Consequences of Expectations based on The Lottery by Shirley Jackson - Essay Example

? 15 February, Consequences of Expectations: The story “The Lottery” by “Shirley Jackson” talks about some of the most fundamental evils of mankind that include but are not limited to hypocrisy, double faced-ness and acting in a social circle. The story talks about a small village; in which people know one another. They have immense interest in rituals. This can be estimated from the fact that they have preserved a tradition for over seventy-seven years. Their excitement and association with the ritual reflects in their willingness to keep the drawing box as it has remained for years and not amend it to make it any better because they don’t want a bit of the ritual to be altered with time. Each and every individual in the village, including the children, has wholeheartedly participated in the drawing for more than decades. Children’s picking up stones in the very beginning of the story is projected as a very joyful act. As if it were Christmas, little kids would happily gather stones; stuff them in their pockets and in the end, only to play the real game. “The Lottery” fundamentally talks about the fact that people compromise upon what they deem correct in order to align their actions with expectations of others, though their hypocrisy never earns them true sympathy of others. People do tend to remain in the good books of others and they tend to achieve this by living up to other people’s expectations. This could be the most fundamental reason why each and every individual in the village regularly attended the tradition every year despite its painful theme and violent nature. There is no point denying the fact that such a tradition is evil as it takes human lives, and generates mass violence. Any human being only needs basic common sense to recognize it as such. It is highly ironic that the act of the lottery is mentioned to be a “civic activity.” (Jackson 388) “The lottery was conducted—as were the square dances, the teen-age club, the Halloween program—by Mr. Summers who had time and energy to devote to civic activities.” It almost makes the reader believe that such deviant act is actually considered to be fun, because here it is being resembled to activities such as square dancing. The ritual was evil as it was much profoundly evil than just a simple wrongdoing. Likewise, it would not be wrong to say that every person in that village knew the tradition was wrong. As the text mentions their curiosity and nervousness in these words , “…their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed” (Jackson 388). Likewise, women came to the ritual in “faded house dresses and sweaters” (Jackson 388), which essentially speaks of their lack of excitement for the ritual. However, there could be several reasons why this game might have sustained over the course of time despite its deadly theme. The tradition might be the choice of people having more influence on others in the very region. Nonetheless the ones who support to continue the tradition so as to gain revenge from the town people, of the lives of their friends they had lost in earlier rituals. An element of fear can also be felt from the fact that the ritual necessitated the presence of every individual in it while it was being conducted. The speaker, Mr. Summer, made sure not one individual had missed attending the drawing, and people would help him do that. Summer said, “guess we better get started, get this over with, so’s we can go back to work. Anybody ain’t here?” (Jackson 390). From Summer’s tone here, it could be easily understood that the true colors of the tradition starts to show, especially when he asks to ‘get it over with;’ projecting that no one is over the moon to stone someone. Not considering the reason why such a deadly trend might have sustained in that village, one can say that every villager attended the event just to be in the good books of fellow villagers. If one could risk one’s life to come to attend the tradition, why wouldn’t others? This generates a wave and every individual keeps drawing inside the circle of hypocrites who gather just to make one another realize that they have guts to stand the death call. The story is a great supporter of the view that people act in a certain way to come up to the standards of other people. However, it can be undoubtedly said that here, it is a clear display of hypocrisy. When an individual performs in a certain way to satisfy others, his/her purpose behind the act is pure worldly gain. He/she hardly ever means what he/she says or does. Jackson has proved this point by emphasizing upon the existence of love, affection and harmony among all of the villagers who later loose all affection and take anybody’s life just for the sake of an ill, deviant tradition. This speaks of the hypocrisy in them and hospitality towards one another that they formerly display in their hypocrisy. In fact, the whole story fundamentally makes fun of the fake mannerism that is ingrained in the human society. An in-depth analysis of the story tells that Jackson’s emphasis on the maintenance of formality throughout the tradition is not without purpose. “Although Mr. Summers and everyone else in the village knew the answer perfectly well, it was the business of the official of the lottery to ask such questions formally” (Jackson 390). Displaying respect for formality, values and humanity in such a dreadful ritual is an obvious fraud. This can be estimated from the fact that all the respect vanishes in the end for the winner of the lottery. Respect and empathy are demands of humanity, and the villagers here do not lack of respect although the same cannot be said for empathy. Thus, it is hypocrisy to try and live up to one another’s expectations, even if there is often little truth in their feelings. Jackson’s attempt to make fun of such social attitudes can be estimated from the fact that it is not revealed, until in the end that the people were so eager to choose a person not to reward him/her, but to humiliate him/her and stone him/her to death. However, we cannot say if or not people tend to be correct because the criteria of rationality are different for each person. It is, though, true that there can always be some justification for any action an individual displays, though not all are convinced by that justification at the same time. This is because the answer to “what is correct in a certain matter?” is different to different people depending upon their own perceptions, ideas, and personality traits influenced by various environmental factors. Thus, we can say that everyone tends to be correct though others may argue upon the justification one’s certain “correct” action. Also, it cannot be said that one can both be correct and living up to others’ expectations simultaneously. Considering Jackson’s commentary on the ingrained hypocrisy in humans, not many people can be expected to have rational expectations from others. Likewise, not many people manage to live up to others expectations when their actions are morally justified. Also, there is little to no evidence in the story to show that both goals can be attained through one simple action. For example, in the story, Mrs. Hutchinson screams, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (Jackson 393). She does not openly call it “wrong” or “inhumane act” because she has been part of the game before. When Bill Hutchinson was declared as having received the paper with the mark, Mrs. Hutchinson insisted on the redraw, so that someone else would get into the trap. Now that she is into it, no one else would care as well. People are all set to stone her to death and would not listen to her. Also, she finds becoming an outcast in a village worse than being stoned, so she keeps her silence in that matter and is satisfied by only yelling, “it isn’t fair.” So in order to live up to their expectations, she makes use of softer words, and if it is analyzed, she is indeed correct when she tends to protest as it is the matter of her life. If we regard her usage of soft words as a simple act, we are clear that it did not serve the purpose. Hence, her goals went unsatisfied by this simple action. Despite her immense cry and suffering, nobody would listen or stop throwing stones at her in an attempt to live up to the expectations of others, though there must be many among them who would have considered it incorrect deep inside their hearts. The reason why it is so deep, has a very simple explanation. People do not want to be alone, and they want to be accepted because, from a short reference to George Orwell: people do not want to become “unpersons.” It can thus be concluded that every individual has his/her own criteria of correctness, though people often compromise upon their values and correctness in order to live up to others’ expectations. This promotes hypocrisy and the whole society disintegrates into individual units, that have no affiliation with one another. Mrs. Hutchinson would have been just as cruel to others as others had been to her in the end, if the lottery winner had not been her. She had originally compromised upon the demand of ethics and had been a firm supporter of the cruel custom. So she deserved no mercy when she herself fell as a prey to it. Read More