What if your life was placed in the hands of a corrupt court system where you were given a choice to admit to a crime you did not commit but survive, or maintain your integrity and die? That is the very moral dilemma that the characters of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible faced.  Set in Salem 1692, Miller uses the haunting environment of the unjust Salem witch trials to creatively convey his purpose behind writing the play: to expose Senator Joseph McCarthy’s oppressive tactics during the communist scare of the 1950’s.

CDS students in year five of the MYP Language and Literature program uncovered how history can truly repeat itself as they read the play The Crucible and analyzed its context, seeking connections through the element of theme. They tracked plot events by utilizing Freytag’s Plot Diagram from the exposition to the denouement and noted valuable connections to the underlying message of the play.

After thoroughly studying the play and its significance, the students got to showcase their understanding by applying their newfound knowledge of enjambment and pinpointing instances of irony, while creatively unraveling the twisted plot of The Crucible through self-produced lyrical raps and music videos.

The significance of context will further be explored as they continue to analyze literature and informational texts that expand upon the idea of American justice, either in the present time or historically.

Here is just a snippet of one of the raps from our students.