When Shirley Jackson wrote The Lottery, a short story, there was public outrage. People said it was “nasty,� “nauseating,� and “perverted.� However, I wonder if those same people would consider modern horror films, suspense movies, or even the nightly news “nasty.� Unfortunately some men act as savages and even more unfortunate other men like to watch those savages. Jackson’s story is no different then any other story containing violence, aggression, or murder.

As I read how a group of villagers would gather, randomly pick a citizen in a lottery fashion, and then jointly stone him or her to death, I thought about past times when royalty would have two prisoners or commoners fight to the death. I thought about a man placing another man or groups of people in a cage with wild beasts to be eaten alive. Then, I started to think how man will flock to a theatre and watch simulations of murder or how man will play games and even roll play as a murderer. There is no difference between man’s fascination with murder on screen and a writer writing about murder on paper.

Both forms are degrading to man’s divine qualities. Drawing entertainment from death is a way of man surrendering to his animalistic qualities and denying his higher intelligence. Society has to analyze itself while it analyzes one person’s deeds or actions. People do not just come up with perverse ideas. They are given the seeds of their ideas from their surroundings that sprout into their actions. Overall, I found this story to be useless and an insult to my humanity.