You'd stone her too: How to read dystopian literature

	You'd stone her too:  How to read dystopian literature

Dystopian texts position readers to consider the disastrous consequences that could occur if a certain aspect of current society is perpetuated. As such, we understand them to be hyperbolic, an exaggeration of the current world. [studiobinderdystopian-fiction/]

But to dismiss dystopian texts as simply hyperbolic would be to ignore the dangers they warn us of.

 Enter: a dystopian text born in the bleak aftermath of WWII; The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson (1948). Set in a quaint, agricultural village, The Lottery describes an annual lottery where the ‘winner’ – this year, a woman named Tessie Hutchinson – is stoned to death by the rest of the village.

Shirley Jackson

Why they killed her:

Upon first reading, we accept that the reason there is a lottery is because “there’s always been a lottery.” We accept, just as the villagers do, that tradition warrants this brutal event.

But this notion is undermined by Jackson’s narration; “the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box”. One must question whether this can actually be considered a tradition, if all the traditional elements have been lost.

No, ‘tradition’ isn’t the reason that the annual lottery occurs. It occurs because the villagers have no choice.

As mentioned, The Lottery is dystopian literature and thus will meet the tropes and features of the genre, even if they are implied rather than spoon fed to readers. One of these central and defining features of dystopian literature is an authoritative government that seeks to indoctrinate its citizens into a distinctly oppressive regime [ButlerUniversity:]

A dystopian text written in the aftermath of WWII? Colour me shocked that the text implies an authoritative government is behind it all.

Jackson’s text is not a story about the importance of preserving tradition: it is a cautionary tale that warns us all of the dangers of an unchallenged, authoritative government. Not only does Jackson represent the ways that an authoritative government stays in control, but also, she makes us consider the similarities between the Lottery and our own societies; are we the villagers?

Give the stones to the kids:

Authoritative regimes fear one thing and one thing only: rebellion. As such, they use their iron grip on society to squeeze every inch of insurgency out of every citizen, because one spark is all it takes to light the fire.

In The Lottery, the regime does this by ensuring that the civilians are indoctrinated as young as possible. As Tessie is murdered, “someone [gives] little Davy (her son) a few pebbles”, so he too can partake in the stoning. This act is symbolic of the way that authoritative regimes ensure that their agenda goes unquestioned; by ensuring their citizens know nothing else. Encouraging children to join the stoning - even when they are so ‘little’ - means that they will accept it, grow old with it, and thus, never think to challenge it. As the first head of government in Soviet Russia, Vladimir Lenin said, “Give me four years to teach the children and the seed I have sown will never be uprooted.”

Vladimir Lenin

Getting to the children isn’t enough though. The iron grip must remain unrelenting, and an authoritative regime must ensure that any symptoms of dissent are ‘cured’ quickly.

When one man – Mr Adams – cautiously questions the necessity of the ritual in “the North Village is talking of giving up the lottery,” his comment is immediately dismissed by Old Man Warner who declares the North Village to be “pack of crazy fools.” Warner is the staunchest defender of ‘tradition’ and the oldest man in the village; factors that suggest he is – to at-least some degree – one of the regime’s authority figures. His status as such means that Adams instantly accepts Warner’s sentiment, his reservations towards the lottery quashed.

The villagers live in a world where questioning the authority is unthinkable. As the author of a dystopian text, Jackson invites us to consider how we aren’t all that different.

We also have grown up in a world where the importance of respecting authority is hammered into us since we are little. This allegiance to our masters stays with us as we age, seen in the 1961 Milgram experiment that saw a staggering number of people obeying an ‘authority’, even if they thought it meant other people were severely harmed [verywellmind:Milgram3].

Jackson illustrates the chokehold that this authoritiave regime has on its villagers to highlight something overtly confronting – if our own authority told us to pick up the stones, most of us wouldn’t hesitate.

What they learned from Hitler:

Authoritative governments can do everything in their power to ensure that their civilians are so consumed by their regime that they would never even think to rebel, but this isn’t enough for them to rest easy.

No, for an authoritative regime to keep their power, they have to utilise fear. After all, Hitler himself once said that “nothing drives people harder than a fear of sudden death.”

Adolf Hitler

Again, Jackson never explicitly explains that the authoritative regime in The Lottery uses fear to ensure the lottery continues, but the evidence is damning.

Take, Mrs Delacroix. At the beginning of the text, Mrs Delacroix comforts a flustered Tessie (who had arrived slightly late), reassuring her that there was nothing to worry about. We see the camaraderie between these two women; illustrating how strong the sense of community is between villagers.

However, when the time comes for Tessie to be stoned, Mrs Delacroix is seen to “select a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands.” She even beckons other women to join in sooner, telling Mrs Dunbar “come on” and to “hurry up”. These moments show Mrs Delacroix going above and beyond when participating in the murdering of a woman that we would have considered to be her friend only a few minutes earlier. So, what changed? Why did Mrs Delacroix suddenly become so keen to partake in the Lottery?

She fears the consequences.

Undoubtably, for a regime to facilitate the lottery so effectively, there must be some sort of punishment for those who do not participate. Mrs Delacroix selects the largest stone so that no-one could claim she didn’t join in to the best of her ability, and so that no-one could justify forcing her to face some sort of retribution.

Mrs Delacroix’s sense of community is still strong, even though she has to sacrifice her loyalty to Tessie. Her words that egg Mrs Dunbar on seek to protect Mrs Dunbar from punishment.

Once again, Jackson leaves us with an uncomfortable reality; how many of us live our lives in fear of breaking our authorities’ commands?

New hands, same stones:

Although it might be nice to hide behind the notion that The Lottery is dystopian and thus a hyperbole of real life, it isn’t that simple.

Not only do the ideas about the dangers of an authoritative government – the ways by which they control their civilians – apply to the abhorrent ways that Nazi Soldiers became indoctrinated into and perpetrators of the Nazi Regime in WWII, but they are also frighteningly applicable now.

Currently, in the Israel-Palestine war, 39% of Israelis believe that their governments response to Palestine has been “about right” [pewresearch:israeliviews/], even though the rest of the world’s support for Israel’s extreme actions have been declining [morning-consult-israel-global-opinion].

The oppressive agenda pushed by Israel has resulted in a genocide-blindness from their civilians. From when they are only ‘Iittle’, Israeli children are taught that Palestinians are an inferior race [aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/13e], and they grow up in a world where they don’t think to challenge this.

The idea that Netanyahu pushes now is the same idea that the Pigs pushed in Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945); All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others, and because of that, his lottery lives on. 

Benjamin Netanyahu

Maybe, dystopian texts aren’t all that hyperbolic after all.

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