The Golden Bough – A New Abridgement, Term Paper Example

Introduction                      

In accordance with Le Guin’s perspective, a sacrificial lamb or scapegoat is needed in order to perpetuate the happiness, well being and prosperity which are enjoyed in the City of Omelas. I disagree with this perspective. In this term paper, I will demonstrate that scapegoats and sacrificial lambs are not required in order to ensure the happiness, prosperity and well being of a town, city or nation.In Ursula Le Guin’s short story: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas, she suggests that the manner of promoting well being in the City of Omelas is through the tolerance of the misery that is inflicted upon a child. Le Guin demonstrates several benefits to the paradise society which has been created. Le Guin details the residents of the City of Omelas as being happy people (Le Guin 3).

Le Guin details that the people of Omelas do not need the benefit of technology although they would be able to accommodate the luxuries of any conventional technologies which are required. Le Guin proposes than in the City of Omelas there is no guilt. Drooz is detailed as being a relieving substance from which a perception of lightness is derived that is followed by a period of visionary stimulation. The characteristic of the drooz is appreciated; the narrator states that beer should be available in the City of Omelas.  Le Guin discusses that may of the inhabitants of the City of Omelas do not take part in the consumption of drooz (Le Guin 5).

The author proposes that the lifestyle in the City of Omelas is a delight and it is worth keeping despite the one sacrifice that must be made. The sacrifice which is conducted in order for the inhabitants of the City of Omelas to betray their humanity by allowing and justifying a child’s horrible suffering in order to perpetuate the paradise conditions that are enjoyed in the City of Omelas. The author proposes that despite this atrocity that the people of Omelas are happy residents who enjoy civilization and culture (Le Guin 6).

I disagree. In order for the residents of the City of Omelas to enjoy their culture and civilization, they must be able to relish in their humanity. There is no need for the trade-off of a child’s happiness in order to enjoy, peace, culture and civilization. The child’s misery, filth and deprivation are the outcome of the child being used as a sacrificial lamb or scapegoat (Le Guin 6).

Explanation

The act of choosing a scapegoat is a term which originates from Hebrew customs.  The translation of the word scapegoat in Hebrew is Azazel, which implies one who was excluded from participation in the rituals of the Day of Atonement which is known as Yom Kippur. The Pentateuch or Torah has the requisite of the Israelites making transference of their sins as defined in the sixteenth chapter of the Book of Leviticus. Annually during an event which occurred on the tenth day of the Jewish month which is designated as Tishrei(Heiligman 6).

This date is ascertained based upon the appearance of the preceding new moon. The estimated day of Yom Kippur in 2014 corresponds to October 3- 4, 2014. On Yom Kippur, the most respected cleric in the nation of Israel offers a bull in order to make atonement as a propitiatory sacrifice for any transgressions which he may have committed. Subsequently, two goats are taken on this day and presented at the doors to the holy temple with the perspective of being sacrificed in order to atone for the comprehensive propitiatory sins of the nation of Israel (Fraser 569).

The two scapegoats are chosen at random, one was to be the goat which was to be offered to the Lord Almighty as a sanguine sacrifice. The other goat was to be cast off into the wilderness as an Azazelsacrifice. The residue of the blood of the first scapegoat is served as a sanguine offering to the Lord.  Subsequently in the rituals which are performed on Yom Kippur, the most elevated cleric in the nation of Israel makes a confession of the transgressions of the people to the Lord by placing the sins upon the forehead of the Azazelscapegoat which is cast away into the wilderness.  The transgressions of the nation of Israel receive atonement by means of the goat which is offered as a sanguine offering to the Lord and the Azazelscapegoat (Fraser 569).

In the Christian faith, this procedure predates the sacrifice which had been made by Jesus Christ as he was impaled on a tree. Jesus Christ is perceived to be the fulfilment of all of the participants who take place in the sin offering which is conducted on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. In the Christian faith, the transgressors perceive that by demonstrating their guilt and making a confession of their transgressions by means of the propitiatory sacrifice that had been offered by Jesus Christ as a redemptive offering, resulting in atonement for transgressions (Fraser 569).

Refutation

The Celtic people appeared to have included human sacrifices as a component of their religious ceremonies. The Druids were perceived as the cleric’s caste, it was more than probable that the Druid priests administrated the human sacrifice ceremonies of the Celts.  The Romans caused these practices to cease and desist and the practice of human sacrifice had been in contradiction to Roman customs. In the Celtic ceremonies, the person who had been dedicated for sacrifice would be assaulted with a sword and forecasts would be made on the sacrificial subject’s last living movements (Koch 18).

These sacrifices had been normally conducted with the Druids acting as officials. Other categories of sacrifice would be men who would be targeted with arrows and who would be impaled upon the walls of the temples.  Supplementary sacrifices which were made by the Celts would include making a large symbolic monument of wood and straw. Subsequent to the livestock and human offerings being cast onto the symbolic sacrificial monument, a burnt sacrificial offering would be made of the entire monument (Koch 18).

The people of what is presently France had been completely dedicated to their religious practices. This is why the members of society who had been substantially affected by disease and the perils of war made human sacrifices or promised to make human sacrifices. It had been perceived that unless a man’s existence is sacrificed to the gods, the anger of the gods cannot be removed. It had been perceived that those who had committed transgressions of theft or other types of transgressions, however, when there was no one found who would serve as the scapegoat, the sacrifice of an innocent victim was deemed to be adequate ( Koch 22).

Conclusion

Ursula Le Guin discusses how the people of the City of Omelas perceived that they needed to have the suffering of an innocent child who had been deprived of freedom, light, play, water and basic human necessities to be deemed as a necessity in order for the inhabitants of the town to enjoy happiness, drooz, well being and prosperity. The act of human sacrifice had been abolished by the Romans. In the conclusion of the short story, Le Guindiscusses how many of the youthful observers who had been witness to the child’s suffering and deprivation would be the ones who depart from Omelas.  This could be allusive to the need for the sacrifice of another type.

This action could also demonstrate that those who had chosen to walk away from Omelas did not wish to participate in the happiness, well being and prosperity which had been perceived as an outcome of the child’s suffering in a dungeon.  It could be perceived that those who walked away felt that they were able to regain their humanity by becoming Azazel scapegoats, who walked into the wilderness, never to return to the City of Omelas.  The author discusses how the suffering of the child and the deprivation of basic human necessities from the child had been perceived with a sense of guilt. The short story could be demonstrating the need for the residents of the City of Omelas to adapt other ways of atoning for sin. The story concludes with the idea that those who leave Omelas appear to know their destination, perhaps as Azazel sacrifices.

Works Cited

Fraser, James George and Robert Fraser eds. The golden bough- a new abridgement. New York: Oxford University Press, Inc. 1994. Print.

Heiligman, Deborah. Celebrate Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Washington, DC: National Geographic Books, 2007. Print.

Koch, John T. and John Carey eds. The Celtic heroic age. Aberystwyth: Celtic Studies Publications, 2003. Print.

Le Guin, Ursula. The ones who walk away from Omelas. Creative Education, 1993. Print.