The Role Of Conformity In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

This quotation meaning if the people in The Lottery noticed how unfair the lottery truly was then maybe they could change the society. Thusly, leading them to stop conforming to their old barbaric ideas. However, the people will not stop and see the unfairness of the lottery. They may drop parts of the tradition, but it will always be there in the shabby black box. Furthermore, the people enjoyed the tradition of stoning the chosen one. The boys made it a game to pick the best possible rocks before the person was chosen. Therefore, this demonstrates the idea that, “evil and personal suffering are still connected” (Parks, 27). Mrs. Hutchinson and her family are suffering but the evil of conformity has trained the society to believe this treatment is normal

Thusly, even though her chants and points of unfairness were reasonable, Mrs. Hutchinson will never be enough of a rebellion to change the conformity in the society. That is because, “Until enough men are touched strongly enough by the horror of their ritualistic . . . to destroy the box completely . . . man will never free himself from his primitive nature” (Nebeker, 108). The lottery went on for many years and will go on for many years to come; if the people do not open their eyes to the cruelness and insanity of the tradition the have been following. At times it appears that the act of rebellion is not enough to change conformity; however, at other times it is the ignorance of the conformity that makes change impossible. In The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, the act of walking away is strong enough to receive attention, unlike Mrs. Hutchinson. However, similar to her, it is not strong enough to change the minds of those around them. Le Guin does this by presented the story through a bias narrator who does not believe in those who walk away. The narrator talks as though the “Omelas” have no soul and no guilt. They