Humanity In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Austin Barnhill

In her short story “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson explores the various human tendencies that stem from the heart of the human condition that we cannot break free from. Society's need to follow traditions blindly regardless of reality, the natural cruelty of people, and people’s resolve not to change their ways is the truth behind the horrors of the story and what ultimately leads to the death of an innocent.

As people we say that humanity is always moving forward, learning from the mistakes of the past, however the opposite is more true than we may like to admit. Throughout history, we as people have made the same mistakes multitudes of times and after each catastrophe, though we claim that the world has learned and the events

of the past will not be repeated the future always seems to prove that notion wrong.

The Lottery focuses on this aspect of humanity and explores it to examine the truth behind human nature and in the story we are shown a society that goes through a lottery system to determine the victim of the town’s justice. Though such a tradition seems horrible to an outsider to the occupants of the town who have lived and grown with such a system will find no fault in it. This is the first aspect of humanity that Jackson explores and that is humanity’s need to stay true to the traditions it sets for itself. While traditions may differ across societies, one can find that those societies often stay true to those traditions even if they are centuries old and even if they are unmercifully cruel. One society that could be brought to mind is the Aztecs, who since the dawn of their civilization had a practice of sacrifice where they would take the still beating heart of a man -most of the time prisoners of war and criminals, but not

always- and cut it out as a present to their gods. One would think that eventually someone would call an end to such a practice, however once a tradition is set and people grown to see it as just par for the course it suddenly becomes no different than breathing, it becomes a necessity. It is this part of humanity that Jackson shows can truly become deadly when the tradition like the event the story is named for: the lottery.
Along with the blind following of tradition Jackson also goes beyond what takes time to integrate itself into a society and focuses on the natural cruelty of man.

The town when it comes time to deliver the results of the lottery have no complaints or troubles over stoning to death an innocent person. In fact, it is encouraged, for even the families of the victim to take part in the action. The story uses the lottery and the town’s actions to show that people have a natural affinity towards cruelty. The story asks us to look upon ourselves and see that we all have a natural ability to be cruel to others and anything else is just us breaking away from our natural instincts. In fact the town takes the whole event with an unnatural casualness as they are just wanting to get the event over with so they can eat lunch. It is not the stoning of someone they know, no it is the impeding on their dining that has the town in an uproar. It is this casualness that represents the greatest cruelty: that a person’s death means ultimately

nothing.
In the end though what truly causes this cycle of death to continue? The answer is simple: the town itself. The town continues with this tradition no matter whose family members, neighbors, loved ones die. Why does this town not have enough of such mindless killing. It is because it is in our nature to resist change. It is quite common to hear about people not changing their ways because it is grounded in their culture. One modern example is the gay marriage debate as the opposition argues on the grounds of principle and tradition. It is their nature to resist change they see as negative and because the town has no problem killing one of their own -unless it is they themselves that are in the crosshairs- they see no need to change. It is the town’s desire for stability and homeostasis that prevents anyone from ending such mindless cruelty.
“The Lottery” is an exploration of the human condition that uses the uses a small town’s local tradition: the lottery to explore the truth behind human nature. In “The Lottery” humanity is described as blindly cruel, ready to kill anyone under grounds of tradition. Jackson in her story shows us a town that resists ending senseless violence for their own superstitions and well being, because that is the human condition: a cruel, unbending figure who will not stop unless forced.