Mindless Conformity In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

In “The Lottery”, the villagers have forgotten the original reason for the ritual. Once robbed of independence by the mob, manipulated by reason, coerced by authority, and conditioned to accept it, with multiple fallacious reasons, the original reason is of little practical importance. The use of fallacious propaganda was a technique extensively employed by the Nazi party. Shirley Jackson has woven a complex allegory with near endless symbolism, uniting multiple concepts. As I read this I recognize Rousseau, as the origin for some of the ideas presented.

This tradition catalyzes people become violence. There are some quotes to demonstrate an important ideas about how the cruel tradition affects people to act in violence. For instance, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lose the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” This statement shows such a stupid traditional concept has been deeply rooted in local people’s minds. Even though the old ritual forgotten, but using stones was not forgotten. In some ways, it also reveals that the procedure of lottery has been held frequently.

Children are portrayed as being innocent; however Shirley Jack... ... middle of paper ... ...erie fact about the ending of this story, none of the people realize how wicked and vicious they are acting. The lottery is undeniably a part of their lives; it is without a doubt an event they look forward to doing year after year. "The Lottery" and "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson exhibit the immoral side of human nature. The human race may have evil and wickedness lying deep inside, however if chosen the goodness of people can overpower the darkness. It is a matter of which side is to be chosen; in these stories it is told that these people have chosen the dark path.

When there are no other corrupt and sinful human beings to kill, society will turn on itself. Even caring and normal human beings can throw stones. Forgotten traditions can also be extremely dangerous as Shirley Jackson points out in her short story. People hear what they want to hear and choose what rituals to keep for traditions. As a society, we are just like the villagers, forgetting the original purpose of our rituals but continuing to go through the motions.

Many people try to make tradition the scapegoat for the actions of blind followers, but, in fact, there is one flaw with this idea; we still have free will. Some will try to argue that culture is so deeply sown into people that they have no choice but to follow these customs. They want to believe that deep down everyone is good, but the reality is we are all evil, selfish beings. In the beginning of the story we come to a beautiful day in the village. With the title of the story and this wonderful scene, it is natural to assume that the “lottery” will change someone’s life for the good.

One of the subjects on which Miller commented was that of the notion that there is only pure, white goodness and cruel, unbending evil. In the play he shows us how people chase what they think is evil, (For example: not going to church, not knowing the Commandments, etc.) persecuting basically good people while the truly evil escape and are even seen as the innocent victims. The people of Salem condemned many based on the few things that were considered 'ungodly' and since they committed one sin, then it was assumed that they were committing many others. They were condemned because they did not follow the exact 'rules' in their society which 'defined' who was good and who was evil.

This represents how the protagonist’s scientific perspective is informed by his theological background. In “The Ones Who Walked Away From Omelas”, by Ursula Le Guin, there is a child locked in a room. This child is a symbol of the societal guilt within the town of Omelas. This utopian society within this town understands that without negativity, happiness is not possible because the “trouble is that we have a bad habit… of considering happiness as something rather stupid. Only pain is intellectual, only evil is interesting.” The town of Omelas is a very happy place but society needed a scapegoat for their personal and societal guilt.

Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' The Crucible, written by Arthur Miller, is a tragic story of injustice suffered by an innocent community who are subjected to the hypocritical, prideful judges of their trial. These Judges use their power to eliminate evidence of their mistakes and return their community to puritanical ways. The leaders of Salem are not concerned with seeking the truth and justice, but with maintaining their authority and reputations; this objective leads them to consistently rejecting truth, against all logic and evidence of their senses. The symbols of truth portrayed throughout the play are exhibited through a handful of innocent hearted characters in the book such as Elizabeth Proctor. Her virtues of dignity and honesty are evident in the ways she calmly argues against Danforth and Hale’s accusations hat she is somehow involved in witchcraft.

Under the same note it is ironic that many of the original traditions of the lottery, such as the recital and the salute, had long been forgotten. All that the villagers seemed to remember was the ruthless killing of a random person. It also seems strange that they let the equipment for the lottery, the black box, get into such a poor condition. The two people who run, and the lottery, Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves. Mr. Graves is the postmaster for the town and is the person who swears Mr. Summers in as the lottery officia...

The author of “The Lottery” wrote this story “to shock the story’s readers with a graphic demonstration of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson 211). This story reflects human behavior in society to show how although rules, laws or traditions do not make sense, people follow them. Throughout the story the three main symbols of how people blindly follow senseless traditions were the lottery itself, the color black, and the hesitation that people had towards the prize. The lottery in the story was the game in which the prize was death. In reality this lottery symbolized the game of life, and how our behavior as human beings influences our choices in life and therefore our destiny.