Examples Of Humanistic Obedience In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Shirley Jackson’s, The Lottery, is a short story that begins innocent and unassuming, but finishes with a much darker undertone. Many themes are presented in this story but one is much more prominent; you need a willingness to change tradition. Jackson created characters that represented this theme very well, as they were able to convey the traditions and emotions she was trying to show without being boring or two-dimensional. The townspeople’s refusal to change - or even completely abandon - the tradition of a lottery is what will be their downfall.

Jackson’s story takes a critical look at what can result when the customs and laws that govern society go unchallenged. She sets up the story by showing that the townspeople are quite normal. They attend the lottery while having everyday discussions about the mundane topics of life, such as taxes, food, and housework. Nevertheless, they

In today’s society we often have an all too-casual attitude toward misfortune; Jackson shows us this aspect of human nature through the town’s casual attitude toward the lottery. The men talk of "rain, tractors and taxes" and the women gossip—all the time

    "The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice.  The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens.  On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate.  Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice.  Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about.  Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” is about a bizarre ritual performed in a town in which the townspeople proceed to follow every year. In a black, worn box they place all the names of the community. Once all the names are placed inside, Mr. Summers draws a name. After the name is chosen, this member will be stoned to death by the others in the community. Tessie Hutchinson in the story tries to reject the repetitive tradition of the lottery.

Shirley Jackson’s famous short story, “The Lottery,” was published in 1948 and remains to this day one of the most enduring and affecting American works in the literary canon. “The Lottery” tells the story of a farming community that holds a ritualistic lottery among its citizens each year. Although the text initially presents audiences with a close-knit community participating in a social event together on a special day, the shocking twist at the work’s end—with the death of the lottery’s “winner” by public stoning—has led to its widespread popularity, public outcry and discussion, and continued examination in modern times (Jackson). One potential critical theory that can be applied to Jackson’s “The Lottery” is the reader-response

The short story, The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, managed to capture various human tendencies stemming from the very heart of the unalterable human condition. The willingness to follow tradition blindly, the inherent cruelty of humans, and the unwillingness to change were the primary negative behaviors depicted in the story.

     The Lottery, a short story by the nonconformist author Shirley Jackson, represents communities, America, the world, and conformist society as a whole by using setting and most importantly symbolism with her inventive, cryptic writing style. It was written in 1948, roughly three years after the liberation of a World War II concentration camp Auschwitz. Even today, some people deny that the Holocaust ever happened. Jackson shows through the setting of the story, a small, close knit town, that even though a population can ignore evil, it is still prevalent in society (for example: the Harlem Riots; the terrorist attacks on September 11; the beating of Rodney King.)

Have you ever noticed that people only hear what they want to hear. This is a universal truth in mankind, and can be found all throughout literature. Moreover, this can result in the will and beliefs of an individual to be neglected in favor of the common belief, or the majority opinion. The favoring of the group as opposed to the individual is a main theme in numerous books and speaks greatly about human nature. In Lord of the Flies, Siddartha, and To Kill a Mockingbird, the will of an individual challenges the will of the group and or society, with distinctively similar outcomes.

“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson written and published in 1948, takes place on June 27th in a small town of three hundred people. Villagers gather together at around ten o’clock for one of the main rituals called ‘the lottery‘, which takes place in the central square. “The lottery was conducted as were the square dances” (Jackson 31) illustrating the timely scheduled event. It is a normal day with “the fresh warmth of a full summer day” (Jackson 1). The men arte having regular conversations about “the planting, rain, tractors, and taxes” (Jackson 21) as they wait for the lottery to began. The lottery, an old tradition, is held every year and is done for the prosperity of the villagers. The secret

Everyone has an understanding on what goes on in life. We all agree in a general sense. Mountains are mountains, and rivers are rivers. The Lottery by shirley jackson has taken this idea to a whole new level. Shirley introduces a culture in which indoctrination has taken over. The lottery might seem like the happiest day in the world to most people, but on June 27th in the local village square an unordinary tradition takes place. Through the allegory The Lottery, Shirley Jackson depicts, through extreme satire, a society that includes Mr. Joe Summers who blindly follows a tradition in which amplifies the theme of indoctrination, even tho he does not believe in it.

In the story of Walter Wimpwung who had a hard day, he experience different types of behaviors throughout his day. First, he had to listen and follow to an order from his boss. Next, he didn’t speak up during a meeting about the product which he didn’t agree with but just went with the crowd. Lastly, he got tricked into buying a bunch of useless stuff. These types of behavior are very common in our day to day lifestyle because it’s something we have got used to. Behaviors like obedience, conformity, compliance, and a variety of different types of social power are examples of what happened to Walter.

In the article "Group Minds", author Doris Lessing discusses obedience in a group environment. She explains that Western societies honor individualism, but the human race is blind to the ways in which groups steal a person’s originality. She further believes that psychologists and sociologists hold facts that could teach us to be wary of these social pressures. Lessing clearly shows that society withholds information concerning the instinctive desire of acceptance and the influence conformity has on individuality.

The tyranny of the majority is best illustrated with one majority group imposing its interest above the minority. There are societal norms that are put in place by the majority, such as not picking your nose, that in which case if are disobeyed, individuals are seen as outcasts. Just because the majority of people say to do or not do something, does not enact it as law, especially over the matter of opinions. Nevertheless, John Stuart Mill

Doris Lessing’s article “Group Minds,” discusses the impact of group conformity, and how it not only affects the community, but individualism as well. Lessing points out how people’s mentality and thinking patterns change if they are included in a group. Similar to Lessing’s story of the experiment with the sticks, Solomon E. Asch describes a college scenario using white cards and black lines, where both the situations have a vast majority of people standing together to do what they are told and saying the wrong answer, while the few students who have the correct answer uphold this answer until they soon “yield to the majority” (599). Doris Lessing describes this act of complying with society as “obey[ing] the atmosphere” because they are following