Here are some questions about Jackson's "The Lottery." Don't try to answer them all; they're there to help you get started in thinking meaningfully about the story. Please post a thoughtful response. (Here are some phrases for you to consider and perhaps use in your responses: mob mentality, tradition, habit, lack of critical thinking, obedience, "conformity gone mad.")
1.) Compare "The Lottery" to something happening in current events. Are we doing something, today, that is similar to what's happening the short story?
2.) Look at some aspect of history or literature through the lens of the story. When has something like this happened before? To what other works of literature does this story connect, and how?
3.) Does the story ask you to reconsider assumptions that you've never had cause to question previously? If so, what? If not, what is it doing instead?
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I had trouble connecting this story to current events. I have never heard of a "lottery'' like this going on in our history, so this was all very new to me. I found it disturbing that many people came together to throw stones at an innocent individual to eventually kill them. This all connects to, for me, slavery. Slavery and lynching pointed the finger at a certain race or individuals. We have to accept that these kinds of actions did take place, but learn from our past generations mistakes. I would connect this story to "Blood-Burning Moon". Tom Burnwell was not treated the same as Bob Stone. More so, neither was Mrs. Hutchinson in ''The Lottery". Just because she picked a slip of paper with a black dot in it she was put to death.
ReplyDeleteToday, we still make sterotype judgements on individuals whether we mean to or not. In "How to date a brown girl, white girl or a halfie" this author made a lot of assumptions about certain people. In the "Lottery" that society assumed the person picking the black dot should be put death. These sort of judgements made by society seemingly gives someone their fate of how they are going to be treated in the future.
-Laura C
I agree with Laura because that is exactly what I was going to say before I read what she wrote. I never heard of such a thing, and it caught me off guard reading it. I do not understand why people would do that in their own village. I realize that people do not like others that they live around, and murders and shootings happen today that can sort of compare to this. I also do not know if hating others is really what this story is about. I truly cannot think of what this story really means, and why they do the things they do througout this story. What I do not get is that they all know each other's names and seem to be friendly with each other when they gather for the lottery. I feel that it is something that they have to do because it has been a tradition for so long, but it bothers me that they do this to people, especially when I do not understand why. I do not know hoe else to connect this in any way to any events happening now because I feel this story was so far-fetched and unordinary with everything that happened. It feels like it happened for no reason, but then again, I might not be understanding the true meaning of the text.
ReplyDeleteLooking back in history I seem to think of A Lynching in Tennesse when I read the lottery. The lottery was an outdated event, the town got together to chose one unfortunate soul to stone to death by family and friends. It's actually quite disturbing if you think about it. Everybody does it because they do not know any better, it has gone on for 70+ years. Although lycnhing has alot more attached to it, it can be realitvely the same concept. Children were raised to believe that blacks are inferior and need to rid of in the time frame. All they know is lynching, it is as seen as a celebration and an acomplishment. Just like in the lottery, lynchers still follow the "tradition" because it is habit. It may not serve any purpose, but it is learned and continued to go on for quite sometime reguardelss if it was purposeful or not. Lynchers killed blacks people they did not even know just because everyone else white did and it was the norm. Tessie was stoned because the Lottery was a tradition and everyone did it so they followed. People will follow the norm, the socially acceptable even if it is not morally right.
ReplyDeleteLooking back in history through the lens of the story i can see some similarities between the short story "The Lottery" and the Holocaust that occured during World War II. Even though there are major differences between the two like millions of Jews and other ethnic groups were persecuted in the Holocaust and only one person was killed each year during "The Lottery" they have similar aspects. Hitler created this idea that the Jews were to blame for Germany's depression and the Aryan race was superior to all other races. He was the leader of the Nazi party and with German nationalism, anti-semitism,and propaganda he created a mob mentality for all Germans and crowned the Jews the enemy. His followers were so obedient towards his orders because they were scared of him and since they were desperate they lacked critical thinking and could not see what they were doing was immoral and wrong. They wouldnt dare question him because it was outside the norm and they feared Hitler and what he would do to them. To them they had no other choice to obey and follow orders. This is horrifying to know that this event actually happened and how humans are capable of this when pushed to follow orders and dont ask questions or revolt it leads to "conformity gone mad". Just like the Holocaust in the story "The Lottery" no one decided to question their tradition and see how wrong it was to kill someone every year in sacrifice for a pleasant crop season. They just went along with what everyone was doing and if everyone was following the tradition then to them it was "ok" to do so because it was normal. Even when Tessie was about to be stoned none of her family members did anything to stop it or have courage to try and end it. Instead they stood back, joined in and threw stones at their own family member.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I was disgusted by the story. The idea of a town meeting together every year to pick an unlucky individual to be stoned to death is horrible. In the news recently there have been many stories about people, mainly teenagers, who have committed suicide due to the acts of a group people, much like the towns people. Although in recent events the people involved did not throw stones, they did mock, abuse, rape, and cause mental harm to the individuals who decided to take their lives. For example, in the Phoebe Prince case, on the web page http://www.buffalonews.com/2010/03/30/1004346/
ReplyDeletebullying-is-at-issue-as-massachusetts.html it says “A Massachusetts high school freshman was harassed so mercilessly by fellow students that she hanged herself, even though school officials knew about the abuse and didn’t stop it.” By this, I feel as though Mrs. Hutchinson and Phoebe are somewhat comparable in the fact that they were both attacked by a group whom in the end, whether by the group or individual themselves, caused them to lose their lives.
What was most shocking about this was that the parents were basically teaching their children that it was okay to kill people. The town is so small and everyone knows each other, and in the end, they kill a friend, a neighbor, maybe even a loved one, every year. I think this goes way beyond mob mentality, tradition, habit, lack of critical thinking, obedience, and “conformity gone mad.” To me this seems more like obedience beyond compare that lacks all critical thinking and compassion and is backed by 70+ years of tradition that has led this “mob” to believe it is alright with killing a person with their crazy version of Russian roulette (Stone Edition).
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ReplyDeleteThis story was very difficult to relate to any form of current events. Stonings are unheard of nowadays and nothing close to this that I can think of happens in literature. The closest thing I can think of would be the stories from the Bible. In some of these passages prostitutes and cheater get stoned to death as punishment. This is different though because it is not some random act like in "The Lottery." This is just a by chance kind of thing which really is nothing I've heard of. Mrs.Hutchinson picked a piece of paper with a black spot on it and because of that she gets stoned. Today people don't do anything like this. I mean murder's happen for no reason but it is not something that the whole community takes place in. In the story everyone from the town made sure they were there for this event once a year. There are so many things wrong with that. Coming together to watch a member of your society be killed, painfully too, for no reason? Not something that takes place everyday everywhere. At one point in the story Mr.Summers says "let's finish quickly."
ReplyDeleteHe says this speaking of the stoning even though it is talking about someones life. The whole story is talking about tradition and how things are different but other than that I cannot think of another way to relate this to anything.
The events that occured in "The Lottery," can relate to events that occur during our time. Like Jill said, bullying is an issue that many people may face in their lives. In "The Lottery," all the townspeople met in the same spot in town once a year to draw a piece of paper. Whoever drew the paper with the dot on it would be stoned to death. Not only did the adults take part in this yearly tradition but also the children of the town. The children were actually sent to find rocks that they could throw. Some people knew that this event was immoral and wrong but continued to follow the tradition because of the others. None of the townspeople try to put an end to this tradition or try to stop the others from taking part in this even if they don't agree with it. People are scared to stand up against larger groups in fear of being resented or looked down upon. Bullying is similar to this story because it is usually an innocent victim who is terrorized and a group of bullies who know it's wrong but would never stop. "Lynching in Tennessee," is very similar to "The Lottery" because the whole town meets up in order to watch the victim be put to death.
ReplyDeleteToday if someone is sentenced the death penalty even then we do not meet as a group and watch the person be killed. In our society it is seen as inhumane to be excited or able to watch someone be killed.
As Jill said, one unlucky individual being stoned to death is awful, but we have to look at it as in those days in time. The only ways I can relate this story to be when people are given the death penalty or stoning in the Middle East. When a couple people have the “mob mentality,” likely more will follow due to a feeling of belonging. During the times such as in “The Lottery” people find those kinds of things as normal. It is displayed when the little boy wanted to pick the stone rather than have his mother do it because that was known as socially acceptable. In other words, that was known as the traditional thing to do.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read the lottery, I wasn’t sure exactly why they had this “black box” ritual of choosing someone to be stoned to death. As I read the story, the first thing I though of was the behavior during the time of the Salem witch trials and Arthur Miller’s, The Crucible. During that time, people would have trial as opposed to drawings, and stone, hang, or drown people based on whether or not they were though to be a witch. I think that even though the lottery wasn’t about witch trials, they’re related, as well as slavery and lynching are to them, because at the end of the day, the victims of these inhumane crimes stripped innocent people of their freedom, and cost them their lives. In all of these cases, there was no real reason for people to have been tortured and killed, I think that people just acted this way out of fear of what might have seemed different to them.
ReplyDeleteIt was hard to connect "The Lottery" to current events in this country considering the cruel and sadistic nature of the occurence. The story deffinitely reminded me of times during and after slavery, when African Americans would be lynched. In the story this event seemed to be a ritual to everyone in the town, kind of like a party or a celebration. Why would these people do such a terrible thing? That is to be left unanswered because we just don't know. I can see this being connected to slavery because the point is to drill across in our minda that people just do things and they don't know why. Why did so many people have a hate and disgust for African Americans? It's just because they did, that's what they were taught and that is what was embedded in their brains.
ReplyDeleteLooking back at history, there are many examples of situations similar to "The Lottery". The Salem witch trials mirror the cruel rituals that have explainable logic behind what is happening. The lynching and other rituals that the KKK performed on black people are also very similar. A Lynching in Tennessee is the story that most directly relates to the horrible treatment of the blacks for the only reason of being black. The other historical event that relates to "They Lottery" is the holocaust. Hitler ordered the mass murdering of Jews just for the sake of being jewish and the Nazi army did what they were told. Nobody really asked many questions since it is what Hitler wanted so clearly he had the proper judgement. People have been killing each other for the strangest and most obsolete reasons through out history and "The Lottery" is an excellent reminder.
ReplyDelete-John Choquette
While I was reading "The Lottery" it seemed to me something good was going to happen. It wasn't till close to the end when I realized something bad was going to happen and then I remembered the kids gathering the stones and I knew someone was going to get stoned. Sure enough, someone did. (Not sure if I'm allowed to bring a religious story up but I'm doing it anyway). For some reason I thought of the bible story where people in the church were getting ready to stone a prostitute when Jesus showed up and stopped them. Everyone thought bad of Jesus for this but then he said something like "He who has not sinned cast the first stone" then everyone left with out throwing one. "The Lottery" kind of reminds me about that except Jesus never came to stop them.
ReplyDeleteEarly in my reading of this story, it seemed that there would be some crazy stuff happening later on. I was right and it was a very disturbing read. I mean, come on now, how the hell can anyone possibly allow this to happen and have their children take part. The first thing that came to mind reading this was the colt formed by Jim Jones. Jim Jones convinced hundreds of people to join his religious sect called the Peoples Temple. Unlike the story "The Lottery," the people did not pick one member to die, but rather the entire group. It can be seen as a type of lottery because this mass suicide was spoken of frequently by Jones. The similarity between the two is the power of the group and a person's inability to deviate from the norms and customs of the group. The townspeople in the story were afraid to break tradition and it became as normal as eating dinner for them. They saw this ritual as necessary deal so the crops will grow in the summertime. A person can think for themselves, but once they become part of a group their individuality is lost and they follow everyone else. I agree with Sarah in saying that the townspeople participated out of fear of being different. I won't be looking at black boxes the same anymore.
ReplyDelete-Scott Van Winter
Its crazy to even think about how the town, and people would actually agree to do this. They have no feelings or regard to human life? What about the women (forgot her name) that they killed in the story, and her family? Now her kids have no mother. This is kind of similar to the salem witch trials. Someone made it up, and people went along with it because of tradition, or the way they were taught. Back then people didnt even think twice about burning to death another human being, just like in the story, the towns people didnt even think twice about killing the woman.
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