Obedience To Authority In The Lottery

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The limits of obedience to authority is an overall good idea and. In the short story, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, supports the thought that blind obedience will only lead to bad things. Authority does not have to be a person; it can be an item or belief. Obedience to authority can lead to the destruction of that group and groups should never blindly follow anything, especially when they feel as if it is wrong. Obedience should be regulated and only occur when the demand of authority is rational and reasonable.
The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson shows what can happen if they instinctively obey authority. Every year that city participated in the lottery; however, it is not a lottery where they win money, it is a lottery to see who is getting stoned to death that year. The black box is used to pick who would be chosen for that year’s stoning. Over …show more content…

The townspeople do not want to stone someone every year; rather, the peer pressure they experience is why they do not go against the norm. Old Man Warner is one of those authoritative figures because he thinks that the tradition should stay even though in most places it is no longer being used. In the north, village people are talking about giving up the lottery, although Old Man Warner insists that they are just a pack of crazy fools and that nothing is ever good enough for them (Jackson 215). Old Man Warner is an example of irrational authority because the others in a way want to give up the lottery and with good reason; the interests of the people is ignored by the authoritative figure (Fromm 363). The authoritative symbol is the black box, which is used to do the lottery. Although it may not seem like a box can control people; it has a sense of tradition to it and for that reason, it manipulates the people in the town into thinking that they have to do the lottery or else something bad will happen to them all (Jackson

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