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The Children's Hour and McCarthy Hearings parallels

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What are the McCarthy hearings?

In reference to the play "The Children's Hour" by Lillian Hellman, what was Hellman's relationship with the McCarthy Hearings? What was the outrage in Hollywood in relation to the hearings?

How does the below quote relate to the hearings and the play?

"To hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable. I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions, even though I long ago came to the conclusion that I was not a political person and could have no comfortable place in any political group."

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Solution Summary

"The Children's Hour" by Lillian Hellman is assessed in conjunction with what the playwright experienced in her own life as a result of the McCarthy hearings. 500 words of APA references and notes are applied.

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What are the McCarthy hearings? What was the outrage in Hollywood in relation to the hearings?

The hearings involved an intrusive, extensive investigation of Hollywood radicals by the House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1947 and 1951 (Hodak, 2010). These events argued that Communists had established a significant base in the dominant medium of mass culture and were placing subversive messages into Hollywood films, an accusation that Hellman was labeled with harboring. They caused mass hysteria, outrage and impacted lives personally and professionally. When the first subpoenas were issued, the backlash caused bad press for Hollywood. As a result, the hearings caused what critics deemed as "ideological exorcism" (Hodak, 2010) as witnesses often were pressured into ratting out colleagues, friends, etc. Many were blacklisted and suffered deep financial, mental, and physical losses.

In reference to the play "The Children's Hour" by Lillian Hellman, what was Hellman's relationship with the McCarthy Hearings?

Hellman had strong personal and professional affiliation with the hearings as her main political adversary, Mary McCarthy, "while being interviewed on television, said that Lillian Hellman ...

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