Throughout the entire story, the symbolic use of the scapegoat is to make the reader come to a

realization of what society is like today. The fact that children were being sacrificed to maintain the
happiness of the community shows the terrible reality of the society we are part of. Le Quin was inspired
in the statement “One could not accept happiness shared with millions if the condition of that happiness
were the s suffering of a lonely soul” (James). How can people be happy while others are suffering? In
our society, this would be considered as the old philosophy of “Survival of the fittest” Most of the times,
we become aware of injustice but there is only little what we can do about it. Probably we could just
think about it, and feel bad but there is very little action that is taken to change this. The ones who try to
make a change are pushed away by their own society. chZKJxKLk;BaczKJZKJBzjkx Throughout the entire
story, the symbolic use of the scapegoat is to make the reader come to a realization of what society is
like today. The fact that children were being sacrificed to maintain the happiness of the community
shows the terrible reality of the society we are part of. Le Quin was inspired in the statement “One could
not accept happiness shared with millions if the condition of that happiness were the s suffering of a
lonely soul” (James). How can people be happy while others are suffering? In our society, this would be
considered as the old philosophy of “Survival of the fittest” Most of the times, we become aware of
injustice but there is only little what we can do about it. Probably we could just think about it, and feel
bad but there is very little action that is taken to change this. The ones who try to make a change are
pushed away by their own society.