Tuesday, September 3, 2013
The Lottery
Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" concerns itself with the concept that it can be acceptable to require the individual to sacrifice for the greater good. It amazes me that something so horrible can be a tradition is a community. Every year this Lottery occurs, people prepare for it by gathering stones and putting them in piles. There must be a reason it started, maybe population control or some other reason. It doesn't seem like stoning one person a year is very good population control seeing as how the reading talks about how much bigger the community has gotten. It might have started as a punishment that just gradually became a thing for some ridiculous reason. For whatever the reason, this happens each year and it's ok with the people, until they are the one chosen. as Tessie said "it's not fair" but the others were already starting to crowd her as soon as they realized it was her. They wanted to "get it over with" or get it done so they could get back to work. Some women seemed a little merciful when they said, "it seems like we just did one last week". Regardless of the reason the community obviously feels that this is important otherwise they would have done away with this already.
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Do you think that the community feels that it's important to keep the tradition or that they are too scared to make a change?
ReplyDeletei agree that once the town's people found out that it was her, in a way were relieved that it wasnt them. They didnt have the black dot on the piece of paper, going along with tradition so matter-of-factly, even handing little Davy a rock to throw at his own mother. It horrific to think of stoning someone to death and it seems commonplace in their community.
ReplyDeleteif it were me I would feel guilty but at the same time I would be scared to say something so I could understand the people simply going along with it just so that they won't cause any commotion.
ReplyDeleteWhen the people did finally have a decision on who it was going to be, to me it seemed that it finally showed the true morbid side of this tradition, instead such casual and light hearted conversations.
ReplyDeleteThere are a few concerns here. The first is your assertion that this was for the sake of population control. Where, specifically, in the story do you see evidence for that? Likewise, where in the story do you see evidence for your other assertion--that this started as some sort of punishment? Finally, per guidelines, it's your job to look outward, to find modern-day ties to the concept of sacrificing the individual for the greater good....
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