Home > The Lottery Summary & Study Guide > The Lottery Group > Discussion Board

Do you think this sort of lottery could take place in your own community? Why or why not?

People like to think that something like Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" could never really happen. People stoning another to death, just because it has always been that way?  Of course not! I would ask you to read something about Stanley Milgram's experiment with what people will do when they think that "authority" tells them to--and this is real life. Even though this experiment became infamous, it was recently repeated, with very similar results. My point is that even good people will go along with what they thing others are OK with, even if it is evil. It is hard to stand up for what you know is right, if enough other people tell you the opposite.

I think we only need to look at our own recent history as evidence of this.  In the days following 9/11, when the Patriot Act was passed through Congress, the paranoia that surrounded individuals of the Muslim faith was analogous to a "Lottery" situation.  I remember the climate was so taut and ladened with so much tension in the school in which I was teaching.  I had a Muslim student in my class who became the subject of ridicule and torment and I remember intervening on his behalf on many an occasion.  The student took it to heart and I gave him a copy of Jackson's story and after reading it, the kid said, "Is this where we are now?"

Out of the mouth of babes...

In reply to #1:If this practice was allowed in my community, people would extend the ritual stoning to maybe taking the law into the own hands.  I read this short story back in HS.  I never quite remembered why they had this ritual Lottery in the first place.  Communities around them had stopped doing the lottery.

Doesn't this "Lottery" show our true human nature?  Its ok as long as its happening to someone else.

In reply to #2:  I think that our society "stones" people today.  People who are different, eccentric, don't the right thing, have the right body type, have nothing to show for themselves and doesn't follow the rules are subject to "stoning".  Society view these odd, strange, unattractive, disruptive people as a eyesore on homonginized  pristine community they would like to have.