The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

 

My Views-

Villagers gather at the town square,

in an idyllic fictional small town,

to participate in an age-old ritual of “The Lottery”!

Children gather stones,

not to build or play,

but for a more diabolical plan! ☹

Pieces of paper are stored in a black wooden box.

The colour black, foreshadows, something ominous!

But none can guess.

Chits are pulled out, by one, by all,

but lightning falls on one of the housewives.

She pulls out a chit with a black mark,

And what follows is fiendish, alas!☹

She begs, she pleads,

she calls it unfair,

but a ritual is a ritual,

and needs to be executed for all.

Please read for yourself to know! 😊(no-spoilers)

 

 

This Shirley Jackson’s(SJ) story, published in 1948, is “devastatingly shockingly dramatically intricately edifying”

 

Lottery, is an age-old tradition, followed with a superstition of-

“Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon”

The fertility of corn has been linked with the lottery. The ghoulish result of the lottery, is considered to bring auspiciousness and growth! A superstition, which people have been following, without questioning, or fighting against it!

 

In today’s world, out of peer pressure, in any of the set-ups :-be it in school or office, house or market, humans follow each other impetuously- “the herd mentality”, without questioning the wrong or right! This has been infallibly reflected upon by SJ! We end up following traditions, protocols, without pondering, without questioning ourselves. If the rules/protocols, are valid, and good for the self/society or not?

 

In the plot, no one is contrite, but roguishly participates in the ordeal, blindly, recklessly! In my view, the huge group participating in the lottery, is a metaphor for democracy! SJ, has dawned upon us all, a question on conscious mindful living, and how democracy can also fail, devastatingly! We end up reading a lot on totalitarianism, and so on and so forth. 

The Lottery, made me to question myself, the blindness of the herd mentality, that democracy brings along. Democracy, in all plausibility, can render as a complete failure, when the people involved are blind, unconscious and uneducated about right and wrong. A good education and reformative ways, are the necessary pillars of a democracy, for it to function smoothly! Democracy should capacitate, it’s populace to live consciously and fearlessly. I know it may sound lame, that I am linking democracy with “The Lottery”, but I felt, that’s what SJ also tried all of us to reflect on!

 

This reading left me emotionally knackered and jaded, considering, the premise in which I started reading, all gaiety and hearty, but the unexpected ending, left me to dwell in Jackson’s mind for few days, to try and think what and how she thought! (Trying to keep away from spoilers, which is really tough in a short story of this capacity).

 

I was agog from the first page till the last. I conjectured the plot to be hackneyed, as the title suggests, but I was left gob-smacked! Why Shirley Jackson, would decoy the readers with an alluring title, into a horrendous ending? But the plot, offers a good bunch of learnings, which makes it worth the read! 

A definite 4-stars. Docking a star, just for the rapid, sudden ending (though nothing felt contrived, but is definitely crisp and nuanced!).

 

Confining, it is a “requiem of the evils of superstition and herd-mentality”!!

 

I wish if SJ would have worked on the short and rapid ending, and made it a bit more detailed. This would have allowed the savage-blow and the fluttering hearts to return to the wonted quietude! 😊

 

I would have helped the reader to easily reflect more, on the superstitions/societal failures and causes! Seriously, I could have never dreamt about the imminent diabolical ending 😊