The Lottery- Jackson

The Lottery

The Lottery was an interesting and surprising story. In the discussion questions the final one is:

4. Because The Lottery was written shortly after the end of World War II, some readers have seen it as a warning of the danger of simply “following orders.” Whether given by leaders or ones neighbors. Does this seem a legitimate reading of the story? Do the townspeople simply succumb to natural aggressions or to cultural imperatives?

Reading this story within the context of this question makes it much more interesting. To what degree are we simply following orders in this life? Since most of us are law abiding citizens how do we know that us following orders isn’t having consequences on our happiness in this lifetime already? Though the consequences are less grave how do we know we aren’t missing out on important elements of life? Do we follow blindly? Do we believe things too easily? Was that the author’s message? It also presents the question is what our society promotes the right thing? How do we know we aren’t just conditioned to the point of not being able to recognize our own free will? This story reminded me a lot of 1984. A lot of being human is allowing perception to guide us, if we perceive something to be right or to be the norm we often times blindly follow others.