The Importance Of Government In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

In “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, the town no longer enforces laws; in fact the village has no apparent governmental structure to restrain its murderous tradition. It seems as though the government relies heavily on tradition as a tool to achieve order instead of law and elected local government. The village appears to be normal besides its lack of a municipality. The country’s government has also become suspiciously absent from the affairs of its town. With the apparent bloodlust of the villagers, as they all participate in democide, it is a miracle there have been no murders in recent years. The village has achieved a trusted utopian society, unknowingly stopping crime, despite having a lack of government through the lottery.
Shirley Jackson intentionally left out the village’s governing body, even though she incorporated information throughout the story about its effect on the villagers. This shifts the responsibility of the lottery from the local government directly to the collective …show more content…
This lottery shows us that people are content with an imperfect society if it is perceived that changing leads to instability. Many of the older villagers references this feeling when a similar village quits administering the lottery. Some have expressed their displeasure of the randomness of the lottery. Even though their system has a greater cost of one life out of a group of four hundred people, the value they get in return is much greater. It allows everyone to quench any criminal intentions in a way that the village can anticipate much like “the Purge” being that they stimulate order in a society, but the execution leads to a more drastic effect on the crime rates. Another example of this community utilitarianism is “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” where the villagers live in a similarly cheerful