Examples Of Social Issues In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Essay- The Social Issues in Literature

In 1948 The New Yorker published a short story that has been called “one of the most famous short stories in the history of American literature”. Written by Shirley Jackson and called “The Lottery” it tells about a small community and an annual ritual that was originally performed to grant a good harvest. According to tradition, each member of the community gets a lottery ticket; one of these has a black dot meaning that the person who draws it is stoned to death by the others.

Shirley Jackson's controversial story has been regarded as a parable of our modern society with its tendency to conformity and inability to question authority. According to her this may eventually lead to the cruel actions like

the ones told in the story and that we hear about almost every day in the news.

Humanity and empathy may be part of the human nature, but so is our blind obedience to the men in power and our willingness to do what they tell us to do.

The author makes this point indirectly, she is only the objective narrator and leaves it to her reader to draw the conclusions. This makes the story even more powerful. “The Lottery” is very relevant to our society today, in the way that we tend to gather quickly towards other people’s misery, such as participating in gossip, watching a car accident scene or a fight. However, as long as it does not happen to us. It is without a doubt hypocritical, but it is something that humans do all the time. And it is something that is pointed out in Jackson’s “The Lottery”.

When one of the characters, Bill Hutchinson opens his wife's slip of paper which reveals the black mark, Mr. Summers, the man in charge, comments: “All right, folks... Let's finish quickly." Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and its original meaning, they still remembered to use stones as part of the performance and Bill’s wife Tessie is eventually stoned to death. (Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery: And Other Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1982.

Print.)
The position of power is the key element in “The Lottery” Mr. Summers is the head of the town and he has the power to control the lottery, as he is formally chosen by the people. He is the elected Leader and no one questions his authority. Not even the members of Tessie’s own family refuse to participate in the murder.
Therefore, the characters in “The Lottery” has no power or authority to refuse the killing.

As Tessie says, “You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t fair!” (. (Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery: And Other Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1982. Print.)Due to the fact that Tessie is not in a power position, causes the denial of her wish to draw again. The conclusion that can be made from that is, because Tessie lacks higher authority, she gets to be stoned to death without a say so. Without interference from anyone. As Shirley Jackson admonishes us in a very discrete way to become more watchful, both in our own interactions in everyday life and to the people we have elected as our representatives. It is an often repeated and sad fact that power

distorts.
The position of power is something that impacts everyone in everyday life. We are taught to believe that in order to achieve power, we have to do it through deception and manipulation. This is taught from an early stage, starting at the playground, when someone is trying to steal our toys. It follows us through adulthood and into our working lives, when we acquire important positions at work. Hence, we need to become more watchful in how power distorts our ways in treating each other. Just as in “The Lottery” both Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves were in positions of power, where they were in the position where they could administrate punishments, in this case the punishment of death, with no objection of the other villagers. “The Lottery” was written in the late 1940’s but the concept is still the same. When Jackson’s short story was published readers cancelled subscriptions and sent hate mail, reactions that are even more common today whenever someone dares to question what is considered “politically correct”.