In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” (1948), she conveys through her character’s actions the morbid reality of what people are willing to do in order to survive. Jackson created the image of a cheerful small village where everyone knows everyone to make the reader realize that surviving is human nature. And the actions needed for survival can be anywhere and at any time. By using ‘the lottery’ to choose a human sacrifice, Jackson is able to directly convey a theme of survival. Each character in her short story has a different tactic in the way they survive to show that survival is more than avoiding immediate death, it is in our everyday decisions. A quote from the book Starship Troopers says it best, “The instinct to survive is human nature itself, and every aspect of our personalities derives from it” (Heinlein).
The character Old Man Warner is the epitome of survival, he says, “seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery” (Jackson Par. 40). Old Man Warner is the oldest living citizen in this town and represents the constant reminder of tradition. He believes that ‘the lottery’ serves as the only fair way to choose a sacrifice for a healthy season of corn. In history, we know …show more content…
In Tessie’s case, she succumbed to what was happening and responded by crying. Her cries were her last attempt to survive in the hopes that someone would put an end to ‘the lottery’. Tessie may not have realized what she was truly capable of according to her human nature. On the other side of the spectrum, Aron Ralston went further than most people could even imagine in order to survive. He was an ordinary man who loved to do extreme hiking and ended up being trapped by a rock in the middle of nowhere with limited food and water. Instead of trying to kill himself or letting himself die of dehydration he cut off his own arm with a dull multi-tool
The character Old Man Warner is the epitome of survival, he says, “seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery” (Jackson Par. 40). Old Man Warner is the oldest living citizen in this town and represents the constant reminder of tradition. He believes that ‘the lottery’ serves as the only fair way to choose a sacrifice for a healthy season of corn. In history, we know …show more content…
In Tessie’s case, she succumbed to what was happening and responded by crying. Her cries were her last attempt to survive in the hopes that someone would put an end to ‘the lottery’. Tessie may not have realized what she was truly capable of according to her human nature. On the other side of the spectrum, Aron Ralston went further than most people could even imagine in order to survive. He was an ordinary man who loved to do extreme hiking and ended up being trapped by a rock in the middle of nowhere with limited food and water. Instead of trying to kill himself or letting himself die of dehydration he cut off his own arm with a dull multi-tool