A Lesson from "The Lottery" Re-posted

Each time I read a story again, I pick up new tidbits I didn’t catch the first or second time (oftentimes even more than that). In this particular case, I was reading “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson for at least the 20th time, but it was the first time I noticed the author used a character named Steve Adams at a critical point in the story, when he hadn’t been mentioned more than in passing before. Since this story is chock full of symbolism, I knew this couldn’t have been coincidental, so I looked more closely at his name and his role in the story.

Steve Adams. Initially the name seems common and not worth the second look, but when you start to analyze it you realize the name bears a strong similarity to the first man and woman in the Bible. Just take off the “St”. So, he represents man — humankind, perhaps. But why put the spotlight on him all of a sudden at the end of the story? Could it be the author wanted to show us a snapshot of human nature? When cruelty and inhumanity is condoned by the majority, there is our human nature jumping right in to the thick of things… right in the front row — like Steve Adams. Steve Adams and Mr. Graves stood right in the front of the crowd which was attacking Tessie Hutchinson with stones. Humanity and death leading the pack.

Human nature is not to stand up for and protect the weak, the scapegoat, the chosen “different” ones. Human nature is to go in for the kill. This is mirrored throughout history. In any society where discrimination, dehumanization and genocide has been condoned, encouraged, or — as in the case of “The Lottery” — mandated, most people will jump right in. We are self-centered by nature. We will follow the crowd just so we don’t become the next victim. We will lead the crowd when we are most afraid of it turning on us. We attack the weak, the wounded, and the people we think are beneath us, if that’s the way the social wind is blowing. Right and wrong exists for us only when we ourselves have become the victims. No, human nature is not “basically good” as Anne Frank believed. Human nature is sick.

To leave it there, however, is depressing and hopeless. Who defends the weak? There are people who do that, you know. It has been known to happen. People who don’t join in when the gossip and rumors and abuse and mistreatment are flowing like the Mississippi River. There are those who stand against the current and protect those who cannot defend themselves, even at their own peril. They don’t give into human nature. Heroes like Corrie ten Boom, Martin Luther King, Jr., and many, many others. What inspires these to act on behalf of the victims, when there is nothing in it for them?

A woman named Eva Fogelman interviewed more than three hundred people who hid and rescued Jews during WWII, and she checked their stories with the Jews they had saved and with official records. She was looking for the common motivating factor in people who risk their lives to help others. Her conclusion? In many cases the critical motive was religious faith. They believed God wanted them to step up (paraphrased from Catholic Heroes of the Holocaust). That’s not human nature. That is the very nature of God.

Resources: Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery”. The Lottery and Other Stories. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2nd ed.; New York, 2005. The Augustine Club. “Catholic Heroes of the Holocaust”. 10 February 1998. Date retrieved: 16 September 2008. from http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/arch/heroes.htm.

Waxing Eloquent

Sometimes I just feel like being academic. No real reason. It's just fun to think sometimes. I am finding, however, that to pontificate on a blog which has been pretty "family-news-oriented" historically, simply does not go over well with the readership. With that in mind, I am creating this second blog to air my academic musings. Thinking, of course, is a rare luxury I allow myself only on special occasions, so I may not be prolific on this blog -- but if nothing else, may you find my vocabulary/diction ambiguously expatiated. ;)