Journal 6 - Misplaced Blame

Blaming someone for something that they did not do has repercussions for both parties. The person being wrongly accused for obvious reasons. In the case of The Crucible the wrongly accused are sentenced to death. That is an extreme case, but nonetheless the wrongly accused always suffer. The person doing the blaming usually is the person who did the act and does not want to take responsibility for it. By directly the blame onto someone else they get out of the consequences for their actions. Only if they are not figured out. If someone realizes what they have done, then the accuser will face consequences that are even more dire then what the original consequences were. The wrongly accuse will never completely be healed though. Even if the truth comes out, their reputation can not be reestablished that easy. Accusing someone of witchcraft for example is an awful thing to do. Even if they are proven to be innocent, they will be forever branded as a witch. To give an example in a less extreme case, my sister and I accuse each other of things that we know they did not do all of the time; as all siblings do. If the tooth paste is left out or the mirror on the downstairs bathroom has splatters on it, we blame each other. Half of the time my sister actually did do it, even if she accused me or my dad. About 35% of the time it is me, even if I still blame my sister for it. The remaining 15% it was my dad, but he never admits to it. Which is a problem as Olivia and I both get in trouble for it because we both tell my mother that we did not leave stuff out in the bathroom and will not admit to it as we did not do it. That is why blaming someone for something that they are innocent of is a bad habit to have, as it hurts yourself and the person you are blaming.