml04/Kye/images/status.jpg > and read the following.

Text: Nothing – Institutionalisation, Social Status 2004
Composer: Kye McGuire
Source: http://www.anat.org.au/inml04/Kye/images/status.jpg

This artwork deals with the notion of modern society. This text suggests that to belong one must be always looking forward, onward and upward. This promotes contemplation regarding the cost of not belonging.

Mood: Offer of information - there are no direct gazes from the subjects.

Subjective: Image positions the responder to have sympathy for the homeless person despite desire to belong to the group above the line.

P.O.V.: The power is occupied by the composer/viewer as indicated by the oblique angle. This positions the reader to adopt a detached and contemplative point of view.

Social Distance: The use of a long shot equates to a far social distance which removes the viewer from the immediacy of the situation.

Colour: The use of red as an accent colour against the black and white tones serves to clearly divide the haves and the have-nots while also framing the focal point of the image. Red highlights the urgency of the figure’s plight and in turn promotes our expectations of a better society.

Lighting: The focal point of the body on the bench is better lit than the remainder of the image highlighting the plight of those who don’t belong. Clearly possessing a different light source this indicates that this part of the image has been pasted from another source.

Modality: The superimposed text, red strip of colour and pasted focal point indicate clear low modality.

Salience: The homeless figure juxtaposed with the word ‘Wealthy’ is the most salient component.

Vectors: The red line, bench, text and traffic all create a distinct slope. The bulk of components appear to be heading up (positive) while the direction of the homeless person’s head suggests a continuing negative outcome.

Compositional Axes:
The skewed vertical axis separates society as we see it from the hidden truth. The skewed horizontal axis separates wealth and success from failure and demise.

Belonging: Who would you rather be? What benefits do you reap from belonging to the mass above the red line?

Link to The Crucible: Desirability of belonging to the mass as it can be very lonely otherwise.

Possible Assessment Task - Standard and Advanced Area of Study ‘Belonging’

Weighting:

Modes being assessed: Speaking

Due Date: Term Week

Advanced Outcomes addressed by the task:	Standard Outcomes addressed by the task:
1. A student explains and evaluates the effects of different contexts of responders and composers on texts	1. A student demonstrates understanding of how relationships between composer, responder, text and context shape meaning
2. A student explains relationships among texts	2. A student demonstrates understanding of the relationship among texts
4. A student explains and analyses the ways in which language forms and features, and structures of texts shape meaning and influence responses	4. A student describes and analyses the ways that language forms and features, and structures of texts shape meaning and influence responses
6. A student engages with the details of text in order to respond critically and personally	6. A student engages with the details of text in order to respond critically and personally
9. A student evaluates the effectiveness of a range of processes and technologies for various learning purposes, including the investigation and organisation of information and ideas	9. A student assesses the appropriateness of a range or processes and technologies in the investigation and organisation of information and ideas
13. A student reflects on own processes of learning	13. A student reflects upon own processes of learning

Marking Criteria:
You will be assessed on your ability to:

demonstrate an understanding of the concept of ‘Belonging’ and how this is reflected in a wide variety of texts
reflect upon the specifics of the selected texts to demonstrate an understanding of the techniques used and the connections between texts

Task outline:
Through the miracle of science, you have been ripped from your own text The Crucible and have now been transplanted into modern times. You have been asked to speak to a group of HSC students about your understanding of Belonging as it relates to you in your text. A keen learner, you have also mastered the mystic tools of the Internet and PowerPoint since your arrival in the present and have gained an understanding of other interpretations of Belonging in a range of texts.

In order to connect with the youth of today, you must not only be yourself but also be accompanied by a visual presentation of your findings. You have but three to five minutes in which to depict the varying representations of Belonging in at least three texts including your own. If you succeed, you will be returned home. However, if you fail, that is a fate too dark to contemplate.

In this task you are to:

Adopt and sustain a character from The Crucible.
Deliver a speech of three to five minutes. (Maximum word count – 800)
Produce a visual presentation to support your speech.
Deal with the representation of Belonging in The Crucible and at least TWO other texts.
Your related material should reflect your wide reading and must feature different types of texts
You MUST provide the original copy of your speech and a copy of your presentation to your teacher prior to the delivery of your presentation.

Assessment Criteria – Speech and Presentation

Name__________________________ Class________________ Mark_________

A	21-25	demonstrates a sophisticated and perceptive understanding of the concept of ‘Belonging’ demonstrates extensive wide reading and perception in the selection of texts analyses the selected texts with authority and clarity demonstrates an insightful understanding of the connections between texts expertly adopts and maintains a persona from The Crucible composes a sophisticated visual presentation to accompany the speech
B	16-20	demonstrates an effective understanding and confident discussion of the concept of ‘Belonging’ demonstrates effective wide reading and some degree of perception in the selection of texts analyses the selected texts with confidence demonstrates a confident and well developed understanding of the connections between texts adopts and maintains a convincing persona from The Crucible composes an effective visual presentation to accompany the speech
C	11-15	demonstrates a sound understanding of the concept of ‘Belonging’ demonstrates wide reading in the selection of texts analyses most selected texts with some technical understanding demonstrates a satisfactory understanding of the connections between texts adopts and mostly maintains a persona from The Crucible composes a sound visual presentation to accompany the speech
D	6-10	demonstrates a generalised understanding of the concept of ‘Belonging’ demonstrates an attempt at wide reading, selecting texts of limited scope analyses some selected texts with a little understanding of the techniques used demonstrates some generalized understanding of the connections between texts attempts to adopt and maintain a persona from The Crucible composes a visual presentation to accompany the speech
E	1-5	demonstrates an elementary understanding of the concept of ‘Belonging’ demonstrates little ability to select appropriate texts demonstrates few skills in the analysis of the selected texts makes few useful connections between the texts does not adopt or maintain a persona from The Crucible attempts to compose a visual representation to accompany the speech

Comment:

____________________________________________________________________________________

The demands of the Higher School Certificate

You must familiarise yourself with past papers to understand what is to be expected of you. While 2009 will be the first HSC paper with questions addressing an Area of Study with a belonging focus past papers are still a valuable resource.

Visit http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ and analyse past papers to get a feel for the type of questions that have been asked in the past. Even more valuable is the Marker’s Comments feedback that specifically outlines where students excelled but also where they let themselves down. This information is invaluable as it will provide you with a ‘form guide’ to match against your efforts throughout the year.

FORM GUIDE

To create the ‘form guide’, visit http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ and look at the Marker’s Comments for Past HSC Paper 1 responses. Collate the information into one of the following columns. Look at the comments over a number of years to identify trends and broaden your understanding of their expectations.

THE FORM GUIDE
Good responses use/include…	Average/Poor responses…

You can add feedback from your assessment tasks to the ‘form guide’ to keep you up to date and focussed on what you need to achieve.

FINAL TIPS

Analyse rubrics to clearly identify what is required and where you can seek improvement.
Each time you are presented with a response task use the ‘form guide’ to check that you are maximising the potential for high marks.
Write for extended periods of time – 40 minute blocks for a single response, two hour blocks for past papers. As strange as it sounds you are in training for both your mind and body so that it can handle the demands of exam conditions.