Examples Of Scapegoat In The Crucible

The Scapegoat Problem and How to Fix It Humans have always found ways to exploit those lacking power and use them as scapegoats for problems that could not easily be fixed. This can be seen in Arthur Miller’s novel The Crucible, which is about the Salem witch trials in 1692, as well as today in many third-world countries. Witch hunts have been a problem for centuries, with many innocent people dying because others believe that they are or try to make it seem as if they are evil by blaming them for natural disasters, death of people and animals, illness, and much more. Witch hunts remain a problem today in third-world countries where superstition is common and the resources needed to identify and fix problems are not. Targeting of those lacking

This is seen, for example, in Jharkhand, where a woman named Sushila Devi “and four other village women, mostly widows, were beaten” because they, supposedly, witches (Kurup 1). Women who are widows, especially in developing countries, are looked down upon because they do not have husbands, which makes them practically powerless. These women are easy targets to be accused of witches because they lack power in their society and do not have husbands to defend them, so it is convenient and easy for others to put the blame on them. There are similar occurrences in Nigeria, where many children are accused of witchcraft and cast out of their families, and “[m]ost vulnerable children come from single parents, divorced parents, [and] dysfunctional families” (Purefoy 1). Children inherently have a lack of power because of their comparative age and their lack of knowledge, which already makes them vulnerable to being used as a scapegoat. Add to that the stress and insecurity of being brought up in an unstable home, which only makes them more expedient to blame. Unnecessary death due to faulty witch accusations also happens when social misfits are targeted. This problem is extremely prevalent in Ghana, where “outspoken or eccentric women... accused of witchcraft... [are] forced to live out their days together in witch camps” (Whitaker 1). Women like this often do not have family and friends

For example, Jharkhand has a “witchcraft prevention Act - under which the maximum punishment is a one-year imprisonment, [but] its implementation is still awaited” (Kurup 1). The government attempted to help those accused of witchcraft by lessening their punishment from possible torture and death to a short imprisonment. This can only work, however, if the act is in place, which it is not, and even then proper punishment is not guaranteed. In Nigeria there is the “Child’s Rights & Rehabilitation Network or CRARN -- an orphanage that supports nearly 200 children” or were all “accused of witchcraft and cast out by their families, often after being tortured” (Purefoy 1). This orphanage is somewhat successful because many children are helped and saved from death. There are still many more children left who are not able to get help and end up being killed by people in the community, sometimes their family. An example of a solution that still has potential to be successful can be found in Ranchi, a city in India, where “[Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra] organized a legal literacy programme... during which hundreds of women were able to voice their grievances to Supreme Court and High Court judges, state bureaucrats, and officials of the National League Services Authority” (Kurup 1). In a place with extremely low literacy rates,