The Hands and The Lottery: An Analysis of Themes and Objectives - Essay Example

‘The Hands’ and ‘The lottery an analysis of themes and objectives The lottery, written by Shirley Jackson in 1948 became one of the most controversial pieces of literature written at the time. Written in a simple tone and structure, the story is unusual because of the sense of unease that creeps up on the reader despite the very ordinary setting of the story and interaction of the characters, culminating in a chilling and thought provoking ending. The plot is about a village lottery which has been a long time tradition; but instead of winning riches or gifts the winner becomes their annual human sacrifice for the harvest season. In the story titled ‘The Hands’ by Sherwood Anderson the reader is introduced the character of Wing Biddlebaum and the incidents in his life which led to prolonged psychological trauma and resulted in him retreating from society at large. Once a passionate and dedicated teacher, Adolph Myers was accused of molesting the young boys under him because of the false testimony of one of the boys. He was forced to run away from his town by an angry mob and change his name. While the pace of these two stories and the style in which each author unrolls the main plot are very different, they share some stark similarities in the intended object matter and societal lessons. The reader in both cases is forced to think about the concepts like rights of the individual, the justice of the situation and the impact of rigid society standards and conformism. To examine this thesis, we can first compare the climax of each story, the violence that took place and the conclusions that can be reached by examining those. In The lottery, the violence comes at the very end- it is sudden, unexpected for the reader but fully acceptable for the characters. The crowd is comprised of families who are on good terms with each other; the children play together and the adults indulge in general conversation before the lottery begins. Yet once the result is announced none of them have any compulsion about stoning an innocent woman, who they know well, in the name of keeping tradition. ‘Old Man Warner was saying, "Come on, come on, everyone." Steve Adams was in the front of the crowd of villagers, with Mrs. Graves beside him.’ (Jackson, p.21). The old lead the young in the violence and every one participates wholeheartedly. It is all very dispassionate and systematic (the children had already collected the stones) and no one thinks of raising any objections or listening to the woman’s pleas. The violence in ‘The hands’ is much more in line with the expectations the word usually produces. Once the boy claims that the teacher touched him inappropriately and other boys unwittingly provide evidence by telling them about his habit of placing his hands on their shoulders while talking, one father is driven to beat him up. Later at night a riled up mob arrives to hang the teacher as a suitable punishment but accidently allow him to make an escape. The mob is obsessed with providing righteous justice for the crime and though “his figure, so small, white, and pitiful, touched their hearts and they let him escape” (Anderson, ch5) they did not stop to think that their decision might not be rational. There is evidence that the men already had doubts about Myers and they were more than willing to believe the nature of his crime. This was reactionary and emotional violence to a specific incident, unlike in The lottery. However, the main similarity between both is the lack of motivation for any one single member of the group to act against the violence. No one raises a concern about right or wrong and as one they accept the course of action being taken. It may be that all were equally motivated but it is more probable that for many, conformity to the group was only reasoning to go along with the violence. Individuals may have been following the group, but there were collective motivations present for each group as well. The crowd in the Lottery village had the motivation of ‘tradition’; the ritual had been done for a long, long time and was believed to be help in their harvest. There are rumors of other communities deciding to end the ritual but the villagers are not willing to accept change, even changing the black lottery box would be disturbing centuries old routine for them. Routine is comfortable and this annual murder has become a routine for them, as Old man Warner put it about those changing tradition “Pack of crazy fools, Listening to the young folks, nothings good enough for them.” (Jackson, p15). The mob in The Hands wasn’t ruled by tradition; they were driven by the idea of imparting justice and teaching the man a lesson. They were also fulfilling a self serving bias concerning their perceptions about him “Hidden, shadowy doubts that had been in mens minds concerning Adolph Myers were galvanized into beliefs.” (Anderson, ch5). The fact that the evidence given by the boys validated their own unease about the teacher made their reaction even more passionate and triumphant- they had been proved right and were helping to get rid of a ‘monster’. Different motivations for different incidents, yet it is interesting to note that in both cases the comfort of the group played an important role. The villagers are so comfortable with their role in the heinous act that diversion would require a great deal of moral thinking and strength on their part, it would also seem inefficient. Why try out something new when the norm hadn’t provided any problems for the majority? The victim was of course unable to speak up for himself. The mob was comfortable in their role of protectors of the society, a role it had defined for itself, that to think contrary to the action they had taken would have been akin to insulting their own intelligence and moral compass. It would also have required more work, the boys had more or less given a unanimous declaration against the teacher, probing the truth would have been difficult and cumbersome and that option was unconsciously but firmly rejected. Tradition has been discussed directly (The Lottery) and indirectly (The hands) in these stories. The villagers are blindly following a tradition that encourages them to forward their children, spouses and friends for the sacrifice and do so in a cheerful way, "Be a good sport, Tessie." Mrs. Delacroix called” (Jackson, p18). For the mob, tradition dictated that any man convicted of such a crime should be suitably punished even in case of doubt. The subtle understanding is their traditions in themselves were the ones responsible for rendering these people incapable of individual and free thought. The innocent victims had their lives ended because of no good reason; something which can easily be understood by a rational human but bound in the blinding norms of tradition the perceptions of the groups in these stories had become distorted. Without the input of new ideas and analysis of external factors these groups were exhibiting behavior which would be more suitable to inhumane animals. This conformity was enforced by all the members of the groups on everyone else. From a very young age the villagers were taught that the ritual was normal, even ‘good’, and any deviation from it would be met with hostility. The school boys could also have picked up on the adult’s real feelings and simply went along with the attitude the adult’s reflected onto them, the teacher’s touch might have seemed innocent to them but the anger of the adults would have made them think otherwise. The author’s in both stories are warning the reader about the dangers of jumping into conclusions dictated by irrational feelings and blindly following the set rules of a society. While they may provide a comforting routine and rituals provide strong bonds sometimes the greater good can only be achieved if we learn to question and criticize these long held traditions. The conclusions from these books about conformity and the dangers it can impose, the lives it can ruin, can be applied to some degree to the real world. One example is of Hate, effectively used by politicians and media to create strong negative perceptions between two groups, removing the humanity of one of them to justify eliminating or suppressing them. It would take courage and a resolve for analytical thinking to break from the group level and address rights and justice on an individual level. Conformity and social pressure can, and does lead people to do awful things, and makes undesirable actions seem reasonable. Breaking out of such molds is necessary to reach a more enlightened state and care for each individual member of a society. Works Cited Shirley Jackson. "Fiction: "The Lottery". The New Yorker, 26 June 1948. Retrieved 11th Oct 2012. Sherwood Anderson.  The Hands. Masses, a Chicago literary magazine, March 1916 issue. Retrieved 11th Oct 2012. Read More