Jonestown Massacre Essay Example

The Jonestown Massacre

When the world first heard about the events of "Jonestown," there were constant cries of many families pleading for their relatives. The media flooded with the over-publication of videos and images of the massacre. The whole event came as a surprise, and the willing suicide of the members came as even a larger shock. The Jonestown massacre is hard to accept in many people's mind. Jonestown was supposed to be a perfect place; everything about it portrayed a picture of the perfect society. When everyone saw pictures of numerous dead bodies, they realized Jonestown was not a perfect place. With all of the grieving, our nation tries to figure out if it could have been prevented. The truth is that it could have been prevented and it should have been. If everyone had not been so brainwashed by Jones and paid attention to the overuse of abuse and drugs by Jones, it would have been possible for the nation as a whole to stop a tyrant. In the society of Jonestown, abuse and punishment was a regular action. Beatings were regularly dealt out to keep control of the society. In the book the Children of Jonestown, Kenneth Wooden explains how Tracy Arterberry, a five year old girl, gets punished at Jonestown. The reason why she was punished was because she misbehaved in one of her classes. Since she misbehaved, Jones blindfolded her in the middle of the night and took her to a remote location away from the society. He then lowered Tracy deep into a well, so no living signs could be established by the young child. Once she was in the well, Jones would lower a wet rope onto her shoulder. This was to be the monster that would haunt her for the rest of her life. After Tracy was already scared, Jones would have elder members of the society hide in bushes around the well and make monster noises. This was to make Tracy think that the rope being lowered onto her shoulder was a "monster." In the story, Tracy's screams were said to be heard