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The Role Of Savagery In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” was published in a 1948 issue of The New Yorker and this horror story, written about a annual tradition of heinously stoning someone to death, quickly lead to a mass controversy to all who read it. The simple text was quickly and easily written in one afternoon, after Jackson got home from pushing her daughter up the hill in a stroller (Coulthard 227). The normalcy in which “The Lottery was written created a mixed menagerie of reactions from confusion to the extremity of outrage and even hatred. “The Lottery” single handedly turned the entire subscription base against her, which happen to include her own mother. Perhaps because there is no known origin of this ritual in “The Lottery”, there is no character to …show more content…
Coulthard called “The Lottery” “a parable of the evil inherent in human nature” (226). Jackson’s story illustrated the traditions of savagery and inhumanity in a simple way, when she wrote that Mrs. Delacroix “selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands” (Jackson 141). Mrs. Delacroix had previously regarded Tessie Hutchinson as a friend and once the stoning was about to being, she turned on her and eagerly hurried along to complete this ritual of sacrifice. The final words of Jackson’s short story suggested “enthusiasm rather than reluctance to murder a member of their community” (Coulthard 227). The very matter-of-fact way in which “The Lottery” was written implied that Jackson didn’t fully understand the meaning behind her …show more content…
Shields writes that the relevance between current society’s policies written on capital punishment and “The Lottery” is reiterated in the “feeling of uneasiness about an arbitrary execution”. He goes on to write that Jackson’s story “moved readers to react to this story at the time it was published”. The readers were shocked by the “inherent unfairness of the act, since it involves the killing of an innocent victim” (Shields 412). In comparison with capital punishment, “violence and fear of violence lead to more violence. It is a never-ending cycle that gains acceptance like tradition” (Shields 415). This represents a mentality of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em”. Shirley Jackson’s story allows the reader to look past the act of execution and focus on the meaning behind it all (Shields

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