The Lottery By Elie Wiesel Analysis
When first asked if society has the power to erase someone’s humanity, you may not say yes. But think about the Salem witch trials, when innocent people were burned to death. Think about the first native Americans who were kicked out of their homes, off of their land. Think of the Holocaust, when thousands of innocent Jewish people were murdered. All of these are examples of people having their humanity taken from them. And they aren’t the only ones. One reason to believe that society does in fact have the power to erase one’s humanity is that society has already been doing it for so long. In 1986, Elie Wiesel, author of “Night” and survivor of the german concentration camps, wrote in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, “Human rights are being violated on every continent.” If he had realised, two decades ago, that people were being treated so terribly, it is naïve to believe that things haven’t gotten worse. Also, in “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, the “winner” is stoned to death by the whole town, including children and family. Evidently, this “lottery” had been going on for decades. The author had even written that “The people had
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done it [the lottery] so many times that they only half listened to the directions.”
The next reason to believe that society can erase one’s humanity is that, treating someone like an animal, or worse, has the tendency to make someone feel inhuman, and that’s happened a few times in the world.
For instance, in Elie Wiesel’s book “Night,” he tells us about how the Nazis’ stripped the Jewish people of everything, including their humanity. In fact, the Jewish were told to: “Strip! Hurry up! Raus! Hold on only to your belt and your shoes.” (9) Being stripped of your clothing like that can cause vulnerability and the feeling of fear and being inferior. Also, it is mentioned in the “Executive Order 9066,” that “Nearly 70,000 of those evacuees [the Japanese evacuees being taken from Hawaii] were American citizens.” Almost 70,000 innocent American citizens were taken from their homes simply because of their
heritage.
The question of whether or not society can erase someone’s humanity is two sided. It’s a simple yes or no. There’s an overwhelming amount of evidence as to why the answer is yes, but some people may believe otherwise. They may believe that keeping, or not keeping, your humanity is a choice. They may say that Elie Wiesel survived the Holocaust and the concentration camps, and still had enough humanity to write this in his book: “Our ship’s passengers amused themselves by throwing coins to the natives...when I noticed two children fighting...I implored the lady: ‘Please, don’t throw anymore coins!” But, later on, in that same book, Elie had written about looking at himself in the mirror and seeing only a corpse.
In conclusion, society does have the power to erase one’s humanity. Society has been doing it for decades now. “Human rights are being violated on every continent.” And that needs to change.
done it [the lottery] so many times that they only half listened to the directions.”
The next reason to believe that society can erase one’s humanity is that, treating someone like an animal, or worse, has the tendency to make someone feel inhuman, and that’s happened a few times in the world.
For instance, in Elie Wiesel’s book “Night,” he tells us about how the Nazis’ stripped the Jewish people of everything, including their humanity. In fact, the Jewish were told to: “Strip! Hurry up! Raus! Hold on only to your belt and your shoes.” (9) Being stripped of your clothing like that can cause vulnerability and the feeling of fear and being inferior. Also, it is mentioned in the “Executive Order 9066,” that “Nearly 70,000 of those evacuees [the Japanese evacuees being taken from Hawaii] were American citizens.” Almost 70,000 innocent American citizens were taken from their homes simply because of their
heritage.
The question of whether or not society can erase someone’s humanity is two sided. It’s a simple yes or no. There’s an overwhelming amount of evidence as to why the answer is yes, but some people may believe otherwise. They may believe that keeping, or not keeping, your humanity is a choice. They may say that Elie Wiesel survived the Holocaust and the concentration camps, and still had enough humanity to write this in his book: “Our ship’s passengers amused themselves by throwing coins to the natives...when I noticed two children fighting...I implored the lady: ‘Please, don’t throw anymore coins!” But, later on, in that same book, Elie had written about looking at himself in the mirror and seeing only a corpse.
In conclusion, society does have the power to erase one’s humanity. Society has been doing it for decades now. “Human rights are being violated on every continent.” And that needs to change.