Since the beginning of time, scapegoating has been the most common form to get off the hook. It’s not always out of malice, either; it’s simply human nature. In many examples of literature, television, and even in our real lives we see the age-old trope of blaming someone else for everyone else's problems. Some of the more famous examples lie in The Crucible by Arthur Miller, the Red Scare fueled by Joseph McCarthy, and the Twilight Zone episode The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street. Those who are scapegoated usually don’t fit into society’s conforming ways, which makes it believable that they have truly done something wrong. Scapegoating has always existed- mostly to ease tensions, and it never works well- and always will exist, and the proof
…show more content…
The plot of the play follows a group of girls and a man during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. A group of teenage girls get caught doing witchcraft in the nearby forest, and begin to blame other women in their Puritan village to save themselves. The man caught up in all this is John Proctor, a lecher and husband of Elizabeth Proctor, an honest christian woman and one of the accused. This is an excellent example of scapegoating, considering most women accused were those with poor reputations to begin with. Sarah Good, Bridget Bishop and Sarah Osborne are three of those accused; a beggar, a harlot and a “hexer”, afflicting her victims with sickness. These women found their deaths in 1692, either by hanging or death in jail. Abigail Williams was the main perpetrator in all this, as when she was starting to be questioned, she planted all the blame on Tituba, who then turned it onto Sarah Good and so on and so forth, creating a cycle of accusations. On a more noble note, however, when asked to throw his friends under the bus-for lack of a better term- to save his own life, John Proctor became angry and said “You will not use me! I am no Sarah Good or Tituba, I am John Proctor! You will not use me! There is no part of salvation that you shall use me!”, which broke the cycle of scapegoating, proving it can eventually be broken in …show more content…
Started by Joseph McCarthy in 1947, the Red Scare was a period in time where many individuals were being accused of being a communist, some of these people being anywhere from a government official to an average joe. Television, movies and radio all warned about the dangers of communism during this time, and many of those accused became blacklisted and couldn’t get another job after accusation, which drove some to suicide. Mob mentality was the culprit here, as McCarthy only blamed government officials and those who are famous, but in order to fit in with scared peers, the common folk started accusing their brethren and sistren. This time again, it’s a group being attack instead of an individual, and the scapegoat of McCarthyism is communists. Why were they the scapegoat? Communists don’t conform to America’s capitalist ways, making them an easy target.The Red Scare came to an end in 1957, when a TV expose ruined McCarthy’s poll ratings. He later became an alcoholic and died later in that
The plot of the play follows a group of girls and a man during the Salem Witch Trials in 1692. A group of teenage girls get caught doing witchcraft in the nearby forest, and begin to blame other women in their Puritan village to save themselves. The man caught up in all this is John Proctor, a lecher and husband of Elizabeth Proctor, an honest christian woman and one of the accused. This is an excellent example of scapegoating, considering most women accused were those with poor reputations to begin with. Sarah Good, Bridget Bishop and Sarah Osborne are three of those accused; a beggar, a harlot and a “hexer”, afflicting her victims with sickness. These women found their deaths in 1692, either by hanging or death in jail. Abigail Williams was the main perpetrator in all this, as when she was starting to be questioned, she planted all the blame on Tituba, who then turned it onto Sarah Good and so on and so forth, creating a cycle of accusations. On a more noble note, however, when asked to throw his friends under the bus-for lack of a better term- to save his own life, John Proctor became angry and said “You will not use me! I am no Sarah Good or Tituba, I am John Proctor! You will not use me! There is no part of salvation that you shall use me!”, which broke the cycle of scapegoating, proving it can eventually be broken in …show more content…
Started by Joseph McCarthy in 1947, the Red Scare was a period in time where many individuals were being accused of being a communist, some of these people being anywhere from a government official to an average joe. Television, movies and radio all warned about the dangers of communism during this time, and many of those accused became blacklisted and couldn’t get another job after accusation, which drove some to suicide. Mob mentality was the culprit here, as McCarthy only blamed government officials and those who are famous, but in order to fit in with scared peers, the common folk started accusing their brethren and sistren. This time again, it’s a group being attack instead of an individual, and the scapegoat of McCarthyism is communists. Why were they the scapegoat? Communists don’t conform to America’s capitalist ways, making them an easy target.The Red Scare came to an end in 1957, when a TV expose ruined McCarthy’s poll ratings. He later became an alcoholic and died later in that