The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Analysis

Real Life and “The Lottery”
"The story itself shows the atavistic nature lurking beneath humankind's civilized surface & leads the reader to examine such notions as scapegoating, ritual cleansing, gender, class structure, arbitrary condemnation, & sanctioned violence." (411 Shields, Patrick) It stands without a doubt that mankind in real life can relate to how it is in the story. Just like what is happening to the citizens in the tale, from when we are young we are taught to participate in traditions, to take risks, to listen to authority, and so on. Seeing how the story translates into the real world would help bring to surface all the evil and injustice that occurs right below our noses.
From the subtle hints of inequality between men and

We are told that, since life is filled with risks, we must balance progress against threats to life and limb. The odds are favorable enough to ensure the participations of millions.” (Dan E. Beauchamp, 1981) The “lotteries” in real life can be just as cruel as that in the tale. We tend to view lotteries as he who is chosen to be the winner, but the author shakes our belief of that in that the winner of the lottery loses not only their lives, but also the sympathy of all those around them. (Yuhan, Zuyu. 2013) This shows how cruel some lotteries in life can actually be. The lottery in the real world isn’t just a game where you chose numbers and possibly win money, it is also the chance of family you were brought into, the jobs you are capable of getting, or even just the amount of food you are about to obtain. The lottery games in the real world can come in the forms of production, marketing, and consumption games, where the winnings are things such as guns, drugs, food, ext. Many factors in our lives determine the chances we have of “winning big” or “losing it all”, but all throughout life it is a game of

Blood may run thicker than water, but in the end, does how thick it is even truly matter? While everyone else in the village was already gathered at the square (except for Clyde Dunbar who couldn’t attend since he had broken his leg) Terrie was running late because she had been doing the dishes. While she knew that this gathering means that someone from the small village would die, perhaps even a friend or neighbor, she thought of the dishes to be of higher priority. “This shows that her casualty or callous indifference to the matter is of a much higher degree than those of the others. Like a student late for class, it is seen for the first time, Tessie Hutchinson probably regards the ceremony as routine and has got used to it, and it is no longer of much importance in her." (1023 Chen Fuyu). However, when her family was chosen Terrie suddenly starts to panic. One would think that as a mother she would try to keep her children out of harm’s way, but instead she tries to make all her children participate, from the oldest who is already married, to the youngest who isn’t even old enough to open his own lottery paper simply in an attempt of increasing her chances of survival. This “dog eat dog” mentality can be found all around the world, between strangers, friends, and family