Scapegoat Essays

  • Oedipus as Scapegoat in Oedipus the King

    1496 Words  | 3 Pages

    Oedipus as Scapegoat in Oedipus the King The great psychologist-philosopher Carl Jung was briefly a student of Freud. Because Jung felt that Freud's approach to psychoanalysis was by far too narrow, he broke off from his teachings, and made significant contributions to mythological criticism. Jung's greatest contribution was his theory of archetypes. His proposal of archetypes argues that there is one original pattern or model of all things of the same type. According to Jung, beneath the personal

  • Lee Harvey Oswald: Killer or Scapegoat?

    2165 Words  | 5 Pages

    Killer or Scapegoat? On November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas, "the Crime of the Century" took place. President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dealey Plaza while touring through the city in his open-roof limousine. After the shots were fired, police began looking for suspects. One hour after the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for murdering a police officer. One hour after that he was charged with killing the President. Was Lee Harvey Oswald the real killer, or was he merely the scapegoat hired

  • The Scapegoat

    789 Words  | 2 Pages

    December 7, 1941 was a military accomplishment for Japan. Japanese Bomber planes had flown over the island of Hawaii and bombed the American naval base Pearl Harbor. After the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, many Americans believed that the Japanese Americans, were disloyal and were sabotaging the United States Government. There were rumors that most Japanese Americans exchanged military information and had hidden connections with Japanese military. None of these claims were ever proven to be true

  • Essay On Scapegoat

    689 Words  | 2 Pages

    without want or warning. Imagine what life would be like without blaming things on others. Throughout time, there have been famous examples of scapegoats, and instances that go unnoticed day after day. History, psychology, and religion all have ties with the word scapegoat. Scapegoats have played a major role in lives today, and in history. “The word scapegoat originated in 1530 by Tyndale (Harper). It was considered as a "goat sent into the wilderness on the Day of Atonement, symbolic bearer of the

  • Inclusion or Exclusion in The Crucible

    2355 Words  | 5 Pages

    ability to go the length for their cause. In The Crucible, if the characters did not abide as part of the group, the Christian Church, then the consequences were fatal. The Crucible told of what is was to be a scapegoat in their society and what it took to defend themselves from becoming that scapegoat. To remind people in an organization why they belong takes continued focus on a common goal or common belief. By having one main function, a group is generally more effective than if everyone has different

  • Myra Hindley

    774 Words  | 2 Pages

    A sadistic temptress, the aid and probable prompt of an evil and cold blooded killer. Or a 'political prisoner being used as a scapegoat by politicians and the media'? This is a very sensitive subject and people often respond with fear and anxiety when we decide to examine things like the Moors murders. We are told that our curiosity is 'unhealthy', and that wanting to know,or openly debate about a matter which is 'naturally' closed, can only be the desire of a sick mind. We are encouraged to turn

  • Comparing the McCarthy Hearings and McCarthyism with The Crucible Witch Trials

    1106 Words  | 3 Pages

    respect. They both gained respect from others, which was something they did not have a lot of, especially the girls of Salem, Massachusetts. In 1692, people blamed of being witches were used as scapegoats for society's problems, and then again in 1950, those blamed of being communists were used as scapegoats for society's problems. In the long run, both cases were worthless except for the lessons that it may teach those who look back at the awful experiences. Many people were killed in the diminutive

  • The Roles of Polonius in The Tragedy of Hamlet

    2066 Words  | 5 Pages

    masterfully crafted play contains such a multi-faceted character in a sense of economy; Polonius fulfills the roles potentially played by several insignificant characters. Polonius plays the wise old man, the fool, the substitute for the king, and the scapegoat (Oakes). Shakespeare's reasons behind the creation of such a significant secondary character are important to the play as a whole. Polonius roles add a crucial dimension to the play's development of plot, the characterization of Hamlet, and the themes

  • Modernizing The Crucible

    654 Words  | 2 Pages

    well as portraying events that viewers can identify strongly with, will therefore be the most appropriate for conveying the themes of the play. I have also decided to elaborate on the themes of hysteria, intolerance, integrity and choosing a scapegoat. For my setting, I will rely heavily on a combination of two world events that, in differen...

  • All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque

    1003 Words  | 3 Pages

    Austria for the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Germany  pushed Austria to declare war.  Germany’s desire to start a war can be explained by the internal tensions that were increasing in the country at the time.  The assassination was a timely scapegoat to direct the peoples attention and animosity to external sources.  In short, on July 28, 1914, Austria declared war on Serbia and the allies of each country joined in, starting this global war. Paul Baumer is a young soldier who volunteered to

  • The Adventure Of Tom Sawyer

    984 Words  | 2 Pages

    life of a pirate. The first adventure takes place accidentally when Tom and Huckleberry Finn, the lazy and free son of the town drunk, sneak to the graveyard at night. There they witness a murder by Injun Joe, who trickily makes Muff Potter his scapegoat. Extremely scared, the boys run away and vow not to tell the murder. When Tom, Huck and Joe Harper run away to an island to be pirates, the second adventure begins. The tow people consider the three drowned and hold a funeral for the three during

  • Catcher In The Rye

    1924 Words  | 4 Pages

    events throughout three influential days of his life. A prep school student who has just been kicked out of his second school, Holden struggles to find the right path into adulthood. He does not know what road to follow and he uses others as the scapegoat for his puzzlement in life. Harold Bloom explains, His central dilemma is that he wants to retain a child's innocence., but because of biology he must move either into adulthood or madness. As a sort of compromise Holden imagines himself as "the

  • The Aspects of Criminal Justice

    1525 Words  | 4 Pages

    that the government thought to be evil or a part of witchcraft. Since the Middle Ages didn't have equal rights for all, women and the poor were usually the ones being prosecuted. With all of the problems of the times, the government found and made scapegoats out of these people, and blamed them of the troubles that were occurring. As DeKeseredy and Schwartz (1996, p.156) stated, "the most common way of determining guilt was through torture. It was a simple system: if you confessed, you were executed:

  • The Houlocaust: Linking Past to Present

    609 Words  | 2 Pages

    have been stereotyping and assuming too much of people. This is why a lot of social problems come to be. Some people (namely the Nazis) can be harsh and they arrogantly need a scapegoat for some of their actions. This is what happened in the Holocaust, when the Jewish people were the Nazi’s meek and uncelebrated scapegoats. We know the facts of the past, but do we have enough knowledge and wisdom to prevent this from ever happening again? We won’t know it, but we can start preventing this right now

  • Queering privilege

    1629 Words  | 4 Pages

    groups’ struggle against injustice, a glint of jealousy and bitterness seems to accompany thoughts of the oppressor and those positioned in places of privileged within structures of domination. Generally it is acknowledged that there are no simple scapegoats upon whom to unequivocally level blame for all the world’s maladies, tempting as finding and accosting such a character is. Despite the growing willingness to let go of old myths of directly responsible villains, there remains a not unrelated urge

  • Richard the Third

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    also be manipulative and persuasive so that if he is accused of a crime or if he finds himself between a rock and a hard place he is able to talk his way out or convince people that he did not commit the crimes in question. A villain must also have scapegoats to use if he is discovered or if he is in a dangerous situation. Richard devised a brutal stratagem to ascend the English throne. Brilliantly, he executed his plan. Heartlessly, he executed family, friends, and subjects. Richard did indeed display

  • Anti-semitism And Sartre

    627 Words  | 2 Pages

    as I have seen first hand the disgust associated with being Jewish. The Jew is judged not by his action or words but simply by the fact that he is a Jew, and the preconceived idea of what this means. As discussed in class, Jews have been used as scapegoats throughout history. They have been blamed for countless economical and social problems simply because of the predisposition towards anti-Semitism that most have. To understand this predisposition is easy. It has come from years of unwillingness

  • Lieutenant William Calley and the My Lai Massacre

    1630 Words  | 4 Pages

    crimelibrary.com). It is of note to mention that many people thought and still think he was a scapegoat for the whole event. Although, with over 400 questioned witnesses and over 20,000 pages of reports and most everyone stating the same facts, that Lt. Calley ordered and participated in the killings, it could be difficult to prove the scapegoat theory (http://news.bbc.co.uk). But its not quite the scapegoat in that sense, during this time the morale of troops and U.S. sentiments for the war were at

  • Biography of Marie Antoinette

    2088 Words  | 5 Pages

    extravagance in difficult times." But Marie Antoinette was not quite as foolish and spoiled as the public believed. It is not true that she said "Let them eat cake" when told that people were starving. As a woman and a foreigner she made a convenient scapegoat for the nation's problems, and it seemed that no insult against her was too crazy to be widely believed. The stories of Antoinette's excesses are very much overstated. In fact, rather than ignoring France's growing financial crisis, she reduced

  • Breaker morant

    1191 Words  | 3 Pages

    British High Command sent out to the Bushveldt Carbineers was bitter and simple. To fight the Boer on its terms, and to take no prisoners. Such an order could prove fatal, especially to Lieutenant Harry Breaker Morant, who was dishonorably used as a scapegoat for the British Empire to appease political conflict between Germany at the time. Throughout this writing piece, I hope to give insight to the audience in what thoughts feelings would have gone through the Australians minds, especially Lieutenant