The Community In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

People often times change when faced with a fearful situation such as the one in “The Lottery.” “The Lottery” provides a twist on the common connotation that a lottery equals money, changing the “prize” is what makes this story different. Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” uses the Community as a symbol to convey an underlying message; when fear is present, people begin to change, positively and negatively. During the story, the reader observes a behavior that Jackson left in the story. Jackson writes about a character faced with a situation that makes him nervous, then the community acts a certain way during this scene. Jackson writes “‘I'm drawing for my mother and me.’ He blinked his eyes nervously and ducked his head as several voices in the crowd said things like ‘Good fellow, lack.’ and ‘Glad to see

Jackson uses another character connected to the black box to show again that people can come together again, but in a more negative manner. Jackson writes “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. ‘It isn't fair,’ she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head.”(Jackson 34) After Mrs. Hutchinson drew from the black box she was thoroughly scared and nervous, The community once again came together but in an unexpected manner, the community killed Mrs. Hutchinson. Here we analyze that when fear is present in a different light the community can turn on itself and cause the death of others. A real life example of a community coming together negatively, is the terrorist group ISIS. This group comes together in a negative manner and, connecting to the story, can lead to the death of others. This shows how a group can really connect with each other and lead to positive and negative