Annamária Pongor

In Focus: Anti-semitism: Anti-semitism Presented in Arthur Miller's Focus Annamária Pongor

The central theme of this work is anti-Semitism as it was and it still is the cause of suffering for many people; and Arthur Miller who is able to show life and soul, death and faults, right and wrong. Anti-Semitism is an immensely damaging form of ethnic and religious intolerance. In the United Sates anti-Semitism was not present with the same intensity as in Europe in Miller¿s time, but it still had serious consequences in the past and it continues to influence present times too. The novel presents the moral crises caused by the recognition of the falseness of anti-Semitism. An unusual point of view is shown by the writer, when the main character is faced with violent anti- Semitism though he is not Jewish. This way, the change of Newman¿s identity gets in the focus of the novel. His place in society changes completely. Using Newman as a protagonist, Miller manages to show that in crucial questions like racism and anti- Semitism no one can be impartial.