The Man In The Well And The Lottery Analysis

In “The Psychology of Evil,” Zimbardo defines evil as “ The exercise of power to intentionally harm (psychologically) , hurt (physically),and/or destroy (mortally) and commit crimes against humanity.” In the short stories, “ The Man in the Well” and “The Lottery” evil is presented as a toxic poison that is morally corrupt, wicked, and vicious. In both essays evil has the ability to turn innocent children into killers, through Zimbardo 's three categories of evil: dispositional, situational, systemic.
Dispositional evil is the evil that is found inside an individual. An evil that sits dormant until a situation brings it out. In “The Lottery” the evil disposition of the townspeople is ceremoniously brought out every June when the annual lottery …show more content…
All of the townspeople including the children prepare for this death day by performing various rituals such as gathering stones to stuff their pockets or pile high in the corner of the town square. They came together as though it were a time of fellowship to swap stories of this year 's crops, talk of tractors and other goings on. The women swapped stories of gossip all while the children horse played and ran around laughing. The Lottery was a tradition that was celebrated much like happier traditions such as dances, unfortunately this gathering was for a stoning of one of their own. In the short story “A Man in the Well” dispositional evil was not as obvious. A group of children stumbled along a well while playing hide and go seek, where they then heard a man yelling for help. They heard a relief in his voice when they arrived. However, “I think it’s important that we decided not to help him. Everyone, like myself, was probably on the verge of fetching a rope, or asking where we could find a ladder, but then we looked around at each other and it was decided” (Sher). These children chose to do nothing, which …show more content…
In “The Lottery” the situation was a long standing tradition. The adults and children have no knowledge of a time when the yearly lottery didn’t take place. They considered it to be a seasonal marker, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” (Jackson). This was an annual tradition that there was no getting out of, no choice given. All townspeople were expected to participate. The evil in this short story was situational and accepted as the only option. The townspeople spoke of other towns no longer participating in the lottery, but that seemed a laughable option to elders. By contrast the situational evil in “The Man in the Well” was a choice. There was no tradition to walk away from a man in need, there was no generational pressure to partake. It was a decision that was made by children. A decision to walk away and do nothing to help another human being, especially with the ability and freedom to do