The Slaughter of the Innocents

The Slaughter of the Innocents

The Slaughter of the Innocents

The Slaughter of the Innocents

Overview

This is unmistakably Saroyan, with his sentimental yet probing concern for people as human beings; it is Saroyan at his most intelligent and most meaningful. The story is that of a bartender whose saloon has been confiscated to be used for public trials by the new police state. Juries have been dispensed with; the victims are marched in on an assembly line, accused, sentenced, then marched out through the back door to be shot while the populace cheers in wild enthusiasm. When a small boy is run through in this fashion, the bartender rebels, throwing a large monkey wrench into the smoothly running mechanism. Then comes the directive: the six officials are to change places with the next six victims. Thus it is that the people come to a realization of the meaning of justice in a democracy.

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Cautions

  • Caution Alcohol Alcohol
  • Caution Mild Adult Mild Adult Themes

Authors

William Saroyan

Novelist, short-story writer, dramatist, and essayist, William Saroyan was born in Fresno, California in 1908. A high-school dropout, Saroyan was largely self-educated and decided at an early age to pursue a career as a writer, drawing on his experience as an Armenian-America ...
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