The Lottery: Jackson's Metaphor for mid twentieth century America

In 1948, Shirley Jackson graced the pages of the New Yorker with “The Lottery.” The short story, although seemingly trivial and anticlimactic, served as a gateway for readers to venture into Jackson’s notion of America’s true character. To Jackson, America in 1948 was a nation that blindly harmed its own people because of the convention and institutionalization of racism and prejudice. By using the “The Lottery” as a metaphor for America, Jackson commented on the racism that scarred America and the common American’s unwillingness to rise against the norm to change the tradition.
Jackson first begins her social commentary through her creation of the village. The village in the story served as a microcosm for mid-twentieth century America: a nation where tradition, although backwards and barbaric, over shadowed righteous and fair treatment of all people. Racism and discrimination spawned from the tradition of slavery. Slavery is not only a tradition. It is America’s oldest and best known tradition. America’s economy was built by the hands of slavery. America‘s music was transformed through slavery. American classics in literature were inspired by slavery. America as we know it would not exist if not for slavery. This tradition, although gory and oppressive, continued on after the practice died. Blacks were still segregated, and blacks were still seen as inferior. In essence, racism and discrimination filled the void in tradition that the abolishment of slavery created.
The lottery, like racism, was based upon tradition. The lottery as a practice existed before “Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born,” (682). It also evolved as time went on, like the practice of slavery. The lottery was originally conducted with wooden chips, but once that was seen as too “behind the times” the villagers transitioned to strips of paper. Jackson also showed the evolution of the following when she wrote, “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered the stones,” (686). Like how Americans’ transitioned from slavery to other forms of racial discrimination, the villagers kept the spirit of the activity but made adjustments so they would still be deemed civilized in the midst of uncivilized discourse.
The people’s reaction to the horror of the lottery provided commentary on society’s paradigm in the mid 1900s by exposing the impact of racial discrimination on the common people. Victims of the lottery, like victims of racism, felt slighted and mistreated. This is best shown when the Tessie Hutchinson screamed, “It isn‘t fair, it isn‘t right,” while she was being stoned (686). The people who attacked Hutchinson for fate’s arbitrary decision to pick her were desensitized by the stoning action. Actually, if they felt any emotion, they were jovial about the stoning. Kids collected rocks as they left school and old women grabbed stones larger than they could lift with one hand.
Lastly, by naming her story “The Lottery,” Jackson also comments on how arbitrary racism and the mistreatment of others truly is. Her title illustrates that there is no rhyme or reason to the discrimination and racism directed toward Orientals, African Americans, and other ethnic minorities. These people were just randomly chosen to be attacked by mere chance. Caucasian Americans could have easily been marginalized if their race would have been picked by the world’s lottery.
Through “The Lottery,” Jackson was able to tackle the sensitive subject of racism and cultural superiority in America. Her work had the potential to play an instrumental role in society, when it was first published, for it served as a window into the heart of America. Now, it gives readers the opportunity to glimpse into America’s dark past and allows readers to see how barbaric and backwards our forward-moving, fast-paced nation truly was.