The Lottery Theme

An outstanding theme in 2BR02B is whether or not authoritarian government control is a good thing. A quote that portrays authoritarian government control in this short story is “Your city thanks you; your country thanks you; your planet thanks you. But the deepest thanks of all is from future generations." This appears when the painter decides that he wants to die and calls the Federal Bureau of Termination. This organisation is presumably run by the government in order to kill other people in order to continue future generations. The conflict in this theme is clear, man vs government. This conflict relates to authoritarian government control as the population has been blindsided and in almost a cult of personality state in which the citizens

The definition of mob psychology is when a group of people believe in a common idea. This may or may not have any logical sense towards it. Mob Psychology appears in this story when Tess Hutchinson is being stoned to death without anyone questioning the morality of her killing. A quote backing the idea of mob psychology is when the author says “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.” This was said by the author to inform the reader that many aspects of the tradition was lost yet the part of stoning someone to death still lingers. The reason stoning was part of this society is presumably due to populism. The reason populism works is because the villagers believe that the struggle to get crops will be eradicated when someone gets stoned to death. A quote that portrays this message is ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' This means that the working class people believe that when someone is stoned to death in June, their agricultural/horticultural struggles would not exist. The reader is not told of any scientific or just reasoning as to how this tradition will improve the society’s economy and thus, the reader would consider whether or not this is just a tradition, which is uplifted by mob psychology, in a progressive society. "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones." This is a quote which gives the reader an assumption as to how the villagers pick and choose the aspects of the lottery which they do every year. that they do. This proves that the citizens are doing the tradition for traditions sake and not for the right reasons. An example of this is on the issue of gay marriage. Many Christians give their reason for not accepting gay marriage to be ‘it says so in the Bible.' The Bible also states “But if this thing be true, and