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THE SCAPEGOAT According to the Oxford Dictionary, a scapegoat is a goat sent into the wilderness after the Jewish chief priest had symbolically laid the sins of the people on it, or a person who is blamed for the wrongdoings, mistakes, or faults of others, especially for reasons of expediency. In Shirley Jacksons short story, The Lottery, this barbaric tradition of a scapegoat is practiced. The villagers carry on a ritual of an annual lottery that has been passed down over the years. For as many years as the villagers could remember there had been an annual lottery. It was never questioned, but accepted because it was the way the system worked over the years, and the villagers were afraid of what would happen if they did not have the lottery.
During the lottery, every family in the village was included in the lottery. The villager chosen at random in the drawing would be stoned to death for all the evils of the past year. It was believed that once the winner was sacrificed, the past years sins of the entire village would be cleansed. Old Man Warner, a character in the story, was one of few that actually believed in the lottery for its original purpose of the sacrifice: Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.
He actually believed in was necessary for the sacrifice in order to produce better crops for the year. If perhaps more of the villagers knew and believed in the original purpose, they may have had a different attitude concerning the lottery. It would seem that a person would be proud to be the one who saves the village from the evil gods so that his people would have plenty to eat for the year. However, not knowing the purpose and fearing the unknown, the villagers were just selfish and uncaring. An example is Mrs. Hutchinson's best friend, Mrs.
Delacroix. She is greeting Mrs. Hutchinson in one breath, and then turns to encourage Mrs. Dunbar to come and stone Mrs. Hutchinson to death. Not only that, but, Mrs.
Hutchinson was fine with idea of stoning until she finds out she is the winner. Then she selfishly tries to bring in other members of her family and say that the drawing was unfair. The drawing for the lottery, instead of some type of election, gives an image of blindness for the villagers motives. Children even participated in the stoning of Mrs. Hutchinson.
They didnt understand, but participated because it was what was expected of everyone. Even Davy Hutchinson, Mrs. Hutchinson's son, was given stones to throw at his mom. The villagers make sure Davy knew what he was supposed to do before he understood why he did it or the consequences of the stoning. Even though the story was seemingly from a modern-day society, due to the talk of tractors and taxes, The Lottery was a ritualistic tradition from barbaric times. This story, however, shows that even though we might not have such traditions as the stoning for a scapegoat, there are ways in which our modern society finds a scapegoat for evils done in todays society. 530 Words
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Research essay sample on Annual Lottery Original Purpose Mrs
