Bonjour, je prépare mon oral blanc d'anglais et j'aimerais une correction et un avis de mon texte sur la notion Places and Forms of Power. Merci d'avance !




Today, I’m going to deal with the notion of places and forms of power. Power is the ability to influence the behaviour of others. In order to live together, members of a community accept rules, regulations and laws. This helps to create social cohesion but can also lead to conflicts and tensions. There are always counter-powers to resist governments in power. To illustrate this notion, I will talk about the witches of Salem and the McCarthyism. So I would like to try to answer the question: In what ways do the government have power to influence public opinion? I will focus my presentation on two points: the witch hunt and the second Red Scare.

To begin with the witches of Salem, which have marked the American history. In Salem, in the 17th century, more than 150 people were accused of witchcraft. That begin when girls went into constant fits and a doctor was called for. He declared that they had been bewitched. Then a wave of hysteria spread throughout the State. Three women were accused of bewitching the little girls. A recent epidemic and the threat of attacks by Native Americans tribes fuelled the paranoia. The trial of the witch of Salem in Massachusetts, at this time there wasn’t an established government and anyone who was accused of practicing witchcraft were convicted. Finally, 80 people were killed during this witch hunt. Those information has been taken in a video that we have study in class: “The Salem Trials”. This case had a deep impact on the public opinion, paranoia and hysteria reigned.

But three centuries later, after the WWII, the McCarthyism began. It’s the second part of the Red Scare. During that time, Wisconsin Senator, Joseph Mc Cathy produced a series of investigations and hearings in an effort to expose supposed communist infiltration of various areas of US government. In 1950, he had done a speech in which he accused 205 people to be a part of communist. Like the Witches of Salem, the people became paranoid and the government encouraged denunciation, so everybody saw bad communists everywhere.

After that, we have studied in class the trailer of the film "One of the Hollywood ten". The Cold War in full swing, and during the "communist hunt", Biberman learns that he is blacklisted like other Hollywood directors. Thus, his entourage takes away from him. His family preferred believe the government than him. The image of the movie “The Crucible” show us a woman who is accused of being a witch, she will be banished from his own community and burned.

To conclude, I would like to say that the government have a big power of influence on the society. Like we see before, this power can exclude some people, and for some, who are probably innocent.

I get the impression that we can’t really fight this aspect of the power because even if we don’t believe a thing, as long as a person believes in it, she can influence others and that can be more important. And it’s for that, that I think, the most of the time, the government influence badly the public opinion. But, for the example, for the climate or the deforestation, the government warn us and sometimes do some action, it’s the good way of influence the people