The Golden Rule of Christianity states, that whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them. In a small village described in “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson prevailing a different rules. The annual ritual inhabitants perform is very wild and cruel. They play a lottery at the main square and a “lucky winner” gets a special prize - get stoned to death by the rest of the people. Shirley Jackson develops the character of Tessie Hutchinson to show the contrast between individual in the crowd and its transformation into the crowd’s victim. At first, we see the citizens of the town getting together for the annual event, children are playing around, men are speaking of “planting and rain, tractors and taxes” (305), women are gossiping.
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A good mother and wife would do anything now to stay alive or at least increase her chance to lose the “lucky” lottery. A. R. Coulthard in “Jackson 's THE LOTTERY” identifies that, “The soullessness of Tessie Hutchinson even denies the myth of family love. When her family is chosen to supply the victim, Jackson pushes Tessie 's survival instinct to the most shameful level by having her turn on her own flesh and blood. Tessie desperately tries to improve her odds for survival by defying tradition and adding her married daughter to the killing pool” (227). Jackson illustrates how survival instinct wins over maternal instinct and proves that this family was chosen by the destiny for a reason and the protagonist deserves to die. Absence of family connection and bonds play a bad joke with Tessie - her family becomes a part of the crowd. In particular, her husband Bill does not try to protect his family, moreover, he is embarrassed by his wife’s behavior and tells her to shut up. He forces the paper out of her hand and shows the black dot to the crowd. Coulthard mentions that “Even the children of Tessie 's household share this unconcern for the other family members” (227). Furthermore, when they draw their slips, “Nancy and Bill, Jr., opened theirs at the same time, and both beamed and laughed, turning around to the crowd” (Jackson 309). Her children are happy, that neither of them are chosen to die and they don 't care about what is going to happen to their
A good mother and wife would do anything now to stay alive or at least increase her chance to lose the “lucky” lottery. A. R. Coulthard in “Jackson 's THE LOTTERY” identifies that, “The soullessness of Tessie Hutchinson even denies the myth of family love. When her family is chosen to supply the victim, Jackson pushes Tessie 's survival instinct to the most shameful level by having her turn on her own flesh and blood. Tessie desperately tries to improve her odds for survival by defying tradition and adding her married daughter to the killing pool” (227). Jackson illustrates how survival instinct wins over maternal instinct and proves that this family was chosen by the destiny for a reason and the protagonist deserves to die. Absence of family connection and bonds play a bad joke with Tessie - her family becomes a part of the crowd. In particular, her husband Bill does not try to protect his family, moreover, he is embarrassed by his wife’s behavior and tells her to shut up. He forces the paper out of her hand and shows the black dot to the crowd. Coulthard mentions that “Even the children of Tessie 's household share this unconcern for the other family members” (227). Furthermore, when they draw their slips, “Nancy and Bill, Jr., opened theirs at the same time, and both beamed and laughed, turning around to the crowd” (Jackson 309). Her children are happy, that neither of them are chosen to die and they don 't care about what is going to happen to their