The Lottery

In the short story "The Lottery" written by Shirley Jackson, the premise of equality is very apparent. I will be discussing 'Man's ability (and need) to rationalize generally unacceptable actions.' This story is about the whole town, of roughly 300 people, that get together every summer for the lottery. Unfortunately, this is the kind of lottery you do not want to win, since your prize is to be stoned to death. I think this town is used to going about their lives in such a way that daily routines are like a ritual. They have been doing the same things, with the same people for years. According to Old Man Warner, this is his ""77th time" being in the lottery. It was just something that they had always done, and people were used to it. There was talk of stopping the lottery, but that seemed all there was, just talk. These people that lived in this town knew no different, and even though the lottery was such a terrible thing, they thought it was what you were supposed to do. I think they rationalize their actions based on the fact that things had been that way for so long, why change them. Children grew up knowing nothing different, probably even thinking this was the right thing to do. I can see the same thing happening today, currently an issue is gay marriage. People think that it is such a horrible thing because they don't believe in it, based on religion, or how they were brought up, but either way, there are those people that just don't think it's right. Comparing that situation to The Lottery, where those people do think that stoning people, based on chance, on the luck of the draw, is an okay thing to participate in. They don't know any different, but this lottery is kind of like religion, in that it is something that the community is involved in together, like a church, and they believe that this is the only way, like believing in a certain religion. People tend to justify their actions based on acceptace from their peers as well, and I think that is something that is always going on around society, no matter what the issue is, but whether or not the actions are bad or good, if there are enough people involved, there are ways to fit in and adjust to what is going on around you.