Permissable Crime
For centuries, particular elements of society have excused blatantly senseless crimes against their fellow man and seen them as appropriate because they were ordered by someone in authority over them. This is very evident in Shirley Jackson's short story "The Lottery". As the story opens, the people of a small town are preparing to hold a lottery. There is a feeling of excitement in the air, but the reader also senses a feeling of nervousness. The townspeople greet each other and make jokes while the preparations for the event of the day are completed. The lottery gets underway and soon the reader is hurled into the most unexpected turn of events. Instead of there being one winner and several hundred losers, there is one loser and several hundred winners. The shocking conclusion is the inexcusable cold-blooded murder of one of the townspeople by all of the others, including her own husband and children. There follows a sense of confusion by the reader; what is the! purpose of this yearly event? there is also a sense of wonder in trying to figure out what the author is attempting to say to the reader.
saying not to moan and complain about sudden deathand she seems to be telling Tessie in the same manner that she would tell a child who had lost a ball game to be a good sport! One has to wonder if the people in this Anywhere town ever realize what they are doing and have to face the consequences of their actions. If the ending of the story is anything to go by, the answer is probably not. However, there is always hope in the fair judgment of a higher power. The German people are not alone when it comes to commiting horrible actions against friends and loved ones. As one looks at the history of the American people, we see a couple of times their actions as a society are unbelievable and unexplainable. the first one is the Civil War. This bloody war between the northern industrialized states and the southern agrarian states fulfills the biblical prophecy that brother shall rise up against brother, and father against son. Never in the history of the United States has there been so bloody a battle and so many soldiers not really aware of what they are fighting about, they were just following orders (Catton 2
Some topics in this essay:
Shirley Jackson's,
Civil War,
Catholic Archbishop,
Tessie Hutchinson,
Hitler's Gestapo,
Davy Hutchinson,
,
Holocaust History,
Adolph Hitler,
Likewise German,
german people,
allowed happen,
story lottery,
people town,
Join now to see the rest of the essay!
Approximate Word count = 758
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
Example Essays Home
