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Examples Of Human Sacrifice In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

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“Why are violence and the sacred so intertwined? Why is death seen as necessary to renew life?” —Micheal Wood From the grotesque brutality of the Aztecs to the inhumane slaying by the celtics; ritualistic human sacrifice has been practiced throughout history. Various cultures use society sanctioned killings for reasons such as to appease a higher power, predicting the future and up holding superstition. Sacrifice is best exemplified in Shirley Jackson’s short essay, “The Lottery” in which each year a community stones a fellow citizen in attempts to assure healthy crops. The motives behind ritualistic killings are described in the article “The practice of Human Sacrifice” by Dr. Mike Parker-Pearson. Globally, societies carry out sacrifices

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