Examples Of Injustice In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

Using the information that I have gathered from literacy I’ve come to the realization that injustices are life changing events that can shift your life dramatically or can either have a smaller effect. The short story, “The Lottery”, by Shirley Jackson, the short story Lamb to the Slaughter, by Roald Dahl, the characters face injustices that clearly changed their way of life. In “The Lottery” people in society draw names as a sacrifice to grow better crops because of a traditional belief. In “Lamb to the Slaughter”, the character Mary faces many injustices of not having a husband and having to take care of her unborn child. People often are put in a situation that makes their life unfair and sometimes unbearable, these situations are dealt

with differently. I learned that people face injustices everywhere, including personal situations, societal, and in literacy such as “The Lottery” and “Lamb to the Slaughter.”

I believe in the two short stories, the characters faced injustices. Firstly, I believe in the short story Lamb to the Slaughter, women faced injustices with needing a man to get respect. For example, if say you didn’t have a husband during the 1950s, when this short story was taking place, you would be known as the widow of society and nobody would want any social interaction with you and would be looked down upon society. Since, this happens, it would be an injustice to the women in society because the women could have good reasoning behind why they don’t have a husband. This is also unfair because little to no harm is done if the man decides leaves the women. I also believe that the characters in the short story “The Lottery” faced injustices, like not having fundamental freedoms. An example of this is the lottery, everybody must participate in the lottery and if you don’t your name gets put in the black box more times so, there is a greater chance for your family members to get chosen. This is a injustice to society because they have no say or choice to the involvement of the lottery, due to traditional reasons. Another injustice in “Lamb to the Slaughter” is when Patrick decides to leave Mary and her unborn child. For instance, if Patrick had the chance to leave Mary, he would get most of the belongings including money and Mary would be left with very little. As a result of this, it would be an injustice to Mary because she would have to support a soon to be born child while having very little money to do so, since most savings goes to the husband. In conclusion, I believe there were many injustices in the two literacies such as, a woman needing a man to be respected in Lamb to the Slaughter, Not having fundamental freedoms in The Lottery, and lastly in Lamb to the Slaughter Patrick leaving Mary. As you can see injustices are faced in many literacies, but it can also occur in modern day society.

People often face injustices in their daily lives and respond to these injustices differently depending on the person.

A controversial injustice in modern day society is gender inequality. An example of gender inequality is women getting paid less than men of equal value jobs. Out of 34 countries in the OECD, Canada had the 7th highest gender wage gap in 2014. As a result, this is an injustice to women because they put in the same amount of work and some could say effort, but the outcome of the money proportion is significantly different. Another injustice that is plaguing society is racism. For example, in America, as early as preschool black students are punished more frequently, and more harshly, for misbehaving than the other students. The disproportionate punishment of black students is unjust because they are treated worse than other people, therefore it is unequal. I also believe that socioeconomic status is an injustice in modern day society that not many people recognize. For instance, in many societies how status is gained is by whoever has the most money, so the homeless generally get treated poorly. In behalf of the homeless, this is an injustice because they get treated unfairly compared to the rest of society. To conclude, I believe that there are still many injustices occurring in modern day society such as, gender inequality, racism, and socioeconomic status. These injustices are faced by groups of people, but I have faced some of these injustices

individually as well.

I have faced many injustices in my life, but I have learned from them and realised that these problems are everywhere.

I have been affected from injustices personally, racism is one of the injustices that I have faced. For example, I most commonly have faced racism in school and sometime in public. I have been called an immigrant and other racist terms. As a result, I feel that this is an injustice towards me because people assume things about me and also start to make jokes about my way of life. I have also encountered a minor injustice when I enter seven eleven after school. For instance, when I enter the store after school, I am told to take off my backpack and put it to the side or I am instructed to wait outside so, they can supervise everyone once at a time. This is a injustice to not only me, but all other teens that go to seven eleven after school. This is unjust because the store worker assume that I and other teenagers are going to steal. Other age group people that enter the store are allowed to go in with no restrictions which is unfair. I have also faced injustices from my parents at times.. An example of this is when my parents are wrong about a topic and I prove them wrong with straight facts from the internet but, I still get in trouble for doing absolutely nothing wrong. This would be an injustice towards me because I was just correcting my parents about a topic that they inaccurately discussed, and I still somehow get in trouble for trying to help them out.

As a conclusion, I personally have been affected from injustices like racism, seven eleven, and from my parents.

People want to be treated equally like everyone else but, sometimes this can be a struggle from people's views and beliefs colliding. In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, and the short story “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl, the characters dealt with these situations, that they were put in differently. In “Lamb to the Slaughter”, Mary took the path of killing her husband due to the circumstances of the setting, in “The Lottery”, the people of society had to just ignore and go with the lottery. Even though people deal with minor and major injustices, people often learn how to deal with these situations to make society a better place to live. Sometimes having dealt with this type of scenario can change your perspective and therefore, allow society to recognize the problems and have it solved.