The lottery is a true example of man-made selection that controls the
society of the village. The family arrangements of the Dunbars and the Watsons
have members lost through the lottery just like a natural calamity. Jacksons
indicates the Family arrangements break the father as the head by following the
norms of the lottery papers. Mrs. Dunbar is forced to sign the lottery papers
because Horace her son is still a young boy of 16 years. While her husband is
at home with a broken leg, another child from this year is also likely to have
died from the lottery. Thus, it has left
Mr. Dunbar just to observe another lottery that could take one of his own.
Also, the Watson family seems not to be having a father. The Watson son has to
draw the lottery papers for his mother. These two families are compelling since
they have already lost one of their own to the lottery. It demonstrates
something curious about the rituals and we get the notion that the lottery is
natural. It almost seems impossible for the villagers to argue against the
practice because the lottery seems fair, and participants have the same chance
to win. However, the ritual itself is something totally separate from the
sympathy among villagers towards the mourning families. A family can lose it
meaning during the lottery when husband’s murder wives, children kill mothers
and fathers stoning their sons. It is after the lottery that the family resumes
its meaning.
Tessie Hutchison is the protagonist in this story. Her name alludes to
Anne Hutchinson, an American religious dissenter. Despite her unfair trial, she
was executed. Tessie questions the correctness and traditions of the lottery and
also her humbleness of being a wife. It is because of her insubordination she
chose for the lottery and Lynch by the angry group of villagers. Tessie does
not conform to the society’s norms. It is in the way she arrives at the Lottery
late. When choosing her family, Tessie objects that her son-in-law and daughter
did not take their chance. Mr. Summers reminds her, “Daughters are for the
families of her husband’s” (Jackson, p.299). Thus, the society’s power is
consolidated exclusively into the males who are the head of their households
and families. Thus, women are disfranchised. Many women accept male domination.
Women in this village refer to their husbands as old men as the case of Mrs.
Delacroix and Mrs. Dunbar (Jackson, p. 295 & 297). The society members view
Tessie as disruptive through her late arrival to the lottery. It raises
suspicions of her resistance to all aspects that the lottery stands. She tells
Mr. Summers that she was busy cleaning her dishes and had forgotten the day.
This response is another faux pas suggesting that she might have violated the
work ethics of the village and her specific job in the social division of labor
in the village. She also breaks the taboo on power relation between husbands
and wives by calling on her husband “Get up there Bill”. It goes against the rules of the lottery that
relegates women to an inferior status and considered as their husbands
property. All these faux pas set up Tessie becoming the likeliest victim to the
lottery. It happens even when Tessie is unconscious of her rebellion as shown
in her cry as she s being stoned, “ It is not fair” (Jackson, p. 302).
Tessie is the only one who rebels against the patriarchal order and male
domination. The villagers are will not stand her since she goes against the
ideology. She articulates her rebellious impulses that the lottery should be
given up. The villagers channel her rebellious impulses to the lottery. Thus,
the lottery functions as a means of terrorizing villagers into accepting the
democracy and the inequitable social power and division of labor that the
social order depends on for survival. After Tessie’s selection and stoning, her
husband is asked by Mr. Summers to “show her paper” (Jackson, p301). Bill
Hutchison holds the paper to reassert his dominance over her rebellious wife
and uses her as a symbol to others on the perils of disobedience.
Another way in which the lottery is a man-made selection for controlling
the society is through the men who run the village. They repeatedly do not win
the lottery. Those who control the village both political and economically also
issue out the lottery. They set the rules on who has and who does not have the
power within the social hierarchy of the village. Mr. Summers is the most
powerful man in the village who owns the largest coal business. He is also a
man of leisure because of his wealth. Mr. Graves is the second man in line who
holds a powerful position in the government as a postmaster. Under him is Mr.
Martin, who has an economically advantaged position as a grocer in this
village. These three men control the village, politically and economically.
They are the ones who administer the lottery. The official person of the
lottery is Mr. Summers. Mr. Graves helps him in making the lottery slips
(Jackson, p.293). Mr. Summers holds a frightening amount of power. He draws the
names on the lottery day and also makes up slip papers that get into the black
box. It is his role to make up the black circle of people going to die. The
villagers worship and fear him. They also have faith in him in conducting the
ritual. He determines who is picked in the lottery, so people have to respect
him. He owns the largest business in the villages, and he shows his devotion to
civic activities.
Jackson uses the lottery as a
man-made selection to control the society of the village by using capitalist’s
disorder as a social organization. First is that the lottery controls the
participation rules to codify and reflect the rigid social hierarchy that is on
the inequitable social division of labor. The fact that all people participate
in the lottery and are aware of its outcomes as the pure chance presents an
aura that obscures the initial codifying function. Third is the fact that the
villagers unconsciously believe that their commitment to work ethic will enable
them gain a magical immunity from being selected. Fourth is that the
established work ethic prevents them from understanding the actual function of
the lottery that is not to encourage work but to reinforce the social division
of labor that is inequitable. Thus, the lottery is an ideological mechanism
that defuses into the minds of the villagers. Through Tessie, we see the
author‘s inarticulate dissatisfaction with the existing social order that he
lives by challenging anger towards the victims of this social order.
Conclusion
The lottery is a man-made concept
that acts as a democratic illusion to control the social life of the villagers.
The lottery ideology prevents villagers from questioning, their society’s class
structure. The lottery also reinforces the work ethics by distracting the
attention of villagers from labor division that makes women lack power in their
homes and enhances the power of Mr. Summer in determining who lives and who
dies. This making of the man-made lottery be like a natural calamity in its
natural form is a way through which Jackson emphasizes on the power of
conformity that is demanded by the elders ruling the village. It suggests the
need to discard such traditions as the lottery when there is scorning of its
outcomes. It is through intentionally ending the lives of one of their own. For
example, the protest by Tessie contributes to her being chosen for the rally
and later being stored. The lottery is a culture through which independence and
individualism are not desirable traits. It is a dangerous if one is elected to
participate in the lottery and after winning it one is chosen and in the
lottery. Through signing the lottery papers means that innocent villagers
stoned to death.
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