Paper Example. Shirley Jackson and The Lottery

Human society is a phenomenon to watch, study, and understand. From a structural-functionalist view, one can argue that the society is made up of different 'organ-like' institutions, which each, made up of even smaller functional units that work together, interrelate and correspond to realize different community goals (Jackson 20). In relation to this, society is usually divided into major and minor institutions that govern it. These institutions, like law and education, for example, ensure smooth and balanced learning, working, and living environment for all. In this paper, thus, we will try to look into human society in order to establish the structural layout of the community with close reference to a one Robert Scholes view of cultural conditioning and with the work of Shirly Jackson, The Lottery, as our case study.

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Robert Scholes (1929-2016), well known for his ideologies pertaining to metafiction and fabulation, was a celebrated American literary theorist and critic (Jackson 24). In his famous work On Reading a Video Text, he delved deep into the power of media, namely, how commercials held on television can dictate a certain degree of power over the viewer on a subconscious level. In this particular text, Scholes used words such as cultural reinforcement and visual fascination, which will form the basis of each of our arguments (Jackson 26). Giving explanations to these words, which we will also do, he moved further ahead to give them required contexts in order for us to fully understand them. With Shirley Jackson's On Reading a Video Text in mind, this paper's main agenda then is to dissect the community presented to us in this short story with a bid to understand the concepts of community and conformity as put forward by Shirly Jackson.

The Lottery, followed a fictional farming New England town in the 20th century. It revolves around the town's annual Lottery, which in its introduction, is a simple enough affair but with further reading devolves into a muddle of dark communal themes such as communal violence and murder (Greene 44). The short story centers primarily on this Lottery, a blind tradition that leads to death and suffering, and as the story, which is presented in both narrative and dialogue continues, the ambiance desaturases to a colorless horror tale where the townsfolk brutally murder the Lottery's winner.

Scholes describes cultural conditioning as the ability for a presented object or commercial link to offer false resonation and relation with those watching it and thus create some sort of master-slave relationship without the watcher knowing what is going on. Cultural conditioning in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery is first presented by the Lottery's black, wooden box. Mr. Graves carries it after Mr. Summers, and it is here that Jackson's symbolism rears its face (David 55). The box itself is an embodiment of death and fear. It also represents this community's terrible traditions that are slowly killing the society without any repercussions. The people shy away from it, and their fear is magnified in its presence. Even its carrier, Mr. Graves, has a name alluding to death. This community, thus, is conditioned to attend this ritual-like ceremony where the eventuality of death is an occurrence everyone seems to have come to terms with.

The box is also described to have grown old and worn out, and Mr. Summers has, on numerous occasions, suggested that they make another one. Still, because of the fear it inspires, the people have ignored his suggestions as they don't want to break away from tradition. The box, as established, forms part of the community's dark beliefs that should be done away with. The community fears to do this and is okay to hold on to such beliefs that are destroying it. They feel like this ceremony, and this box, in particular, forms a crucial foundation for what they are as people (David 56). This goes further than just pride and a sense of belonging to a given religion or culture. It has evolved fear-inspiring motif. This is an excellent iteration of Scholes's view on cultural conditioning.

In the introduction of this society, there is a presentation of a calm town where the three hundred town residents live in harmony and understanding. Everyone knows everyone, and peaceful air is present. Robert Scholes presents the idea of the narrative and how it dictates conformity to a certain degree (Jackson 30). The narrative, he describes as sounds, words, and sentences or music that a commercial can use with the aim of holding the viewer's mind for a moment long enough to entrance said viewer into buying the product being advertised. This is a key part of cultural reinforcement, Scholes observes. In The Lottery, the black box filled with papers is the story's narrative. The townsfolk all gather around entranced by the fear for both the box and breaking tradition by not attending the ceremony (Jackson 33). The residents are meant to pick out a paper from the box. Bill Hutchison, representing his own family, draws a paper marked black with a dot. On the second run of the Lottery, Tessie, his wife, draws the marked paper and her own neighbors stone her to death.

Conclusively, the townsfolk go on with the ritual as they always have every year because there it gives this sense of togetherness all around. This is akin to the concept of the narrative, in that there has been established a false sense of resonance by a dead tradition that is so deeply rooted in the town that the community cannot do without it even if they don't like it. They have always been conditioned to carry out this activity, and even as Mr. Summers alludes to them changing it by suggesting they change the box, they cannot be moved to change a detail about it. This leads to death in the story, a key theme that is only realized by the existence of the box.

Works Cited

Jackson, Shirley et al. Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." 2nd ed., 2016, p. 454.

Greene, S. From Inquiry To Academic Writing. 1st ed., Bedford/St. Martins, 2012, p. 433.

McCullough, David W. The Unending Mystery. 1st ed., Pantheon Books, 2004, p. 544.