hh_clubs | RESTRICTED SECTION: SHORT STORY DISCUSSION

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"THE LOTTERY" SHORT STORY DISCUSSION
(the book discussion is above this discussion)

It's time for the two readings discussions!

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This discussion will run much like the debates held in the main community. To earn points, be sure to heed the following:
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-50 points to the top commenter, one in the novel and and one in the short story discussion.
-40 points for second, one for novel and one for short story discussion
-30 points for third, one for novel and one for short story discussion.

Discussions will end Friday, March 24th. This will give you all two full weeks for discussion. Don't hesitate to ask me any questions!

Anna M // Restricted Section Mod

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I made a comment to the next thread down that I think the story focuses a lot on the "sheep mentality" and without that dehumanization that you're talking about, I don't think any attempt at that would have been successful. Dehumanization is definitely a big part of the story.

I think by the time the story is set, the town has reached a point where they don't see each other as humans anymore - at least not in the way we define human. The only way I can see people doing that to each other is if the dehumanization is constant throughout the year. Everyone around you is your potential murder victim and your potential murderer. How could you ever learn to trust someone fully and have them as your equal in that enviroment? The results of it can't just come out one day a year. There must be consequences of it in every day life, and we just don't see them within the story.

That is definitely no normal town the rest of the year.

- Becker, Slytherin

Yeah, I think of the great examples of that is the little boy at the end helping in the murder of his own mother. I mean, it's his mom! However young he is, you would still think he'd understand that. That scene is just so disturbing. At this point, I don't think he see her as a human anymore, much his mother.

Tina // Ravenclaw

I think those kids are a product of their raising. They're raised by parents who kill people. Their older siblings kill people. They learn by watching these people that they are one day going to kill people.

I've always imagined the kids waiting for the day like they would a special day with Grandma helping cook a special meal, or a day with Grandad doing "repairs". It's a symbol to them that, even as kids, they're getting to participate in their future adult world. Sometimes, killing Mom is just part of that adult world. So, in the moment,the excitment of participation overwhelms the idea that he is killing his mother, you know? He probably doesn't understand what he's doing, not really.

- Becker, Slytherin

That's true, I suppose it wouldn't seem wrong or abnormal to him if that's the world he's gown up in. He probably expected it of himself and maybe even looked forward to the day he coudl take part. How worrying.

What that part really did remind me of was young men in tribes having to pass rituals to become a man of the tribe. Unfortunately, in this tribe/town, this is done by stoning someone to death.

Pixie // Hufflepuff

I think it's a GREAT way to explain that day, as something that look foreward to yearly. The time that they take to pick the rocks they're going to use and putting them in to piles just waiting. They protect their little stack of rocks because it's like a birthday to them, they get to grow up a little. And it's also a great way to explain desensitizing that they see all the other people do it yearly and it's something that they look foreward to participating in one day, to be able to pull for their family if they make it to being old enough to get to.

Jen//Hufflepuff

I definitely got that impression. It can't just be one day a year that the town loose any sense of self or identity. I felt there was no real sense of belonging or caring that must be prevalent throughtout he year. Why else would a mother put her 12 year old daughter in for such an ordeal?

I can imagine the townsfolk wandering around, being very pleasent to each other, with fake smiles on their faces and making polite, but trivial conversation, never really trusting each other. At the lottery itself all conversation seemed to be quite trivial. No one wants to let their guard down and I feel that the town woudl have a similar atmosphere any day of the year.

Pixie // Hufflepuff

That gets me thinking. Do you think Jackson was criticising our own society's tendancies to be two-faced in her story? I think she might have been at least thinking about it. There's an awful lot of saying one thing and meaning another in our relations with others, and most people keep themselves rather closed off as a necessity.

The distance we keep from others, even friends and family, could be looked at as dehumanizing. At the least, it probably isn't something Jackson thought was an ideal way to live life (or so I felt from what I read in the story).

- Becker, Slytherin.

That's true I suppose, because no matter how you're brought up, if you had any kind of love for your mother, you wouldn't stone her to death. And if you had any love for your children you wouldn't eneter them in the lottery... Is their happy family 'love' just a two faced lie then? I reckon so.

Also, all the crowd were saying out loud how they hoped it wasn't that 12(?) year old girl. Whereas I bet they were actually thinking that if it was anyoe other than them then they'd be happy, including the girl. I strongly suspect that they'd stil not have hesitated to stone the young girl if she was picked anyway.

Pixie // Hufflepuff

See, that's tricky. It's hard to say they didn't have any love. "Love" is a damn hard word to define, and I don't think it's fair to say, point blank, that the entire society lacks love for parents. Maybe there isn't love there, but I've always been uncomfortable with the idea that we can decide completely that there isn't.

Maybe as far as the child (and his society) is concerned, he does love his mother. Maybe they just have really different definitions than we do. Even if the love is different, can we say it doesn't exist, when it might? (Or does that even matter to the discussion? I don't know. I just wanted to bring it up. I know I mentioned it briefly in an earlier comment.)

- Becker, Slytherin

See, I don't know if I completely agree. With the way that they talk to each other they seem pretty friendly. Though I suspect that they would be a little more reserved around people, but they know that it's a nessesary evil that has to happen every year. They even marry amongst their own town so there has to be some level of trust amongst the villagers. But I do agree that they are very much sheep like. Once that first stone is thrown then the whole group moves in and attacks. One person has no chance of surviving.

Jen//Hufflepuff

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