The Lottery

The lottery by Shirley Jackson

Man’s ability (and need) to rationalize generally unacceptable actions

The first thing that I find that directs my thought of the Lottery is the fact that the town hasn’t quit the lottery. On page 294 Mrs. Adams says “Some places have already quit lotteries” while Old Man Warner responds, “Nothing but trouble in that – Pack of young fools”. This evidence demonstrates the mentality that the town does these stoning but for the good of the town. Old Man Warner is a great example of people who will justify the horrible things that they are doing thinking that the other towns who have stopped are condemning themselves or are “fools”. The whole town I believe feels this same way with the way that they act nonchalantly about the whole thing, simply wanting to hurry up so they can go back to their normal day. Old Man Warner is really the only person who speaks out and goes to tell and demonstrate to the reader that the town feels it’s a necessity to continue. The whole situation really reminds me of the sacrificial killings that people found that were happening in the Maya culture. They didn’t go about stoning the sacrificial person but instead went in a harsher route just straight cutting out the person’s heart and letting the blood just spill everywhere. Another example that I think of was a documentary, don’t remember the name since I was flipping through the channels and didn’t clearly recognize the channel, but they were talking about how camels, all different breeds of them, were used in different cultures. The main point that really connects with the story was the fact that every year they would have a celebration for the lama (cousin to the camel) they bred and with the celebration they would sacrifice one of the lama’s cutting its throat and letting the blood soak into the ground believing that their God was taking the blood back into the earth and taking it as a good luck and prosperity sign. The fact that both the lottery, the Maya’s and the rural community with the lamas both believed that the sacrifices that they were doing were essential for the community to have luck or prosperity shows that people mask their actions with the idea that if they don’t do it something will go wrong.