Shirley Jackson The Lottery Quote Analysis
In 1948, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson demonstrates the effect of social groups, how that affects the conscious mind and decisions. There’s a small village of three hundred people, and every year there’s a “Lottery”. The lottery was a long standing tradition the people of the village did every year since its founding’s. It consists of a post master, sheriff, and opening words, the whole town gathers in the middle of the village for the drawing. The whole thing starts around early morning to finish around noon. The drawing begins, all three hundred villager’s names are placed in the box. Once the drawings over whoever ends up with the paper with a black dot on it, is stoned. The loser of the lottery was the wife of one of the men, she yells
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out for help. That its not fair, she didn’t have time to pick the right piece of paper. Meanwhile the entire village ignores and reluctantly at first pick up rocks then get hasty as to get over the whole situation. Then the lottery concludes with everyone following each other, and stoning the woman.
In “Disobedience as A Psychological and Moral Problem” By Erich Fromm he informs on obedience to authority explaining the different types of authority.
How they relate to our every day conscious and subconscious mind. Providing a brief background on how authority has shaped itself into our minds over history. “Authoritarian conscience” is the conscious part of our minds that we want to obey, to please and not displease. “Humanistic conscience” is similar to and individual’s humanity to know the difference between right and wrong, or life and death. In “The Lottery” there’s a constant battle of these two types of authority, no ones happy about the tradition, but its tradition. So to not displease anyone it has remained a staple for the village to continue. Once the actual drawing is over essentially the woman who lost objects the decisions. Reluctant at first the villager’s authoritarian conscience kicks in moving them forward to finish the job hastily abandoning their humanistic conscience. The people in charge of “The Lottery” have the power and by using that the fear of disobeying them is what lead the villagers to discard their humanity. Since the beginning of time across many cultures its been instilled in humans, that obedience is good disobeying is bad. The irony is by disobeying you free yourself from the ideologies of the masses, taking a different path to
individualism.
out for help. That its not fair, she didn’t have time to pick the right piece of paper. Meanwhile the entire village ignores and reluctantly at first pick up rocks then get hasty as to get over the whole situation. Then the lottery concludes with everyone following each other, and stoning the woman.
In “Disobedience as A Psychological and Moral Problem” By Erich Fromm he informs on obedience to authority explaining the different types of authority.
How they relate to our every day conscious and subconscious mind. Providing a brief background on how authority has shaped itself into our minds over history. “Authoritarian conscience” is the conscious part of our minds that we want to obey, to please and not displease. “Humanistic conscience” is similar to and individual’s humanity to know the difference between right and wrong, or life and death. In “The Lottery” there’s a constant battle of these two types of authority, no ones happy about the tradition, but its tradition. So to not displease anyone it has remained a staple for the village to continue. Once the actual drawing is over essentially the woman who lost objects the decisions. Reluctant at first the villager’s authoritarian conscience kicks in moving them forward to finish the job hastily abandoning their humanistic conscience. The people in charge of “The Lottery” have the power and by using that the fear of disobeying them is what lead the villagers to discard their humanity. Since the beginning of time across many cultures its been instilled in humans, that obedience is good disobeying is bad. The irony is by disobeying you free yourself from the ideologies of the masses, taking a different path to
individualism.