Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

This short story “The Lottery” is about two higher class people are the leaders of the village and need to limit the population by killing off their villagers. In the short story The Lottery, Jackson shows how positions of power are important to the characters that possess them and have consequences for other characters. In the The Lottery, Jackson shows how positions of power are important to the characters that posses them and have consequences for other characters. ” The lottery was conducted- as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program- by Mr. Summers, who had time and energy to devote to civic activities.

” (Jackson). This example shows how the man is in charge of the town and how devoted he is. That’s how it was back then. The husbands would have power over the women with everything. They did the important things and made the big decisions why the women sat back and watch.

“Wife draws for her husband.” Mr. Summers said. “Don’t you have a grown boy to do it for you, Janey?” (Jackson). This shows how the male is in charge again. He decides whether the family lives or dies.

The men are always the higher power and represented everything back then. There is always importance with power but what not a lot of people realize is there are consequences that come along with that too. The consequences are very great too of having power. Power is very good to have but you have to watch out for the negatives. “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones; Bobby and Harry Jones and Dickie Delacroix—the villagers pronounced this name “Dellacroy”—eventually made a great pile of stones in one corner of the square and guarded it against the raids of the other boys.” (Jackson).

This example is exactly how Marxism plays a role in the story. “It’s Tessie, Mr. Summers said, and his voice was hushed. Show us her paper, Bill. Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it, the black spot Mr.

Summers had made the night before with the heavy pencil in the coal company office. Bill Hutchinson held it up and there was a stir in the crowd.” (Jackson). In this Marxism story, the rulers created a life or death situation and one villager has to accept the consequence of their family and name getting picked To conclude, in the The Lottery, Jackson interprets how other characters have consequences due to the positions of power that certain characters possess. This story shows how Marxism is still around in other countries and how it is so different from the United States.

It is important because Marxism is about how different social classes struggle in a society and how one person, or two, should not be in charge of a country due to different consequences.