"The Lottery"
In Shirley Jackson's, "The Lottery," one theme is Man's ability (and need) to rationalize generally unacceptable actions. In the story after Mrs. Hutchinson states that the lottery is unfair, Mrs. Delacroix says, "Be a good sport Tessie... All of us took the same chance." This part of the story seems to claim that its "okay" because you entered in so you must face the consequences. Old Man Warner states that he has been in the lottery for 77 years. The talk about the lottery having a ritual and being a tradition, for quite some time, must mean that in this community it is acceptable to stone someone because its tradition or a practice done by the people.
In society today, we try to rationalize unacceptable actions by creating excuses. For example, a man killed 23 women because he was a schizophrenic and couldn't control his actions. The real truth is that one human being killed another which is a devastating action, but because he was mentally impaired it was "okay" in a sense. Society today creates excuses for every action whether good nor bad.
Thats true that everyone did take a chance. It was also fair and they all went with it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that even in today's society people make unacceptavle actions into acceptable ones by changing the name of the action to something more acceptable or creating excuses. But dont we all do it to a certain extent, create a more acceptable solution to our own peoblems also? I give you an a!
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