ipl-logo

Alex Jackson A Bystander In Forbidden City

837 Words4 Pages

Forbidden City Essay

"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people." --Martin Luther King Jr. There are different types of oppression including classism and racism. In societies with oppression, there are four roles, the victim, the oppressor, the bystander, and the upstander. Victims are those who are being threatened by oppressors, those who exploit and harm others for their own benefit. The communist government in Forbidden City was the oppressors while the student demonstrators were the victims. Two ways people respond to systems of oppression is being a bystander or an upstander. In Forbidden City, Alex Jackson was a bystander, but he changed and became an upstander. …show more content…

A bystander is someone who is present at an incident or event but does not take part. A bystander may be a bystander because they are scared and don’t want to get into the mess and be the victim. In the beginning of Forbidden City, the main character, Alex Jackson didn’t feel that war and battles was very serious in history, he thought it was all just a game. As soon as he witnessed his first demonstration, he did not take it seriously. “Well, I did go to the square, but it was pretty boring. There were a lot of people there, but hundreds of thousands of people just means a lot of people. Most of the were about university age... There were also a lot of cops. But I don’t know anything about Hu Yao-bang, and I’m not interested in politics anyway. I’m not a cynic like some kids I know. I don’t think all politicians are crooks or anything. I just think they’re boring.” (Bell, 46) A poem “The Hangman” shows how being a bystander is not the right choice. In the end of “The Hangman”, the narrator was the one who the Hangman wanted to kill. “For who has served me more faithfully than you with your coward’s hope?’ said he.” (Ogden) The Hangman wanted to kill the one who served him best by being a bystander. The narrator did not stand up for the people and stop the Hangman, so his actions supported the Hangman. When it was his turn to be raised from the gallows-tree, there was no one there to stop the …show more content…

Before Alex went to China, Alex was a bystander and thought that wars and battles were just games or strategy. When he saw many students his age take part in the demonstrations, he decided to do the same. Like Alex, anyone can do the same. To live in a better environment, everyone must stand up against systems of

Show More
Related

  • Elie Wiesel's Argument Against Discrimination

    340 Words  | 2 Pages

    Title Discrimination occurs everyday, and many choose to remain passive. Throughout these passages the three individuals Elie Wiesel, Martin Luther King Jr. , and Nelson Mandela refuse to accept passivity within the world. These man stood up for their belief that passivity is unacceptable. Elie Wiesel, has experienced discrimination for his religion during the holocaust, and because of this he refuses to remain pliant towards discrimination. Wiesel explains his refusal to remain passive: “The world did know and remained silent.

    Read More

  • Letter To Birmingham Jail Analysis

    794 Words  | 4 Pages

    Without any sort of resistance, people with power inevitably get carried away. In many cases, it is a governmental system that seems to have maintained obsessive control over citizens, so it appears that the citizens are the ones that need to initiate the balance necessary within society. Henry David Thoreau argues in his essay “On the Duty of Civil Disobedience,” that the “government is best which governs the least.” Thoreau believed that it is a citizen’s responsibility to oppose any law which is morally wrong even though it is law. He discusses the role of people in a very authoritative government and how they follow every single rule out of habit, like machines, only some people recognizing injustices and still not doing anything about

    Read More

  • Bystanders In The Hangman

    756 Words  | 4 Pages

    The hangman said he only had the chance to keep murdering people because nobody stood up and said something about it. It is ironic that the victim said nobody cried for me because when other people were getting hanged he didn’t say anything either. This leads to the bystander effect because the people of the town did not want to say anything since maybe someone else could have said

    Read More

  • Inequality In Jean Baker Miller's Domination And Subordination

    389 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout our history our society struggles with inequality. Sexism and racism still addresses like class, gender or other dominating classifications a structural problem in our United States culture. In Jean Baker Miller’s essay “Domination and Subordination” she discusses the temporary and permanent inequality. Miller states that the temporary inequality is a relationship between a dominated individual who explains and is a teacher to the subordinated individual. In contrast her explanation of the permanent inequality is the relationship of different individuals who always will be unequal.

    Read More

  • Oppression: Marilyn Frye And Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    1099 Words  | 5 Pages

    The categorical approach to Frye’s modes of oppression is pretty self explanatory, placing people into groups like gender, race, and social class. This is a mode of oppression because in order to be oppressed, it has to be a part of a group, similar to the bird cage example. Frye also brings up another important point about double-binds. This is when you are restricted to two options that are bad, so you are oppressed either way. An example Frye gave was women in the workforce versus stay at home moms.

    Read More

  • Bystander Law Essay

    1157 Words  | 5 Pages

    In discussions of the Bystander Law, one controversial issue with bystanders in our society today is if one person doesn 't react and there is two other people with them, the other two won 't react. For people who don’t know the definition of a bystander, it means a person who is present at an event or incident but doesn’t respond. Why follow someone else when you can be an individual? People who believe that we as individuals shouldn’t have the law, but the reason that people wouldn’t follow the law if we enforce it. On the other hand, those who believe that our own selves should have the law contend that there should be consequences.

    Read More

  • By The Waters Of Babylon Kurt Vonnegut Analysis

    671 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.” and everyone is as identical as possible (Vonnegut 1). This creates the citizens to cower from this oppression and to rebel to neutralize their power. In the world of

    Read More

  • Oscar Wilde's Essay: The Role Of Disobedience In Society

    1034 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rebellions can drive people out and can lead to many other people dying for not cause at all and to be shown with no improvement in our social progress as a whole. In conclusion, Oscar argues that disobedience is a valuable human trait and that it promotes social progress and also how rebellion and disobedience can lead to positive changes in the economical and social viewpoint. It can help learn from history and help us expand our way of mind and people can learn a few new things from it also. It many lead down a pathway in which it improves lives as well our society for positive changes and help us unite with other people to fight what in we believe

    Read More

  • Logos And Ethos In Henry David's Civil Disobedience

    610 Words  | 3 Pages

    To rebel against the government to defend their beliefs. As he said: ‘’Let every-man make known what government would command his respect, and that will be step towards obtaining it’’. Another point he points out is that treat their bodies as men and not as machines: ‘’The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies’’. The last example he used to influence his audience is that their treated as dirt. While the government is more of a major ruler like earth. ‘’

    Read More

  • Normal Day In Ayn Rand's Anthem

    757 Words  | 4 Pages

    This essay will be about a book with a very different world from ours. In Anthem the "Normal" day is very opposite from ours, in many ways physically and mentally main character Equality is a man very much like us in a society that shuns him for being so. His average day consisted of waking up, eating breakfast and working until it was time to attend the theater. Then inevitably starting the process over each day until the age of 40. For them in their age of evolution the age of forty is the verge of the end for them and they sit in a retirement home till the end.

    Read More

  • Tiananmen Square By George Orwell Analysis

    551 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this essay “No one died in Tiananmen Square” by William Lutz, it is evident that the events displayed confirm the warnings that Orwell shared in Nineteen Eighty – Four. This essay resembled the novel by George Orwell in many different ways, both exploit the government to manipulate the mind of an individual over the actual reality and both governments overuse and abuse there powers. In “No one died in Tiananmen Square” the government uses violence to stop the peaceful protesters. This is similar to 1984 because the totalitarian government in Oceania uses violence if they do not obey the rules of Big Brother. A quote from 1984, from part 2 of chapter 10 displaying violence for commenting thought crime is “One of the men had smashed his fist into Julia’s solar

    Read More

  • Essay On Tiananmen Square Massacre

    1039 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout Chinese history, it has been a long time, over twenty five years, since a truly haunting and scary event which was called the Tiananmen Square Protest and Massacre occurred on 4th June 1989. People around the world also know this incident with the other name – the June 4th event. Actually, the protest was initially led by students and then received a wide advocate from laborers with the aim of calling for freedom of press, freedom of speech, and the restoration of workers' control over industry. However, several hard-line leaders in the administration made a ruthless decision that the protest would be quickly suppressed by armed force. Hence, there is no denial that this massacre not only resulted in a large number of deaths but

    Read More

  • Marginalization In Of Mice And Men

    1790 Words  | 8 Pages

    The theme of marginalization in society and how it has impacted on people’s lives is a significant theme for all. Marginalization is where a certain group of people are treated differently than others due to their race, gender or beliefs. The marginalized are not usually considered “main stream”, which means to have the power in society, and thus have no say in how you are treated. We see this theme in four texts, Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, To Kill a Mockingbird directed by Robert Mulligan (1962), The Test by Angelica Gibbs and The Worn Path by Eudora Welty. Each of my selected texts has a character who is marginalized (Crooks & Tom Robinson & Marian & Phoenix Jackson) and is considered not part of the mainstream of society, consequently

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Lynching By Claude Mckay

    175 Words  | 1 Pages

    “The Lynching” is a poem by Claude McKay. The poem is about a group of people who lynch a black man by hanging him. The setting of this work gives the idea to be taking place in a southern town because lynching was a “normal” occurrence during this time in history. Many people appear to not be angered or sickened with the sight of a hanging body. The women feel no compassion; the on looking children also took on the interest of this cruel act taking place.

    Read More

  • Persepolis And Maus Comparison Essay

    1255 Words  | 6 Pages

    All throughout history, occurrences of oppression and invasion have happened all around the world. The rights and freedom of innocent lives have been taken. The people with power have abused it and become tyrannical and self-centered. The innocent begin to rise against the malicious leaders trying to control their lives. Even through times of downfall and nonsuccess, humanity continues to fight back.

    Read More

More about Alex Jackson A Bystander In Forbidden City

Open Document