The Lottery Case

Brent Struble

Eng 102 Comp II

Prof. Lasek

9/27/12

In Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" people that live in the village are all entered for a chance to die at the hands of other villagers. The lottery system they have in place makes the entire village come together and chose paper out of a box to pick a family, and then the family picks paper out of the box to determine who gets stones thrown at them until they die. The people all come together without any regard for the fact they are killing friends and family members in their community. The only comparable lottery system that is even remotely similar to this one would be our modern day draft (modern being a relative term to the last 50 years of recorded history). The draft that the United States implemented back during wars past was a way to boost troop numbers without enlistments. Both are lotteries that no one wants to win.

The lottery is done as well as they can to their old ways with no real idea or concept as to where this tradition started. The box they use isn't the original, the papers in the box used to be wooden chips; they used to make a sort of show of the event now its hurried and pushed along. There are a lot of things done that do not fall in line with known past presidents. But still they keep up with the murdering and slaughter of innocent people through this lottery system.

It's never really disclosed as to the reason they continue to do these practices at all. No one seems to know what's really going on when the lottery occurs, but like cattle they mindlessly let it continue without questioning the motive. When no one questions authority or tradition when it does not fit with what is right in the current world it leads to problems. People in charge gain too much power, which will normally leads to abuse of power. Tradition isn't always the right answer when it comes to life. For example look at kings and queens it was an antiquated system that led to the unnecessary deaths and abuse of power on behalf of those in power.

It's the actions taken by the masses without judgment that lead to the harm of many. All throughout history its evident that when a large group of people get together with a mindset that's locked that it will not be changed or even looked at rationally.