The Lottery Shirley Jackson Human Nature Essay

Alisha McNally
Professor Brookey
English 1302.50
11 November 2015
The Inherent Nature of Man
In the controversial short story ‘The Lottery’, author Shirley Jackson’s central theme suggests that evil is inherent within human nature. The townspeople, who initially are depicted as pleasant and ordinary citizens, gather together annually to participate in an outdated fertility ritual, by choosing someone at random to be sacrificed. However, the real horror of the story is not simply in the murder of an innocent citizen —but within the cold and atavistic nature of the townspeople, who adhere to violent social conditioning without reason. Literary critic, A.R Coulthard supports this idea by writing, “It is not the ancient custom of human sacrifice

Even her ironic use of setting in the introductory scene creates an environment that betrays the true nature of the townspeople. Jackson writes, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green (250).” At first glance, the small farming community gathering in the square seems rather harmless. The children play, the men tell jokes and the women gossip amongst each other as all the villagers wait for the annual lottery to begin. It is only when the children begin to gather stones for the ritual, does the scene begin to foreshadow that something more sinister may be at

Jackson chooses the worn down black box to serve as a symbol for the villager’s irrational attachment to the outdated tradition. The author writes, “ Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (251). It is ironic that although the villagers seem to place such high value on the box itself as to not upset tradition, they haven’t even created a permanent spot to house the symbol of the very tradition that seems to take precedence over family bonds. “The rest of the year, the box was put way, sometimes one place, sometimes another; it had spent one year in Mr. Graves's barn and another year underfoot in the post office. And sometimes it was set on a shelf in the Martin grocery and left there (Jackson 252).” This behavior seems to suggest that tradition is an excuse the townspeople make in order to justify to themselves that their participation in ritual killings are not just acts of senseless brutality, but are instead part of an established and accepted state of normalcy. It is their inherently evil nature that pushes the villagers not only to participate, but also to brainwash future generations into observing a ritual that does not actually hold any real meaning for