The Red Card And The Lottery: A Comparative Analysis

In both the worlds of The Red Card and The Lottery, murder is acceptable, under certain circumstances of course. But how can both of these seemingly normal societies justify the death of innocent people like they do? How has it become so okay with them? That is what I wish to discuss.
In both The Red Card and The Lottery, the attitude shown towards the death of another human being is cavalier at best, showing absolutely no concern or maybe even excitement towards the situation (other than the fact that they now have a chance of obtaining the ability to kill legally, in The Red Card). Some of the characters expect that another will die, and anticipate it. (In reference to the now deceased Larry) “Excellent use of a bullet,” scrawled Jimmy Blanchard.
I believe this is to strengthen the idea that we aren’t that far away from this dystopian world, one where murder is normal. (The Lottery) “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o'clock; in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had to be started on June 2th.” P1 This displays that we are in a normal, familiar place, one that most can relate to. It shows an average town engaging in a group activity. I believe it starts this way to exaggerate how regular this town supposed to be, despite the barbarity that will be displayed in the next few pages. The Red Card wastes no time getting to the point, starting off with a violent (but not graphic) scene in which Lynda shoots her husband for seemingly no reason. It handles its realistic ties to the real world in a different way. Instead of trying to describe a realistic environment for the story to take place in, but describes realistic people and their everyday mannerisms. For example, straight after killing her
Instead of making one day a day where you can commit any crime you want, you can distance yourself from the crime of responsibility by giving you a card, or a lottery, whereby using it becomes an obligation, or a “civic duty” p1 (The Red Card) Although both of these particular systems require a *something* to maintain order, this is easily most prominent in The Red Card, where that *something* is a red card. This allows the temporary owner to murder one person without facing any consequences. Using this, you completely distance yourself from the crime, legally and morally; Just like wearing a mask. This is particularly important to the system, after all, you wouldn’t kill because you it is wrong, right? Well this card allows you to see it as a duty, thereby reducing the guilt to null. The lottery however, justifies it by either ritual or the fact that it could happen to literally anybody in the town, you could see it as more a gamble, opposed to murder. It’d be easier to justify it if you said “It was a gamble, and you lost.” Rather than “Hey I’m going to kill you as a sacrifice.” It is hard to say how they justify it in the story, and these are just my