Characterization of Mrs. Putnam is relevant to events in the 21st century.

Mrs. Putnam automatically accuses problems based upon witchcraft. She never considers any other option as to what could possibly harm the girls or her unborn children. Mrs. Putnam's attitude and characterization shows just how oblivious we as people are. We tend to always believe what we see and only believe what we hear. Often we consider the possible facts to be impossible that of which relates to witchcraft being a factor in this case. Mrs. Putnam resembles most of us today. Her attitude shows the relevance of 9/11 and "The Red Scare" to The Crucible. During both of these hysterias people would base their beliefs solely on what they would see that of which if you matched the description then you were someone not be tolerated during this time. 9/11, on the otherhand, and terrorist attacks became an easy outlet to blame certain situations on. If there was an attack in a mall or in an airport a year or two after 9/11 a terrorist attack was sometimes an option to what occured. We as American's are very oblivious to what the truth actually is, and sometimes we just don't want to hear or see the truth because it may not be for the better. Mrs. Putnam used witchcraft as an outlet because it seemed possible. Afflicted girls were running around acting strange and Mrs. Putnam had lost her children so why not resort to witchcraft as the primary reason to their problems. Could it be that the community was slowly coming to this hysteria? Maybe there were other reasons to why Mrs. Putnam actually lost her children, and instead of looking at herself to blame witchcraft just seemed to ease her more than the truth would.