Throughout the course of human history, existence really, there is a basic need to stay alive; the stakes of which are endless. Whether it is keeping your children alive or just yourself, the instinct is there to do the best for yourself and not for anyone else. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is a prime example of the cruelty of humans for the sake of themselves. The story does not only show human’s basic instincts, but the underlying obedience to do an act of horror despite knowing it is not the right thing to do. The obedience shown within “The Lottery” is a quite horrific ideal and has a very interesting connection to Jackson’s “The Daemon Lover” and Child Ballad 243.
The story begins on a beautiful day in a small town though nothing is …show more content…
While the actions of the town do not fall directly under any of the seven deathly sins it is a reasonable assumption that stoning someone for the sake of crops is not God’s word; which is one of the first commandments. Another simply basic one is that one should not murder, which is what happened when “they were upon her” (28). Murder is one of the well-known sins of The Bible and while the townspeople have their reasons for why they do it, does not make it any better. It can even be argued that they are gluttonous because they had “forgotten the ritual... they still remembered to use stones” (28). They had forgotten exactly why they do the lottery every year, but they do not forget the way they are supposed to murder someone. The entirety of “The Lottery” is a mix of the seven deadly sins and among others of The Bible. There is no way to pinpoint exactly which ones are committed since they can all be interpreted a number of ways. Anger and envy could both be drawn from the quote “Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands” (28). She could have hatred for Tessie or she could be jealous of her in some fashion, it is up to the reader to decide which they would like to believe. The absence of James Harris seems almost coincidental seeing as he is the body of sin and yet the townspeople in “The Lottery” seemed to be doing a decent job sinning on their own. This all goes back to human’s basic instinct to stay alive, they will do whatever is necessary to do so. Even if it means damning
The story begins on a beautiful day in a small town though nothing is …show more content…
While the actions of the town do not fall directly under any of the seven deathly sins it is a reasonable assumption that stoning someone for the sake of crops is not God’s word; which is one of the first commandments. Another simply basic one is that one should not murder, which is what happened when “they were upon her” (28). Murder is one of the well-known sins of The Bible and while the townspeople have their reasons for why they do it, does not make it any better. It can even be argued that they are gluttonous because they had “forgotten the ritual... they still remembered to use stones” (28). They had forgotten exactly why they do the lottery every year, but they do not forget the way they are supposed to murder someone. The entirety of “The Lottery” is a mix of the seven deadly sins and among others of The Bible. There is no way to pinpoint exactly which ones are committed since they can all be interpreted a number of ways. Anger and envy could both be drawn from the quote “Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands” (28). She could have hatred for Tessie or she could be jealous of her in some fashion, it is up to the reader to decide which they would like to believe. The absence of James Harris seems almost coincidental seeing as he is the body of sin and yet the townspeople in “The Lottery” seemed to be doing a decent job sinning on their own. This all goes back to human’s basic instinct to stay alive, they will do whatever is necessary to do so. Even if it means damning