Rules Of Society In Jackson's The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Rules of Society in Jackson’s “The Lottery” The titular lottery begins on a morning in June, with the entire town planning to take part in it. It seems a quaint, normal event; the adults chat amiably and the children laugh and carry on as expected. The only hint that anything seems amiss at first is the scattered gossip regarding the state of the lottery in other areas, along with the idea that the event is distinctly tied with a good harvest. Once the Hutchinson family is picked, however, it is immediately clear that things are not what they seem. The wife protests violently against “winning” the lottery. She demands that the odds be given a larger margin by including her older daughter and said daughter’s husband, though this is told to

Hutchinson was so desperately afraid; the prize for winning the lottery is death by stoning, and this year, she drew its winning symbol (Jackson 140-145). The public execution of one of the community’s own insinuates grave connotations for the state of civilization. In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson displays three harmful ideologies of society: religious stagnation, misogyny, and political apathy. The underlying theme of “The Lottery” can be seen as exploring the consequences of religious stagnation, to the point where it stunts the growth of society’s natural progression. An often-used criticism of those adhering literally to the religious fundamentals is the fact that the literal interpretation corrupts the core message. As mentioned by Nathan Cervo, an allusion to such can be seen in the short story, by the mispronunciation of the surname “Delacroix” (standardly pronounced as deh – luh – kwAA) as “Dellacroy” (Jackson 140). The French meaning of Delacroix is “‘of the cross’” (Cervo). By being unable to pronounce Delacroix’s name correctly, the villagers essentially pervert the meaning of the Crucifixion and “[botch]…Christian understanding” (Cervo). Christ’s martyrdom is sullied by reverting to the

Said to grow “shabbier” (Jackson 141) the longer it is used, the faded appearance reflects the fading need for it, yet the village clings onto its customs anyway, simply out of tradition. In fact, any desire for progress is met with scorn, citing with displeasure that “nothing’s good enough” (Jackson 143). Consider Judge Roy Moore in Alabama, the man who refused a Supreme Court order for the “separation of church and state” (Roberts and Strassmann). His refusal to take the Ten Commandments monument away from an area that was supposed to be neutral religious ground is a modern-day example of religious stagnation. The lottery is no longer an important function and in fact people cannot even remember most of the context surrounding it, yet to think of doing away with it entirely seems to be on par to a deadly sin. Progression is inevitable, however, and in some cases desperately needed. The replacement of wood chips for paper to “fit…easily” (Jackson 141) is an example of this. Seeing the village as a physical symbol of society, its eventual growth rendered the traditional use of wood chips in the lottery obsolete. Though altered, their tradition was