The Penalty System In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a presumably cheerful story but leads to a grotesque, unpredictable, and twisted ending. The main focus, with in “The Lottery”, is primarily about the sadistic ritual in which the townspeople of an agricultural town murder one of their fellow citizens in a raffle styled lottery. One may ask why this type of system is held in order to decide what person will be executed and then ask whether or not it is fair to the unfortunate winner of the lottery. Mrs. Hutchinson even called out the lottery system, after her family was chosen for the next pick, yelling “It wasn’t fair!” (Jackson 45). However, unlike the popular argument that the lottery’s system is fair and that every citizen is given the chance of life or death in an equal manner, the lottery is significantly unfair for certain families. First of all, it is important to analyze the statistical chances any town member would have when they pick for the lottery. The lottery works in a two step system as Richard H. Williams discovers and writes about in his “Journal of Modern Literature”, “in the first stage of sampling one family is randomly selected,” (Williams) in the second

For example, Mr. Summers takes note of every person who was able to attend the lottery. In addition, there were several “lists to make up” all detailing to number of households, families, and people participating in the lottery for that year. However, the attendance and accountancy for every family unit and citizen still does not account for the differing statistical probability every person receives when they become a finalist in the second stage. Furthermore, it is evident that some town members may disprove of the lottery. In turn one may excuse himself from the ritual, inevitably evading certain demise, thus giving themselves an unfair