Conformity And Mob Mentality In Shirley Jackson's Lottery

The influence of others plays a key role in every individual’s life as it determines the outcome of one’s actions. Conformity which is compliance with standards, rules, or laws, and mob mentality meaning people adjust their personal views to fit the group they're in are all around and can be observed easily as it is common human behavior. Conformity and Mob mentality are formed through influences around every individual and how one deindividualizes themselves in order to fit in. However, the influence gets even stronger when the group shares a common emotion among them, for example, irrational fear. The novel Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the short episode from The Twilight Zone “Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” and the short story “Lottery” by Shirley Jackson all showcase the behavioral idea that when people are influenced by a group around them with a common emotion, mob mentality takes over them and they become very likely to proceed towards violence.
First, the author William Golding introduces the concept of “Lord of the Flies” as a group of young

Traditions are something that influences generations connected to one individual being and when human beings follow them blindly because everyone is following them. This is the main theme in the “Lottery” as there is a tradition regarding a lottery in which whoever turns out to be the “lucky” one to get a blank paper, they are stoned to death. The author describes this tradition to be tiringly old which is why it has lost importance. However, nobody is willing to change it as people are so comfortable changing this long-going culture. When this is performed again, the people stone an innocent person to death because that’s how it has always been. Again, when people put their own perspective of what is wrong and right aside and conform to the group, they become very likely to cause destruction and become