Jones vs. Jackson

Analysis of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"
by Indiana Jones

In class we read a short story about another culture that plays a game that seemingly victimizes all of its inhabitants. Today, we are going to compare our culture with the village’s culture in order to see if we can gain insight about ourselves. What a surprise for an Anthropology class, right? Do you think that Shirley Jackson’s short story has any relevance to your life as a college student?
Think about it for next class, I have some work to do.
-Indy

In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” Jackson unveils the true nature of a small village’s cruel game by recounting it in a way that suggests she was present. Although Jackson uses friendly language and imagery to describe the town and its inhabitants, the reader learns that this “lottery,” which at first comes off as having a positive connotation, is really a cruel game where the villagers draw slips of paper to decide which member of the village is stoned to death.  Strangely enough, the game is played with strict attention to equality. Instead of a deranged leader heading up this seemingly psychotic undertaking, everyone, from women and children to government officials, is forced to play the game with the same rules.  Jackson is probably commenting on corrupt humankind’s tendency to warp the illogical into something logical. The general message of the story is one that might be applicable in a very broad sense (humans are inherently evil, society is self-destroying), but meaningfulness is negated by the particular set-up and setting required to tell it.

One might argue that Jackson is calling attention to how people have a tendency to victimize each other for no reason, but there are really no examples in modern society that are quite as far-fetched as picking someone at random to be stoned to death for grotesque entertainment.  In her story, Jackson conveys her opinion that archaic tradition leads to evil, and that humans are naturally evil at their most simple form. These ideas are represented by the old box used to carry the strips of paper and by the old stool. People constantly struggle to free themselves from the binding powers of tradition and close-mindedness, but human evil is not as simple as it is portrayed in this story, especially in the terms of a college student.

The village is small, and everyone knows each other on an individual basis. Interaction is gossipy and social, but superficial; everybody is eager not to think about the morbid game and is searching for distraction. The men nervously and quietly tell jokes and the women exchange gossip before returning back to their husbands. Jackson’s light mood and attention to individuals in the story are just meant for ironic humor. Later both of these aspects of life are disregarded. In college, there is not the same feeling of individualism. It is unusual for a student to know all the other students in a school, even a class. And for many, social life is one of the most important parts about college. Many are looking to form meaningful relationships that are not limited to superficial small-talk to pass time.

The purpose of “The Lottery” is more for entertainment than serious social commentary, and Jackson’s intention is more to tell an interesting story and not to teach the reader a lesson. Even though the story conveys a broad message about society, the very specific setting and scenario in the story keep it from being applicable to a college student’s life.