How “The Showdown” Shows That Bystanders Are Contagious

People will follow what others do that they think is right but they won't stand up and do it themselves if no one does it first. In the short story “The Showdown” by Shirley Jackson,  everyone only stands up for themselves and does not for anyone else.

Billy is our protagonist and he is a kid who loves fishing. Every day, when he is walking back from fishing, he looks at the street and sees Susy’s dad kill Tom because he wants him to stay away from Susy. He doesn't think much of it and walks home. He comes back home late every day and every day he doesn't get to eat dinner. One day he questions why he’s always late to eat dinner and finally notices that he is living in a loop where all the events happen over and over again. He doesn’t want to be in this loop anymore so he decides the only way to end the loop is for him to end the death of Tom. On the day that he chooses, he jumps in the middle of Susy’s dad and Tom and takes the hit. 

     

Initially, Billy does not know that he is in the loop and he is too used to seeing people die so he does not know the gravity of the situation. I think that the villagers could have helped the person who was getting killed because everyone else had the power to stop Susy’s father, but no one stood up for the guy because everyone was not doing anything as a group. The importance of a group is if one person does something that others think is a good idea then they will follow, but if no one stands up then nothing will happen. 

The story teaches us that anyone can be a responsible person. Even though anyone can be a responsible person they won’t because they are scared and they turn into a bystander. This is called the bystander effect.

Here is the definition of the bystander effect according to Wikipedia:

“The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological theory that states that individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim in the presence of other people.” 

Everyone is just a bystander in the story.  If I were in the story, I don’t think I would be able to save Tom because I wouldn't know that I'm in a loop and would not think much of it, like Billy. The reader knows what is going on, but when you are in the same scenario, I don’t think that most people will even notice that someone has died.

As you can see “The Showdown” is a short story that warns ordinary people that being a bystander is worse than being the person who is actually doing the bad thing. I think that we should be more self-aware and see when we need to be a bystander or an upstander.