An obsession exists in the world today based solely upon the use of scapegoats. According to the dictionary, a scapegoat consists of a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place. Some of the most influential scapegoats consist of Jesus Christ taking suffering for the sins of civilization, the Jewish population being punished for the problems in Germany, and more recently the U.S. citizens who perished in 9/11 being punished for the sins of America. Scapegoats have come in many forms over time and have been very destructive. The usage of scapegoats in our society, such as in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, has proved to be damaging, and an end must be found in order to find peace.
Scapegoats appear abundant in the world today. Political parties and businesses consistently seem to find a person or small group that takes the blame for serious issues. This can cause problems and arguments that sometimes lead to something serious like wars. Scapegoats are just a way of passing blame off of oneself and on to others, just so reputations can remain intact. This sort of attitude shows how lethargic the world has become, where people don’t even take responsibility for their actions. Many people from older generations complain about how all the new generations become too comatose and unwilling to take on their own actions and indiscretions. With attitudes like this, peace will never be found and will inevitably lead to conflict. Something must be done to stem the flow of scapegoats which have been utilized far too much over time.
One of the earliest examples of a scapegoat comes in the story of the life of Jesus Christ. Whether one believes in Christ as a savior, the story of his life in...
... middle of paper ...
...g people to take the blame for others; society needs to rid the world of this ancient ritual sacrifice.
Works Cited
Griffin, Amy A. “Jackson’s The Lottery.” Explicato., Fall 1999. 58.1, 44.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 31 June 2011.
Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” Literature and the Writing Process. 9th Ed. McMahan,
Elizabeth, Et al. United States: Pearson Education, Inc., 2011. 137-142. Print.
Kaplan, Thomas Pegelow. “The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda during World War II and the
Holocaust.” Canadian Journal of History. Summer 2007. 42.1, 131-133. Academic
Search Premier. Web. 30 June 2011.
The New King James Version Bible. Ed. London: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
Zvagulis, Peter. “Blaming the Scapegoat.” New Presence: The Prague Journal of Central
European Affair., Autumn 2010. 12.3, 7-15. Academic Search Premier. Web.
30 June 2011.
Although, There is child who is locked up in a closet like room, and everyone knows that the child is there suffering. The reasoning behind the knowledge and unwillingness to help the child, “...They all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city... depend wholly on this child’s abominable misery.” Although this child is suffering the society as a whole depends on it’s misery. Just like with the three children the society maintains peace through a scapegoat. In Mcdonald’s article expresses that a scapegoat is chosen at random and everyone unites against it. McDonald summarizes the idea of mimetic violence and scapegoating,” While mimetic violence divides each against each, scapegoating violence unites all against one. Thus the destruction of the scapegoat produces a genuinely unifying experience… Ultimately this ritualized violence becomes the basis for religion, mythology, kingship, and the establishment of those differences in a role that are so essential to bring about internal peace.” Based on the text that this mimetic or ritualized violence turns into religion, mythology, etc, it suggests that it has happened throughout human history and will continue to do so. Again this mimetic violence eventually leads to
When one turns on the television today they are made witness to all the crimes that are present in society. It is impossible to sit through thirty-five minutes of news without anger and rage becoming aroused. This is because society is bothered by infinitesimal paraphernalia. Society also believes in human rights and punishment for those who violate such rights. Yet what constitutes humanity? Ever sit there and watch the news and wonder just how far humanity reaches? When is it time to say this is a human rights violation? Every wonder when someone’s morals and ethics begin to effect their ability to do their job? Ever wonder why in every news story the “bad guy” always become caught? Ever wonder how many people on death row might not be guilt? Some of them could have even been used as scapegoats. Yet how does one become a scapegoat? Could someone out there have that much hatred and anger to blame one person for the faults of many? Is the need for blame significant? Does desire lead to more hatred and evil? What does it feel like to be blamed for something that might not be wrong, and to be put on trial knowing that the jury wants to blame someone? In society and in the United States since its founding, there has been a need to place blame. Imagine how the person being blamed would feel. Henry Wirz did not have to image it; he lived through it and died for it. Someone is always to be blamed, even if they were just following orders. Orders which can only go so far until humanity takes effect. Henry Wirz was used as a scapegoat for war crimes committed during the Civil War at Andersonville Prison, however that does not justify his acts or make him an American hero.
While both The Lottery and The Hunger Games have shared content ideas. The Lottery is more associated with the idea of ritual while The Hunger Games is more associated with Punishment. These two stories value tradition so much and those who oppose do not challenge it because of social conformity, human hypocrisy and rituals. These three topics are very essential to understand why the presence of false tradition is very much real in both stories The Lottery and The Hunger Games.
Other than the main theme of tradition, Jackson portrays the idea of scapegoating through choosing of one towns member to be stoned for the wellbeing of the town, mainly as a sacrifice for better weather for the next harvest. “A wrong is undressed when retribution overtakes its redresser.” (Poe 226) Poe shows the scapegoating through Montresor from the form of revenge to make amends for his troubled past, and that Fortunato was the scapegoat. World War 2, the mass genocide of Jews under Hitler’s regime is the ultimate description of what scapegoating truly is and that “The Lottery” is a perfect correlation of WW2’s scapegoat with the Jews, but in a smaller, very smaller form. That although the selection and murdering of the town a folk once a year could be for the next harvest, or it could be for the gods for grace of the sins of the town. Why does this type of activity or the quest of the removal of fear, regret, and sin is always used by humans, and is always used by the last resort, maybe not always in killing, but in public shaming? It seems that the people that organize and use this tool have a form of deception lased around the implementation of
When initially reading Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” focusing on aspects of themes and ideas is difficult, as the apparently seamless shift from ordinary socialization to death is highly outrageous. However, after multiple readings, Jackson’s messages become more apparent, with her prominent theme tackling societal norms. Growing up Catholic, attending parochial school until sixth grade, and regularly attending church creates a tendency for me to follow tradition and rituals, without question. Yet, Jackson’s story directly challenges the ethics of this behavior as she criticizes how society functions, blindly maintaining the status quo simply because that is how it has “always been” (246), regardless of its morality or relevance in the modern world. Even
than ourselves, we try to find a scapegoat to get us out of the mess
What if we lived in a world where a small piece of paper was considered the Angel of Death? Where your neighbors would turn on you in an instance because a small black box “prophesized” them to? When true human nature is shown before you are cast into the blackness of death? Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a short story in which villagers gather once a year with a black box to perform a lottery that decides just that. The head male of each family must draw till someone has the black dot that decides which family will draw next. The “winner” in that family is then stoned to death by everyone in the village, including their own family. The story has multiple hidden messages that are hard to distinguish from the text. Each message shows a side of human nature that most people believe they do not have. By using literary analysis, Shirley Jackson’s messages become
One murky, miserable night imagine walking through a foggy midnight dark forest where the leaves of tall trees would clash together as if in anger and the wind gushing across like a lions roar, the hair on the back of my neck rises. You feel death creeping in the shadows, how are you feeling right now? Depressed, scared, and maybe feeling the shivers running through your body because of the suspense? All these descriptive words are conditions of the word or color black. When something is black the first thing you would think about is something dark, gothic or even horror and there is nothing comforting about it, because the color black is most often associated with horror movies or loss of life. Black also can be a condition of rebellion, terror,
Seeking to blame in any situation renders one powerless in the problem solving process. Instead we must focus on asking questions that contain “I.” If there is an “I” in the question, then only I can solve it. Frequently there are road blocks in life that we cannot destroy. The successful person concentrates on what I can accomplish as opposed to what “They” have done to stop me. Successful individuals seek only to make progress in spite of whatever may get in their way. Continuous forward movement, no matter how big or small, is what will get you to the finish
Why is it that we as human beings feel the need to blame someone for every negative situation, which occurs? If we really look at the situation with any great depth, we may discover that an almost endless amount of things may be 'blamed' for the tragedy blaming an individual is pointless - only fate can really be blamed.
“The Lottery,” written by Shirley Jackson in 1948, is a provoking piece of literature about a town that continues a tradition of stoning, despite not know why the ritual started in the first place. As Jackson sets the scene, the villagers seem ordinary; but seeing that winning the lottery is fatal, the villagers are then viewed as murders by the reader. Disagreeing with the results of the lottery, Tessie Hutchinson is exposed to an external conflict between herself and the town. Annually on June 27th, the villagers gather to participate in the lottery. Every head of household, archetypally male, draws for the fate of their family, but Tessie protests as she receives her prize of a stoning after winning the lottery. Jackson uses different symbols – symbolic characters, symbolic acts, and allegories – to develop a central theme: the
In the Article “Lotteries Cheat, Corrupt the People” George Will presents the idea that lotteries are bad for the people, stating that legal gambling boost the productivity of illegal gambling, victimizing poor and minorities populations, and painful way of raising revenue. Will gives many reasons as to why he believes gambling is bad and backs his opinion with many facts on percentages of losers as well as quotes from Thomas Jefferson on the importance of hard work. Although Will presents many different facts I disagree with the general statement that “Lotteries Cheat, Corrupt the People” The reason a Lottery is good for the people starts with the mental aspect, some people can’t live without gambling much like those with a coffee addiction
Sacrifice within the social context can be transgressed into two aspects, one relating to the offender, and the other being the offended one, God. “If individuals entered a state incongruent with good relations with God, they had to undergo rites to restore them to a normative status” (Davies, 1985;155). Thus the sacrifice encompassed this social dimension. The part played by God in the social ...
Shirley Jackson was a criticized female writer that wrote about US’s scramble for conformity and finding comfort in the past or old traditions. When Jackson published this specific short story, she got very negative feedback and even death threats. In the fictionial short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, a drawing takes place during the summer annually in a small town in New England. In this particular work, the lottery has been a tradition for over seventy years and has been celebrated by the townspeople every year. In detail, Richard H. Williams explains in his “A Critique of the Sampling Plan Used in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery””, he explains the process of how the lottery works. “The sampling plan consists of two
“The Lottery” is a story which shows the complexity and capability of human behavior. Something immoral, like stoning a person to death once a year, is a normal occurrence. The main character, Tessie Hutchinson, is the victim of the lottery. Tessie is a character with a number of seemingly good characteristics, yet her surrounding culture rejects these characteristics. The majority of the people in the village has opposite attitudes and beliefs in comparison to Tessie’s. These attitudes and beliefs reflect her personal desires which quickly struggle against the culture’s expectations. Tessie is unlike the other villagers; she is initially indifferent to the lottery indicating her desires are unrelated to the lottery. Upon winning the lottery, Tessie changes and her personal desires to survive and reject the lottery emerge in her selfishness and outspoken personality. These struggles against the village’s expectations are shown through the culture’s emphasis on tradition and small town ties.