A Game of Rituals in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Harari “The Prison Walls”

A Ritual of a Game called “The Lottery” that’s been played for generations, how is it dangerous to the villagers. The visualization of “The Lottery” where the old man lived the ritual tradition and taught an image game to the upcoming world. Humans remember what they have taught, and evolve in their mind about it. In “The Lottery” where villagers played a lottery system, where Mr. Summer and an old man performed the old ritual at the center of the village. After they gathered, Mr. Summer choses the name from black box and then everyone picks up the stone and throws it to that chosen person to kill it. Whereas, in “The Prison Walls” by Yuval Noah Harari demonstrates the equality towards human beings. As well as, what do people teach our upcoming newborn? Where, in the same way, old man and Mr. Summer taught new villagers and how to play them? The next story is, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. Where all the Ritual games, by Mr. Summer and old man are taught by. And the game is called “The Lottery”. About 300 villagers gather and play “The Lottery” , an old time game. The dangerous way of “The Lottery” is to group target an individual based upon an argument that comes from the old ritual “The Lottery”.

To begin with, the dangerous way of grouping people to commit something, then rather being individually targeted. When the group of people act on something together then people around blindly follow them. However, in the “The Prison Walls” author states that western people believe in individuals, then being in groups. People can do various things if they stay in a group company. The example of groupism demonstrated in “The Lottery,” [Jackson shows], “‘It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,’ Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her”. From “The Lottery” Mrs. Hutchinson was being followed by the villagers that were attacked by the stones. A little of an opposition made towards the game of “The Lottery” put her in a big drastic situation. That was the power of groupism, where Mrs. Hutchinson had to face the consequences towards it. In comparison to “The Prison Walls”, [Yuval Noah Harari] shows that “In order to change the imagined order I must convince millions of strangers to cooperate with me”. A decision made by someone to convince others takes a lot of effort. People usually dive into a situation without telling anyone. In my Analysis, Mrs. Hutchinson had to face a lot of disturbances, by opposing the Lottery decision that Mr. Summer made. Due to that, she had to face the beating of the stones. Therefore, in order to convince Mrs. Hutchinson of the decision, she had to convey the villagers first. But instead of that she directly interpreted and the stones war began.

Another argument that could be laid to kill Tessie away. Tessie was the one who came in late for the draw day of “The Lottery”. Due to that, several people make fun of her. She absolutely forgot what day it was for the draw. “Mrs. Hutchinson said, as quietly as she could. The situation from “The Lottery” [Shirley Jackson] “I tell you it wasn’t fair. You didn’t give him enough time to choose. Everybody saw that.” that was very unfair of that. If someone is playing loyally, you should respect that and allow him a chance for his turn. By saying this statement politely, everybody in the crowd heard him saying that. That was her argument, towards lack of time that got her into danger in front of villagers. Comparing to “The Prison Walls” [Yuval Noah Harari] “People are equal, not because Thomas Jefferson said so, but because God created them that way”. Equality is one of the most important things in society in today’s world. Unequal towards other people is a criminal offense in modern society. People believe in that, and obey that sincerely. Equality matters in every single thing you do in today’s world. Equality comes in gender, people, rights and many more. Same as that, giving time to the lottery game was one of the equal rights that Mrs. Hutchinson said. But, due to that she got into an argument.

In addition, villagers are thinking of Ending the Myth of generations of the Game, “The Lottery”. The one danger of the villagers was to end the game, The Lottery. The whole story of “The Lottery” is based on old tradition. If that old ritual stops, then the whole villagers would be grounded. If the Northern Villagers stop drawing The Lottery, they should not copy what they did. As Old Man Waner said in “The Lottery” [Shirley Jackson] “Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody works any more, live that way for a while”. Villagers were trying to stop the ritual of “The Lottery”, if they did that people would go jobless. The villagers would have nothing to do and they would sit all time doing nothing. “The Prison Wall” [Yuval Noah Harari] says “Consumerism tells us that in order to be happy we must consume as many products and services as possible”. People should enjoy every cost they spend near them. They should imagine how to fulfill their cost by living to the fullest. In my analysis, Villagers should not stop gambling their old ritual. Just because northern villagers are trying to stop the game, they shouldn’t do it. In fact, villagers should play the lottery as many times as they feel like playing it. They shouldn’t copy anyone, because they don’t feel like it. People should enjoy what they like and feel happy by doing what they like to.

Conclusion, this was the important danger of “The Lottery” as listed above. To reinstate people of villagers depend on “The Lottery” as it should be. Author in “The Prison Walls” says people are all equal, as it indicates “The Lottery” says it same. Where all the villagers in “The Lottery” are playing the same doesn’t matter if it's an elder once or children. They all play for each other. In dangerous points, Where all group people target an individual. Secondly, the dangers of how grouping people attack then being individual. And lastly, people think of ending the Myth of the game. Listing all these points, this is how villagers would react to the image of “The Prison Walls”. These were all my main points of dangers of “The Lottery” by representing the stating “The Prison Walls”.

Work Cited

Harari, Yuval Noah. “The Prison Walls.” Sapiens: A Brief History Of Humankind, Harper Perennial, 2015, pp.112-118.

Jackson, Shirley. “The Lottery.” The New Yorker, 26 June 1948, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/06/26/the-lottery. Accessed 09 June 2021.