Moralism In The Lottery

The American short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson takes place in a farm dependent town that still goes by tradition. The community has long forgotten the meaning of the traditional lottery, but they still go through with it solely for tradition’s sake. Each man must choose a slip of paper, and then the family of the man who picked the black dot must draw again. Tessie, the wife of Bill whom chose the dot, exclaimed that the process wasn 't fair, but her statement didn’t stop the proceedings. It is understood that the member of the family that draws the black dot is the person who will be stoned, and unfortunately, the wife had the black dot. Although she pleaded while the stones were collected, it is still assumed by the end of the story …show more content…
The story seemed to destroy and expose the fiction of many American myths. The ritual inverted the common practice of voting by changing the election to selection for death. The men select the ballots while women serve only as commentators, unless leadership is necessary, as in Mrs. Dunbar 's situation. The male is still regarded as the protector, but they 're also reluctant and bound by duty. Although, it is also noticed that the men are never viewed taking part in the act of stoning. Which illustrated how behavior of the young boys and girls will eventually switch as they become men and women. Meanwhile, Tessie 's selection is regarded as a reflection of her bad characteristics thus, making the story cautionary. Tessie is presented as a bad mother and a bad wife by attempting to include her other children and speaking out when it wasn 't her place. This leads to the requirement of the male force that is exerted on Tessie. As she is stoned the townspeople are also stoning the image of the "traditional....bad woman" (Whittier, 360). The story then concludes on a "misogynist level" (Whittier, 361) by leaving the story incomplete, to be finished in the reader 's …show more content…
It provided insight to the various elements of society that Jackson inverted to prove her point, like the lottery itself which was an inverted form of voting. On the other hand, Whittier also highlighted the elements that Jackson mirrored to the common society to make the story more personal. For example, the idea that men were the head of the household was a common one at this time. The author of this article composed a different theme, and used it as the basis of his analysis. He chose to partly focus on the aspect of Tessie being a bad woman. This focus did not seem as accurate because the author herself was a woman. It doesn’t seem likely that she would condemn a woman for speaking out in her story, when she herself was speaking out by writing and publishing the story. This article would have been much different if it had been written in this time, which signifies why some of the analysis seems different from current