The Lottery

The themes and issues raised in this story.

1) Scapegoating.

This oftenly happens in real life, with us wanting to push the blame to another person, not wanting to suffer the consequences which the fault they caused brings. This is also shown in my life too, during the secondary 1 annual camp. During our trek to the milo slide, almost half our group got lost. Those people, who did not want to take up responsibility for misleading the group, pushed all of the blame to Samuel Ng. This is a very good example of modern day scapegoating. Usually, the scapegoater is very much less believed as majority of the people all push their blame to him, making the scapegoater the underdog in this situation.

2) The unfairness of the human society.

As many people would have at least suffered a situation in which they were put in an unfair role. unfairness is rampant. Let us get back to the story of 'The Lottery'. The lottery tickets were put in a box and gives all its participants a fair chance. You get what you pick. This is the fairest way, which is by chance. Tessie Hutchinson should not have put up a fight in being chosen as the winner of the lottery. She fairly picked that ticket, fairly got chosen, but still exclaims that the lottery was unfair. In life, not many things go according to your way.

3) Hypocrisy of man

People also tend to follow blindly what others are doing, without sparing a thought about whether it is the right thing to do. Some people may follow what others are wrongly, leading to them making the same mistake. Let us get bak to the story of, ze lottery. Tessie Hutchinson in the spotlight, again. she goes to the lottery happily, joking with the others like in any other party. However, when the results of the lottery are revealed and Tessie Hutchinson is the 'chosen one' she immediately begins to shriek, "It's not fair, it isn't right." Her change in emotions is very great. From happily arriving to participate in the lottery, to receiving a death sentence. This was what happened to Tessie Hutchinson when she drawed the 'winning ticket', she did not once stop to think if having the lottery is a bad event. She only thought of it when she was chosen to die. This point can be seen in many people, doing what others are doing, and regrets it when the consequences come in.

Well, that's all for today, the next blog post should come in a few day's time. I hope.