The Lottery Shirley Jackson Analysis

Amy Griffin’s Article - “Shirley Jackson’s THE LOTTERY” Critiqued Does a community exist for the sustenance of its custom and tradition or is it the other way around? The community in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” has lost proper perspective of the essence of their “lottery” traditional practice. They became captives of their own community’s tradition such that under its compulsion they engage in very self-destructive acts. They lay themselves and all they have family and all, on the line as sacrifices for their tradition. This aptly depicts the overwhelming and blinding influence custom and tradition can have on humans, distorting their thought pattern and behavior. It robbed this community of morals. This critical analysis is
based on Amy A. Griffin’s critical article - “Jackson’s THE LOTTERY”, sourced from The Explicator on Academic OneFile. According to “The Lottery”, these community members over time found themselves helpless with a lottery ritual that requires their collective lynching to death of one member each year – the lottery “winner”.
The lottery winner is the person who picks the one ballot paper with a black spot on it from the village ancient black box. The influence of this tradition was so strong that the “winner’s” husband, Mr. Hutchinson was in the forefront of the activities he knows too well will lead to communal mobbing of his wife and the mother of his children to death. When the winner Mrs. Hutchinson cried “unfair” over the lottery procedure the husband countered “shut up, Tessie.” He was the one who forced the death sentence “winning ticket” out of his wife’s clenched fist and displayed for the community, indicating his wife as the human sacrifice for the ritual. Their little son Dave also had a stone to join the community in stoning his mother to death. Mrs. Hutchison’s very good friend Mrs. Delacroix who moments ago was engaged in a lively conversation with her euphonized the impending tragedy calling it a sport and chiding her, “Be a good sport,
Tessie.” Griffin wondered “why do the villagers cling to tradition when they no longer find meaning in the ritual?” She considered that Mr. and Mrs. Adams who symbolized the voice of reasoning, drew attention to the fact “that over in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery” and “some places have already quit lotteries.” Their combined effort was however stifled by that of Old Man Wander symbolizing Irrationality, stagnation, antiquity, and status quo, who dismissed those other communities mentioned as pack of crazy young fools. This indicates that human reluctance to change is very strong, compelling the villagers to align with Wander. Secondly, that even Mr. Adams ended up being in the fore front of the crowd that proceeded to mob Mrs. Hutchison demonstrates how forceful peer pressure can be. Again, it also remarkable that “although the villagers have forgotten the ritual and lost the original box, they still remembered to use the stone.” To this, Griffin stated that “the story thus takes the stance that humanity’s inclination toward violence overshadows the society’s need for civilized tradition.” Her analysis raises some questions.
Is the driving force behind the heinous practice really tradition or is it some innate viciousness inherent in humans being that is seeking avenue of expression? Couldn’t it be for something more than allegiance to tradition that a child will cast stones on a parent, a husband on his wife, a friend strain to lift and cast the heaviest stone on a friend and together with the mob murder an innocent person who is dear to them? Hence Griffin’s conclusion that “when no recollection of ritual’s symbolism exists, the ‘mass psyche’ becomes the ‘hypnotic focus of fascination, drawing everyone under its spell’” There was no one moral enough to take a consistent differing stance. Must attaining belongingness cost that
much? Finally, “Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery” in sociological perspective exposes the moral weakness of human beings, as demonstrated by the villagers’ irrational adherence to obsolete, harmful, and meaningless traditional practice against their conscience. It also indicates that group think, conformity, and commitment to ritualism can be blinding, counter-productive, and viciously destructive.

Work Cited
Griffin, Amy A. “Jackson’s THE LOTTERY.” The Explicator. 58.1 (Fall 1999): p44. Academic OneFile – Document. Web. 08 April, 2014.