The setting of this story is quite relevant to the theme, because on the outside, this seems like it could be any small, rural town in America. The story opens, "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green" (Jackson)
Jackson's own critique of her story, in "On the Morning of June 28th," tells us of the reception she received after the story was published -- and it is similar to Mrs. Hutchinson's reception after she has "won" the lottery: "Casual conversation with the postmaster was out of the question, because he wasn't speaking to me" (Jackson qtd in Bloom 36)
Jackson's own critique of her story, in "On the Morning of June 28th," tells us of the reception she received after the story was published -- and it is similar to Mrs. Hutchinson's reception after she has "won" the lottery: "Casual conversation with the postmaster was out of the question, because he wasn't speaking to me" (Jackson qtd in Bloom 36)
The characters in "The Lottery" are obsessed with their lottery, which does not reward the winner with money -- on the contrary, and ironically, it Her fantasies take on biblical proportions: What may seem like a gruesome fascination with sociopathy is actually more in tune with the gothic/biblical fascination of Flannery O'Connor: every member of society is tainted with sin and unless it is recognized the danger of God's justice/punishment hangs over one and all. One of O'Connor's biblical excerpts conveys as much: "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away" (O'Connor 3)
Jackson takes up the theme of tainted souls in "The Lottery" -- just as she does in her novels, like We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Although she herself resists categorization and refused to "explain" the meaning of her works (offering up to the public the simple, humble excuse, "Well, it's really just a story"), the perceptive reader cannot fail to recognize Jackson's own experience as "the other" and an "outsider" to the New England literary tradition that ranges from Hawthorne to Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman's "A New England Nun," another tale about a "cloistered" female outsider, who prefers her solitude to the neighborly company of her New England surroundings (Ward 1995)
It is important to note that the story almost certainly takes twentieth-century American democracy as its target, because certain textual details have led critics to view "The Lottery" in ways that ultimately cloud the critical, ideological work done by the story, because the lottery admittedly bears some similarities to certain religious practices. For example, Nayef Ali Al-Joulan sees "The Lottery" as reflecting "Jackson's vague, confused, superficial and stereotypical perception of Islam and Islamic rituals due to "the symbolic black-box [seen as a stand-in for the Kaaba in Mecca], stoning, the status of women, the fixed annual date(s) of the lottery, and the act of calling the participants in the lottery five times," whereas Amy Griffin views the story as a reiteration of the archetypal scapegoat seen in the Judeo-Christian heritage (Al-Joulan 29, Griffin 44)
Thus, where "The Lottery" investigates the potential for collective violence as a result of democratic governance, "The Most Dangerous Game" investigates the potential for violence as a result of oligarchic governance. The time and place of "The Most Dangerous Game" is established through the details of Rainsford's disastrous journey to Brazil coupled with Zaroff's mention of "the debacle in Russia" which made it "imprudent for an officer of the Czar to stay," meaning the Russian Revolution in 1917 (Connell)
Hutchinson is finally attacked. Her death is not instigated by a single person, because "such action would be deemed 'murder'" (Griffin 45)
] seems to point to New England as the locale of the story" (Yarmove 242). Similarly, the clothing and technology mentioned, such as tractors and blue jeans, seems to suggest that the story takes place near the time of its writing in the middle of the twentieth century (Jackson)
Where "The Lottery" uses ambiguity in order to make its time and place unsettling familiar to the American reader, "The Most Dangerous Game" is explicit in describing its setting as a means of demonstrating its alien nature, thus making Rainsford's transformation all the more shocking. The ideological contrast in "The Most Dangerous Game" is clearly evident, because whereas "Rainsford is an open and gregarious fellow, a friendly American 'democrat with a small d,'" Zaroff is "a displaced member of the old Russian aristocracy who has adamantly refused to accept the changing world around him" (Thompson 87)
Crucially, the story pits an American hunter against a Cossack aristocrat, and while a first impression of these characters might lead one to believe that "the story does not involve much complexity of consciousness" due to the fact that it appears to support a dichotomy of the noble, democratic American vs. deranged, authoritarian foreigner, a close look at the conclusion of the story reveals quite the opposite (Welsh 134)
] most of the names are Anglo-Saxon," and "the land yields an abundance of stones [….] seems to point to New England as the locale of the story" (Yarmove 242)
However, once she accepted the change that life was presenting her, she felt alive. We read that her "pulse beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body" (Chopin 636) when she realized what the news of her husband's death meant
The townspeople gather on the same day every year partake of the lottery that they do not even like. We read that the "original paraphernalia" (Jackson 214) for the lottery was lost "long ago" (214) so the townspeople do not even know why they have the lottery or for how long they have held onto this tradition
The initial reactions were negative as "modern man considers such practices barbaric and, therefore, alien to his civilized behavior. For this reason, many persons were puzzled and shocked by 'The Lottery'" (Bloom, 2001) The plot in itself is not extremely complex, but the way in which the symbols are used by the author give the writing considerable depth and insight into a mentality and a world that reveals intriguing facts about society and the way in which it reacts in a collective manner
From among the members of that family, one of them draws the piece of paper marked with a black dot and that person will be the subject of the human sacrifice. The motif of the family is in this case important because the "circle" in which this ceremony takes place has as main element the family and the head of the household especially given the fact that in the first instance of the lottery it is the head of the household that inevitably decides whose family is chosen to provide the human sacrifice (Jackson, 2013)
On the one hand, the role of the rules is crucially important for the ceremony, especially seeing the outcome of the lottery that is the loss of the life of one human being. On the other hand, the discussion on the rules is much more important for the community than a discussion on the fairness of the ritual or the belief that a human life can be lost merely as a result of hazard and good fortune which in turns raises the question on the nature of the community and of the relations on which the community is formed (Kirszner et al
The differences in regards to setting can also be applied in a temporal sense because "The Rocking-Horse Winner" is not clear on the day, the time, or even the month, all it eludes to is Christmas time whereas "The Lottery" states it took place "The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. It could begin at ten o'clock in the morning" (Jackson, 2008, p
' 'Old Man Warner snorted, 'Pack of crazy fools,' he said. 'Listening to the young folks…'" (Jackson 225)
"Miss O'Connor would have us believe that the only hope of salvation lies in the mercy of action. It grows out of agony, which is not denied to any man and is given in strange ways to children" (Elder 665)