Causes Of Social Contract In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

“The less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it” (Twain). The Lottery begins during the summer. A small, seemingly normal, town is gathering to throw the annual “Lottery”. In the end, the townspeople—children included—gather around and stone the winner to death, simply because it was tradition. The story reveals how traditions can become outdated and ineffective. “I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives” (Jackson). As humans develop as a race, their practices should develop with them. Shirley Jackson develops the

In “The Leopard Man,” Feys’ explains conformity as “the world’s most prevalent and most pernicious psychological disorder. The consequences of it are no less than the suppression and destruction of one’s self” (1). The text evidence show Feys’ point of view on how conformity can be a good or bad thing. The direct quote also illuminates how conformity can lead to one being less of him or herself. Jackson, the author of “The Lottery”, discusses how the com society to death; the author then says that this repetitive behavior of following the majority can make one become less of an individual also known as a follower.

While many corruptions in the world are fought against, people, such as Tessie Hutchinson, decide to make the issue unimportant unless it openly involves them. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, citizens of the town pay no mind to the issue at hand, rather than noticing the actual problem. Tessie Hutchinson’s extreme shift in emotion and behavior ties straight from the theme when her family is the so-called lucky family in the lottery.

When the word lottery comes to your head you assume it is good but not in most cases. This is the case in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. The Lottery is about a family named the Hutchison’s. All the families in this small village participate in the tradition, the lottery. It is not a normal lottery.

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, things do not appear as they sound. In the short story “The Lottery”, Tessie Hutchinson has a positive attitude until her family is receives the black dot. No one in this village wants to receive the black dot because someone in that family will be stoned to death. The short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson centers around the concept of irony and reveals the village seems more corruption and evil than happy and sweet.

In the control group, with no pressure to conform to confederates, less than 1% of participants gave the wrong answer.” (McLeod, S. A. 2008). An interview was later given, and everyone said they felt like they gave the correct answer for all, fearing they would be the outsider even though they know they gave the wrong answers. This revealed the power of a group where the odd one out would give in and agree with the majority in order to fit in. However, this destroys a person’s judgement.

“The Lottery” is a short story by Shirley Jackson, first published on June 26, 1948. The story was initially met with negative critical reception due to its violent nature and portrayal of the potentially dangerous nature of human society. It was even banned in some countries. However, “The Lottery” is now widely accepted as a classic American short story and is used in classrooms throughout the country.

An obsession exists in the world today based solely upon the use of scapegoats. According to the dictionary, a scapegoat consists of a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place. Some of the most influential scapegoats consist of Jesus Christ taking suffering for the sins of civilization, the Jewish population being punished for the problems in Germany, and more recently the U.S. citizens who perished in 9/11 being punished for the sins of America. Scapegoats have come in many forms over time and have been very destructive. The usage of scapegoats in our society, such as in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, has proved to be damaging, and an end must be found in order to find peace.

The predetermined ideals of how humans should act and think limits the impact of the individual, and even discourages individuals from thinking or acting outside of the mainstream, creating a “dignified homogeneity” amongst people in society (Fitzgerald 44). If one is not part of the majority, they are naturally outcasted to the point where they feel “purposeless and alone” (Fitzgerald 42). This causes people to “wear the mask that grins and lies,” which is the mark of conformity (Dunbar 1). The mask is worn to hide people’s true beliefs and desires in order to appear “normal” or as part of the majority. Conforming with a group against one’s own beliefs has become engrained in the American way of life, which is particularly evident in Asch’s experiment.

In both stories, the innocent characters were fighting death at the hands of someone who found the idea of killing another human being to be a game. In “The Lottery” the game of death consumed an innocent life solely because a few individuals founded a tradition; and in “The Most Dangerous Game” the game of death consumed an innocent life solely because one person thought it was merely entertaining. Both authors portrayed the antagonist as friendly, warm and welcoming. In the Lottery, the antagonists were the families whom participated in the drawing of a name that lead to the stoning of another family member (which may or may not be their own family member). In “The Most Dangerous Game” the antagonist was a well-off general who opened his luxurious home to guests who have gone astray from their original destination. Death is the main theme of both short stories and both authors portrayed this dark and dreary idea as a game the characters are playing.

In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, it can be very dangerous to follow traditions blindly without knowing about the horrible consequences. When one follows traditions and laws and never questions or seeks to understand the reason for them, the inevitable outcome often brings sorrow. Indeed blind devotion to complying with rules that destroys the human spirit by removing choice, and continuing rituals with dark consequences, and punishing anyone who objects to following tradition. Complying with rules that helps lead to destroying the human spirit is dangerous because individuals should always have the choice to follow those rules. The blind devotion of the village participating in the town’s yearly lottery is the clear example why all rules aren’t always positive. Rituals can be looked upon as positive but they also can have a negative connotation when they lead to dangerous consequences. The village in the story has a ritual every year to hold a lottery, where the winner is stoned to death and this is a clear example how a ritual can be viewed negatively. Traditions are beliefs passed down between generations of a family or culture. They are things we do by choice because they are enjoyable and meaningful for the people involved. Traditions in the story have a dark side to it because the tradition in this village is to kill one of members of the village using a lottery system. The dark side of “The Lottery”, is substantial with many down falls of

“Group conformity scares the pants off me because it’s so often a prelude to cruelty towards anyone who doesn’t want to-or can’t-join the Big Parade.” The style of text I have chosen to focus on is individuality, as I believe that uniqueness of an individual is essential for freedom. Through analysing the texts Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Equilibrium by Kurt Wimmer, Blind Faith by Ben Elton, The Machine Stops by E.M. Foster and I Always do what Teddy Says by Harry Harrison. I have noticed that societies are being controlled through the idea of conflicts and religious symbolism and conformity, which are prominent in all the societies. The intent to trigger us of the dystopias that could arise in our world today is prominent. I have also

Just as the quote states about, we are all “sheep” trying to be discreet and waiting to see which way the wind blows and to follow the crowd. We have always been taught since young ages to be unique, let your colors shine, and not to let anyone tell you who you should be. Conformity is just the opposite; it’s following the norm, going with the flow, following the crowd. When going out into our society everyone tells us to stand out, but then society emphasis togetherness. Telling us that we need to fit in. Everyone wants to belong to something; it’s the urge to belong, the motivation to fit in and to be a part of something. What happens when people follow the “norm” even though it’s clearly the wrong thing to do? Can having a number of people pick the wrong decision make others conform as well? Or do they stand out, and rebel against the group because they know its right? These are all

“Chips of wood, Mr. Summers had argued, had been all very well when the village was tiny, but now that the population was more than three hundred and likely to keep growing” (Jackson, 2). The town never had an overpopulation issue, there was never a good enough reason to continue the lottery and even less start it for that matter. The social hierarchy of the town did not allow the people to have a voice and that made them feel intimidated. The people were almost programed and expected to accept and carry this unfair tradition; not because of the meaning of it but because they were scared to ask to let it go in results of things getting worse.

In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the small village, at first, seems to be lovely, full of tradition, with the townspeople fulfilling their civic duties, but instead this story is bursting with contrast. The expectations that the reader has are increasingly altered. The title of this short story raises hope, for in our society the term “lottery” typically is associated with winning money or other perceived “good” things. Most people associate winning a lottery with luck, yet Jackson twists this notion around and the luck in this village is with each of the losers.