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Selasa, 23 September 2014

Violent Humans in THE LOTTERY

Based on THE LOTTERY, a short story by Shirley Jackson

HUMANS ARE INHERENTLY VIOLENT?
Babies are born, innocent; “like a white paper” people say. Then it depends on people around those babies: whether they will teach the babies about love to others regardless different races, skin color, etc; or they will generate hatred to others only due to the fact that others are different from them.

However many people are of opinion that in fact when humans were born, violent ‘talent’ was innate in them. Therefore, even though those babies are raised by loving and compassionate people, and they are taught about love, it is still possible that they will be cruel.

The story of THE LOTTERY described the violent nature of people very well. The villagers did not think of their peers compassionately; “We only do our rituals that our ancestors have practiced,” Old Man Warner – who has participated in such ritual for 77 times – said. Those people seemed like they have lost their kindness. After someone “won” the lottery, without thinking more, the villagers directly threw stones to the winner.  

CAN WE EXPECT PEOPLE TO BECOME NONVIOLENT?

When it is related to “rituals” a group of people have done for long, (where in practicing the ritual those people do something cruel to others), critical thinking is needed. People are supposed to use their common sense to question the practice of the violent ritual. To be able to think critically, one needs guts to deconstruct the status quo.


In THE LOTTERY, Tesse Hutchinson was one woman who had guts to question the ritual. Unfortunately, she was the one who “won” the lottery.

GG 08.40 24/09/2014

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