The Downfall of a Society That Didn't Care

The ending of the short story "The Lottery", written by Shirley Jackson, has a sort of M. Night Shyamalan feel to it. I mean this in a way that it is somewhat of a surprise to see a small, pleasant village of roughly three hundred occupants commit such an act on a regular basis. The reader feels a sudden 'what a twist!' vibe as they discover that the famed black lottery box was really a tool meant to bring death! Indirectly, of course.

The three hundred and some villagers that inhabit the town have a horrible tradition that they themselves don't quite understand. It is a tradition in which one of the villagers would have to suffer the horrible fate of being stoned to death, upon finding a black spot marked on their lottery ballot. Although, not even the oldest member of the village remembers the purpose of the lottery. Why kill their own family members? They didn't know. It was tradition, so they just followed along blindly. No-one was brave enough to question the tradition or try to stop it, so poor Mrs. Hutchinson had to suffer an unreasonable death, and by the hands of her friends and family no less.

This story is similar to the events of the Komagata Maru (in 1914), a Japanese owned steamship that was transporting roughly four hundred immigrants from India to Canada. The condition of permitted immigration was that the Komagata Maru was not allowed to stop even once to restock on its long journey to the North.

Of course, this feat was not possible for such an amount of passengers, as food and supplies were needed. Upon arrival in Canada, the passengers were not allowed off the ship and the Komagata Maru was held in port for three months before it was forced to sail back to india--its passengers still aboard.

The issue about this incident is similar to "The Lottery" on the front that no-one even tried to change their ways to help others. People, in our society, only care for themselves. If something doesn't concern them or their family, they don't care. Though, when the tables turn, they always try to look for help from others, although they themselves would not offer it to someone else in the same situation. The world needs to learn a lesson from things like these so that incidents against other people happen to a lesser extent, or preferably don't happen at all. Old traditions in both these stories die hard, and so do people.