While watching the movie, I realized that it had a correlation with the topic that we’ve been talking about in English class. It could somehow be related to the Crucible by Arthur Miller and how prejudices and fear can be the ignition to a more consequential result.
The scene where Gaspar from the Beauty & the Beast aroused the villagers by saying that the Beast was a monster who would attack their children, aroused a fear in the hearts of the villagers. Even if Belle tried to defend the Beast, being a personal witness and a person who established a relationship with the Beast firsthand, was looked over because of the fear instilled in the minds of the people. The same concept applied to Arthur Miller’s Crucible. Abigail, the leading antagonist(which can be argued), is one of the accusers who led the whole village into disarray. Having the wits to know what she could do with the power of fear, she channeled that power to achieve something that she wanted. Just how Gaspar used the same tactic to try and get revenge.
Fear may be the strongest weapon that any person can have. There was once a man who instilled fear into his fellow countrymen, creating this prejudicial view against a certain group of people. As a result, thousands, or maybe millions of these people were exterminated. That person was Adolf Hitler.
In our own society today we are open to such attacks and we need to open our eyes and broaden our gaze. It is not well for an assumption to be made fact, especially when it’s derived from a mere whim and no proof.
“The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices to be found only in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own for the children, and the children yet unborn.”
-Rod Serling(The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street)
