Reference no: EM133402443

Case Study: The author that portrayed the conflict of Man vs. Society the best is Shirley Jackson. Jackson's short story "The Lottery" is about a village that does a lottery, and whoever is chosen is stoned to death by the different families that reside there (Jackson, 1948). Man vs. society is blatant and transparent because the villagers know that other villages have discontinued the lottery entirely. Instead of the village focused on in the short story moving on from the inhumane act of public stoning, the village still keeps it going because of societal norms or traditions passed on from generation to generation. The village is transfixed on the tradition of old they do not even have a reason for stoning people.

This is shown when a villager, Mr. Adams, says to the oldest man in town named Old Man Warner, "They do say, Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, that over in the north village, they're talking of giving up the lottery. Old Man Warner snorted. Pack of crazy fools, he said. Listening to the young folks, nothing's good enough for them. Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery," he added petulantly" (Jackson, 1948). The villagers do not want to take part in this horrible act anymore. Still, because of superstition combined with a lack of open-mindedness, villagers are forced to conform to society and sacrifice man.

A movie similar to Jackson's "The Lottery" would be the Hunger Games, where a lottery system is set up in each district to pick random inhabitants to participate in a fight to the death in a battle royal fashion. The reason for Hunger Games is only to show the district that the Capital, which is in charge, has the power, and because they say the Hunger Games will happen, the Hunger Games will happen. Like in Jackson's "The Lottery", the system happens because people say it must. Not for any other reason other than that.

Questions: In our current time, do you feel that any lottery system that sacrifices people for no reason can exist? If so, how do you think it would work out?