Skip to main content

In The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, while the lottery is starting and tensions are escalating, the narrator says “There was the proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery; at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and years ago this part of the ritual had been allowed to lapse.” In this long sentence, the narrator, an anonymous member of the community, reflects on the role that Mrs. Summers plays in the lottery. In the opening of the lottery event, there are many different ideas of what the postmaster should do. They say that he might be supposed to chant monotonously or in a more vibrant manner. They also disagree with what he should be doing during this chant. All of these details show that the people are doing the lottery just for the sake of doing it, not because it has any purpose.

While reading the sentence, it may seem like an insignificant detail to add to the story but this reveals much to the townspeople perspectives. Outside readers likely think that there is no point how melodiously the chant is sung or what the postmaster does while singing. But the fact that the townspeople think it is important to maintain consistency despite knowing what each option means shows that the residents of the city are following what’s done in the past blindly. The people are continuing just trying to follow what should be done because they would rather not deviate from what tradition has been laid out for them.

However while listing each of the possible options things that the postmaster should or shouldn’t do, they do not try to reason what would make most sense to do while chanting. Instead, they think about what had been previously done in the ritual. It’s not about what makes sense to do, but just what is the old way of doing it. The mystery of what the postman should do represents the mystery of the entire lottery system. Never in the story do they have a reason for continuing the lottery other than “there’s always been a lottery.” Even when it is mentioned that some areas have stopped this practice, they are called a “pack of young fools,” suggesting they are deviating from the old ways.

The Lottery tries to describe the terrible awful practice of continuing a tradition and refusing to stop it even if there’s no reason to continue it. The sentence captures what it may be like just blinding following a tradition. When one is no longer able to reason through why something is done, there is no point in continuing it. If a practice has no meaning to it, there is no point in doing it. Both of these situations occur in not just the story, but also this one sentence.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What do science fiction writers believe about the power of technology?

In their works of writing, authors express their opinions about the subject they’re writing about, and science fiction is no exception. In science fiction texts, writers describe the future negatively. They explain in their narratives that technology will either be always inadequate and never be able to fully satisfy the needs of humans, or they explain that technology can perform certain tasks perfectly. They portray technology as always performing tasks mindlessly and not have any idea about what is actually going on in the real world. In either case, they believe that technology will never be able to perfect and never enough to satisfy humans’ needs. These attitudes towards technology can be seen in The Machine Stops and There Will Come Soft Rains. Throughout The Machine Stops, technology always seems to be adequate rather than ever being perfect. When Kuno is talking to his mother through the machine, he says “the Machine is much, but it is not everything. I see something like y...
7 comments
Read more

Comparing the Pandemic to The Machine Stops

The “Machine Stops” by E. M. Forester is similar to what is currently happening during the Covid-19 pandemic. In this story, the disease is replaced by toxic gases in the Earth’s atmosphere. Throughout the story, characters remain in their own machine isolated from each. This is similar to social distancing. Instead of staying in a machine, we just remain in our own houses and are not supposed to go to someone else’s house. In the story, people are able to contact each other, and they use a technology which seems like video chatting software. This closely resembles what we use to communicate: Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Facetime etc. Another parallel is the reason they remain in the machines and are not able to go to the surface of the Earth because there is supposedly toxic air. What reminded me even more about the difficulties of not going outside is how Kuno, a younger individual, wanted to go outside and had a harder time keeping himself inside, while an older person, Vashti, and is ...
2 comments
Read more

First Person Shooter as a Movie

If I had to select one of the stories that we’ve read to change it into a movie, I would select First Person shooter, I think there would be some interesting choices to make. For the actors, I’m not sure who exactly I would choose, but I would try to find someone who plays roles that aren’t very serious. This would match the lighthearted mood of the story very well. I think that if the actors are humorous, they’ll be able to portray the zombie and something funny rather than a scary incident. To add music to the story, I would select multiple different songs each with different moods corresponding to the moods of the stories. In the beginning, the narrator is just living his regular life, in the middle it becomes slightly scary with the zombie’s entrance, but quickly becomes much more casual and at the end he gets happier when Janine asks him out. I think the first and third part could have the same casual music, but the second part would have a short soundtrack similar to the one ...
2 comments
Read more