New scientific understanding and new technology are "good" in the context of this story by allowing agriculture to advance. In the mid-twentieth century world in which this short story takes place, knowledge about fertilization, weather tracking, soil enhancement, pesticides, irrigation, crop rotation, and other aspects of sophisticated farming techniques give the villagers a level of control over their crop yields not available in earlier times. As a result of the new technologies, the villagers no longer have to rely on superstitious rituals in order to have productive and sustaining crop yields.
Despite all the technological advances, however, this New England community persists in clinging to the tradition of holding an annual lottery every June, during which they choose a human sacrifice to ensure a good harvest. At the same time, increasing disenchantment is leading some villagers to quietly protest the lottery. As Mrs. Adams says:
Some places have already quit...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
lotteries.
This idea of changing a custom is roundly ridiculed by Old Man Warner, who believes that such innovations as abandoning the lottery will lead to disaster.
The story shows how casually, if uncomfortably, a community can maintain a barbarous ritual. Jackson critiques over reliance on tradition in small town America by showing the pain and death outmoded ritual produces.
Since your question of "Why is technology good now?" is listed under Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery," I will help to answer your question using the story as backdrop, focusing on:
- whether the use of the black box in the story would have been considered as using "technology"
- how their view of this technology as "good" could be interpreted in modern times.
In the story "The Lottery," the use of the black box is arguably a form of macabre technology that is used every year to determine the fate of one of the villagers. This technology existed for generations prior to the story and has its origin in some mysterious ritual that, like other similar rituals of its kind, is conducted with the belief that it will influence the village's crop production.
The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.
This rudimentary technology, even though they use it in a much more modern time, is considered "good" because it helps them fix a problem or resolve a situation. They even stop using wood chips, changing to paper strips because the strips are more efficient than wood chips, considering how much the population has increased.
So, not only is their technology considered "good," but they even modified it to make it more beneficial to them.
The same concept of technology applies identically to modern times. We consider "good technology" anything that fixes our problems, extends our lives, brings us profit, or just helps us understand the world around us in a better way. This is how technology "good" by modern standards.
However, when technology is used for a situation such as the one in the story by Shirley Jackson, the view of this technology would not be "good" because, even though technology could be used to ease out the lives of the villagers, it is still going to be used for unethical purposes.
Still, from the perspective of these very strange individuals, their technology is considered "good" because they choose their next sacrificial victim in a "fair" way. Therefore, in "The Lottery," there is a technology which is considered "good" even though it is for the purposes of killing a fellow villager at random. This is because from their perspective, it helps them solve a problem.
In modern times, the view of technology is very similar. As long as it serves and achieves a purpose, it is considered "good." We just need to be very careful as to why we are using it, with what goal, and who gets impacted as a result of its usage.