Amylyn Ja. De Paz-De Paz Professor Blanchard ENG-232-830CH 11 April 2023 Manipulating a Town to See the Immoral as Moral in "The Lottery." “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson is the blueprint for psychological thrillers because it caters to the senses and has a shocking twist that shatters presumptions made by readers. The lottery in this story brings its winner not a hint of prosperity, but rather, it brings the opposite—adversity and a macabre end. Despite the gore of the situation, the ritual of the lottery is an annual tradition and a celebration for the town. The townspeople fail to see this blatantly corrupt practice as immoral. There are numerous reasons why these people are conditioned to see the sacrificial lottery as an ordinary affair. …show more content…
The story says, “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones” (Jackson). Children evidently play a role in the assembling of the lottery by collecting stones prior to its commencement, and they do so in a nonchalant manner. This action may seem minimal at first; however, it displays the level of normalcy and desensitization toward the inhumane ritual. The townsfolk are conditioned to see the sacrificial practice as normal due to early exposure to it. The early exposure consequently leads to a new generation being brainwashed as adults to think the lottery is a necessary means for a triumphant crop. The story also expresses, “The children had stones already, and someone gave little Davy Hutchinson a few pebbles” (Jackson). A child who is instructed to stone his mother will grow to see this custom as habitual. Early exposure contributes to the acceptance of the …show more content…
A form of propaganda is satire. To convince others of the lottery’s regularity, Old Man Warner amusedly exclaims, “‘Pack of crazy fools,’ he said. ‘Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while…There’s always been a lottery,’ he added petulantly’” (Jackson). Old Man Warner ridicules the idea of ending the tradition as a way to stigmatize such an effort. Some of the lottery’s history is mentioned, “There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it, the one that had been constructed when the first people settled down to make a village here” (Jackson). The history of the lottery is employed as a form of propaganda to add rationality to the gruesome practice. Propaganda leads to people accepting the lottery as an annual