Okay, I delayed posting this thinking I would be able to develop it more, but that doesn't seem to be happening! So this feels a bit like the essay's neglected little brother or something. I look forward to any discussion in comments, especially from people who probably know way more about the religious aspects here that I have shamefully stolen ( Read more... )

Thought since this is mostly done I'd post the table of contents. Heh. Will hopefully have part 6 done this weekendish.

Walking off the chessboard: Sam and Lucifer and the role of the Scapegoat in SPN

MASTER POST

PART ONE: The Scapegoat in the Dysfunctional Family

PART TWO: The Scapegoat as Focus of Family Dysfunction

PART THREE: The Scapegoat as ( Read more... )

Sorry for the delay in posting. Complicated couple of weeks. Thus ends the main body of this sucker, though I'm noodling with a short conclusion that talks about the traditional/biblical concept of the scapegoat. Sadly I know nothing of the bible, so it will probably be a really shallow isn't this kinda cool thing.

Walking off the chessboard: Sam ( Read more... )

This is the longest part! Bear with me, it's also probably the most complicated and delicate part to explain. Hopefully I did it justice.

Walking off the chessboard: Sam and Lucifer and the role of the Scapegoat in SPN

( master post)

Part 4

Perpetuating the role of Scapegoat

One of the catch-22’s that the Scapegoat faces is that rebelling against the ( Read more... )

Walking off the chessboard: Sam and Lucifer and the role of the Scapegoat in SPN

( master post)

Part 3

The Scapegoat as truth teller

Perhaps because there is less pressure on the Scapegoat to project the “success” of the family (as with The Hero) and because of their position as the focus of the family’s negative attention, the Scapegoat often sees ( Read more... )

Walking off the chessboard: Sam and Lucifer and the role of the Scapegoat in SPN

( master post)

Part 2

Sam and Lucifer as Scapegoats

The specific Scapegoat traits that I want to focus on in terms of Sam and Lucifer are a)their positions as focal points for their family’s blame, b)their positions as tellers of the family truths (as they see them), and c ( Read more... )

oookay this baby is long. I've broken it up into shortish parts to make it a little easier to read, I'll be posting one a day and when I'm finished I'll collect them into a master post. This thing is about 10,000 words total, broken into 5 or 6 posts. A thousand thank-yous to dafnap and gabby_silang for comments and support. Obviously there are season 5 spoilers.

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