Blog Post #4

Group 1:
#2
I chose to read the article "The Stoning of Mistress Hutchinson: Meaning and Context in 'The Lottery'. This article was very interesting to read because it raised a point of view of "The Lottery" that I had never considered before. Fritz Ochlschlaeger mainly discusses a feminist point of view, suggesting that Jackson is pinpointing "The Lottery" as "a patriarchal society's way of controlling female sexuality". Ochlschlaeger points out that the only people who seem to resist the lottery or question it, are women. He also points out that it is all men that run the village and it is a man who runs the lottery and is ultimately exempt from it, Mr Summers. When reading this article, I was shocked at the depth with which Ochlschlaeger went into from this perspective. He touched on things that would have never even crossed my mind. While I do agree that this society seems to favor men, I would not have taken it to the extreme that men simply want to "contain the potentially disruptive force of an awakened female sexuality". The lottery appears to be fair all throughout the short story and the film. As Ochlschlaeger points out, "if the lottery is unfair, it is reasonable to assume that its lack of fairness would be evident only to the victim". This statement proves why this ritual could not work in most societies. People are selfish in nature; the world operates ultimately as "every man for himself" and "survival of the fittest". Tessie proves this in her complete lack of nurturing when offering her own child up before herself. This was stunning, to be honest. It is a sickening thought that a women who bore her own children would suggest they be murdered before she. I believe that this town truly participates in the lottery as a ritual and recognizes it as absurd to cease from doing so. As Old Man Warner suggests when Mrs. Adams talks about other towns giving it up, "Nothing but trouble in that." These people have known nothing but the lottery every single year. It is a normal aspect of life to them and they have accepted it. Ochschlaeger states that the main belief behind the lottery is that "people can be brought to work together wholeheartedly and without mercy if they believe that their protection depends on it". This is a powerful statement because it depicts the motivation behind the reason the townspeople have accepted the lottery as a part of their lives.

Group 2:
#6
When reading both "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas" and "The Lottery", I noticed many similarities between the two societies. Both stories seem to argue that the greater good is to be valued over self interest. They argue that one sacrifice for the purpose of the greater good is necessary and not to be questioned. There are some people in both societies that feel a certain guilt and doubt towards the system, but none great enough to stand up to the way the society runs. In Omelas, many people go to see the child and want to help it, but not nearly bad enough to do anything about it. In "The Lottery", Mrs. Adams brings up how some towns have stopped doing the lottery, depicting her certain doubt towards the ritual. This is almost certainly derived from fear of being chosen. The town of Omelas operates off of this statement: "To exchange all the goodness and grace of every life in Omelas for that single, small improvement: to throw away the happiness of thousands for the chance of happiness of one: that would be to let guilt within the walls indeed." "The Lottery" seems to run the exact same way, that the death of one person each year is what makes their society prosper; that to let that one person live would not be worth what their death signifies for the town as a whole. There are two main differences that I see between these two stories. The first is that the people in Omelas seems to feel a large amount of guilt about the child, despite the fact that they do nothing to help it. Whereas in "The Lottery", the majority of the people feel no guilt, as clearly shown by their eagerness to stone the victim and move along with their day. The second difference I noticed was that some of the people in Omelas feel so much guilt that they walk away from the town and never look back. They feel the need to leave because they cannot change the life of the child and cannot accept that. In "The Lottery", no one leaves, despite that there is no indication that they cannot leave. The people walking away from Omelas is almost a way of attesting to the way things are. No one seems to do this in "The Lottery".