The Scapegoat Concept - Essay Example

The “scapegoat” concept LeGuin’s story “The Ones who walk away from Omelas” presents a picture of a utopian with an underlying moral challenge– the premise that such utopia and happiness stands upon the foundation of the misery and wretchedness of one human being that bears the brunt of all suffering. The author invites the reader to question the idea of one person becoming the scapegoat that is elected to be punished and made to suffer in order that others may thrive. The city of Omelas is governed by this underlying understanding that despite the moral repulsion of heaping torture upon one individual, it is a necessity for the mental well being of the many, in order that the utopian condition of the city might be preserved. In a similar manner, Jackson’s “The Lottery” is based upon the same theme of one individual becoming a scapegoat to bear the brunt of frustration and anger that others feel – the sacrifice of the one to preserve the happiness of the many. Crane’s “The Blue Hotel” also reiterates this theme of selection of a scapegoat elected to suffer in order that the happiness of others and their utopian existing state can be maintained. LeGuin’s story progresses through there phases – the first shows suggests an idyllic existence, fortunate that the citizens of Omelas enjoy. But the dark undertones to the story are revealed in the second half of the story where the existence of the one child locked in filthy, miserable conditions within a broom closet is revealed to the reader – it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition and neglect.” (LeGuin 281). The existence of the child is known to the citizens of the town – it sometimes begs for release and promises to be good, because it is suffering so much from being naked, covered with sores and left to sit in its own excrement. Most of the citizens view the child and are shocked at its pitiable state, however although they would like to do something to help the child, they cannot because “to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance for the happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed.” (LeGuin 282). Therefore, many of them try to rationalize the suffering to themselves by arguing that after so long, the child would not even appreciate freedom – “it would probably be wretched without walls about it to protect it, and dakness for its eyes and its own excrement to sit in.” (LeGuin 283). The third part of the story deals with the reaction to this revelation, and how some people walk away from the town, unable to continue to live in a place where the happiness of others is achieved at the expense of one unlucky, miserable scapegoat. However, the moral implications of the choice is clearly one that is a conscious decision by the ones that choose to stay – an expression of the “terrible justice of reality” that underlies their culture. (LeGuin 283) In both the stories “The Blue Hotel” and “The Lottery” the underlying message that threads through both the stories is the fact that one person becomes a stooge who has to bear the brunt of the punishment that the common folk want to dispense to those oppress them. However, since the ones who are oppressing the common folk are generally people in positions of power, whose authority has been accepted unquestioningly for generations, they are unable to seek retribution and fear for their lives or their welfare if they do so, because this would upset the status quo and place their own livelihoods in jeopardy. Thus, there appears to be an unspoken message that unites all the people, so that they select someone who can become the scapegoat that will be made the sacrificial lamb – to bear the wrath of the public and the punishment for the sins of others (Kosenko, 1985). In the story of “The Blue Hotel”, the Swede is an outsider who has come from the east and is not used to the ways of the West. While he is a guest at Scully’s hotel, the Irishman is bound to treat him with courtesy and ensure his safety as a guest of the hotel, nevertheless it becomes obvious as the story progresses that the Swede is aware of his alienness and it makes him afraid. Although for a while, it appears that the underlying rejection of the others will not prevail and the Swede himself starts to believe this and loses his fear, the story progresses on to its bitter end, where his attempts to ingratiate himself with the townsfolk does not prove to be successful and he is ultimately killed. Therefore, the events of this story demonstrate how the Swede becomes a scapegoat and bears the brunt of the anger that the people of the town feel against the outsiders who are entering their town and transforming it into a metropolis, taking away their close knit ties and old established traditions and the Swede becomes the outward symbol of those outsiders and the target of their bitterness. Bellman(1998) offers the view that the story provides a bottomless well of meanings that can drawn in its context and characters. The story of the Lottery differs from the Blue Hotel in that the scapegoat chosen in this story is not an outsider but is in fact, one of the people within the town itself. Since these people live in poverty and hardship, they bottle up their frustrations and wait for that one day when they will have the legitimate outlet for their anger, after a scapegoat has been identified, who has been elected to bear the brunt of it. In this case, the ultimate victim is Tessie Hutchinson because she has been deemed to be too bold and too outspoken and therefore potentially a danger, one who could upset the applecart and the general power structures in the town – she is classed as a rebel and there is a subtle allusion to her rebellious nature in her name (Oehlslager, 1988). A similar perception exists about the Swede which mandates his destruction, in the same way as the child in Omelas must be made to suffer, otherwise the happiness of the town will be in jeopardy. Both the Swede and Tessie are shown to be characters who stand out because of their boldness, although the Swede develops this later. Both of them speak out what they see to be the truth, but which others are not ready to accept. The Swede points out that Jack Scully is cheating and Tessie points out that it was not fair that her family had been singled out because her husband had not been given his fair chance to pick in the same manner as the others have. Therefore, both these characters symbolize the rebels in society, the ones who dare to speak up and voice their opinions against injustice or untruth. In the Omelas story, those who walk away from the town are the rebels, the ones who refuse to accept the terrible reality and choose not to be a part of a flawed system where morality is compromised. All these stories depict the cruel choices that most people make in their willingness to allow particular individuals to become the scapegoats that must bear the brunt of suffering. They represent the anger of the common man at the injustices and inequalities that prevail in society and the determination to extract happiness for themselves at any cost. They depict the cruel justice of reality, wherein it is often the innocent ones who suffer, while others do not hesitate to use this suffering selfishly for their own purposes and for their own happiness, even at the expense of true justice and morality. References: * Bellman, Samuel I, 1998. “A reader’s Guide to the short stories of Stephen Crane” Studies in Short Fiction, 35. * Crane, Stephen. “The Blue Hotel” * Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery” * Kosenko, Peter, 1985. “A reading of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’ New Orleans review, 12(1), pp 27-32 * Le Guin, Ursula K., 1975. "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." The Winds Twelve Quarters. New York: Harper, pp 275-84. * Oehlslager, Felix, 1988. “The stoning of Mistress Hutchinson: meaning of context in the Lottery” Essays in Literature Read More