Decoding The Lottery

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. You may not have heard of that story but I will advise you to read it. "The Lottery" is as puzzling and hard to predict as a lottery itself. It takes a perfectly normal setting of villagers gathering to take part in a lottery but the prize is not one of wealth, joy or happiness. It is the prize of death. "The Lottery", like some other stories, is an exaggerated reflection of society. The last post I posted talked a bit about "beautifully written stories". This certainly is not one. It does not focus on the settings and people, but the events. Also, it expects you to infer about what the story is trying to say by yourself. Due to the human factor, some interpretations could be even deeper than what the writer intended or could be much shallower. "The Lottery" certainly was not solely written for entertainment. The events in the story is evidence.

My interpretation, which may not be correct, is that firstly, the writer, a female, is depicting a sexist society, which is exactly what the world is. All the important people are all males while the females all stand on the sidelines.

Secondly, the story shows that people care more about their own survival than their family and close friends. Albert Einstein once said, "Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile" but the characters in "The Lottery" certainly do not believe that. They would rather stone a family member than reap bad harvest.

Next, the story shows just how hypocritical Man is, they do not mind if someone else is suffering as long as they do not suffer else well. An example was when Mrs. Hutchinson was about to be killed. She protested that "it isn't fair, it isn't right." because she was about to be killed but had she not stoned other people to death the year before and the year before that?

Finally, the story shows that society does not care for a strange or different person and that person is singled out. They also do not want to come into contact with that person. My evidence is that the villagers stoned Mrs. Hutchinson instead of using other methods such as a knife as they want to put distance between themselves and the different person.