Kayla Willey
Ms. Russell
English 1 Honors
2/20/2023
Unit 1 Essay
Have you ever acted impulsively or violently while in a crowd because you thought you wouldn’t be caught? Did you ever want to be anonymous while doing something? These two situations are called Deindividuation and Anonymity. We will take a look at two stories that show two different examples of these actions and their outcomes. Looking at how people changed while being in a crowd as to being an individual and how believing they were anonymous affected them. Using two short stories that impact the human nature of Deindividuation and Anonymity.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is about a village that particpates in the lottery where they stone each other to death. When Tessie
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The narrator says “I don’t remember if we told ourselves a reason why we couldn’t help him, but we decided then”. In the story the kids don’t get help but also don’t revel their names. “We all looked at each other, aware that he could’t address anyone in particular. He must have understood this, because he called out in his groping voice, “What are your name’s?”. This part in the story started showing the readers anoymity, the children did not answer but Aaron answered with “My father said he’s coming up with the police”. Most people that have read the book have said that the children did not reveal their names because it would make it real, that they were dealing with an actual person. Another reason that anoymity is a big part of this story is when Wendy reveled Aaron’s name. Wendy said “I think their almost here. Aaron said his dad is almost here”. When this happened Wendy was impeldite sorry. The next day Aaron found out about the man knowing his name. Aaron “began giving all of our names, one at a time. We all watched him, trembling, our faces the faces I had seen pasted on the spectators in the freak tent when the circus had come to town. We were watching such a deformity take place before our eyes; and I remember the spasm of anger when he said my name, and felt the man in the well soak it up”. This complete changed the story because