Unspeakable Crimes Depicted In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

The world has seen plenty of tyrants: Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and Hugo Chávez are only some. All of these men have committed absolutely unspeakable crimes against humanity, and their names should be in the history books as such. However, more people should rebuke the consent of the masses, for the wickedness of ordinary people can be just as horrifying as the heinous crime of a serial killer or a sadistic head of state.
Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery”, is a strong example of this statement. The townspeople hold a lottery every year; everyone, including the rich, the poor, the young or the elderly, must participate. As innocent as this lottery may seem, the winner of the lottery receives the honor of being stoned to death by everyone in the town. Year after year, the townspeople allow such mindless violence and all willingly participate. Therefore, one should blame nobody but the townspeople for the continuation and acceptance of such a savage and even bloodthirsty tradition.
Are the 18th and 19th century American slave-owners any less sickening than the thousands of average citizens who accepted slavery because the slaves were, in their eyes, racially inferior? Should Adolf Hitler be any less terrifying than the millions of German citizens who agreed with Hitler’s anti-Semitism and allowed the Holocaust? Is the dismaying state of politics in the United States today caused by corrupt and profane politicians or is it the millions of common voters who sheepishly voted for these politicians because the media mentioned their names frequently? In the case of “The Lottery”, should we blame the lottery official, Mr. Summers, or should we blame all of the seemingly regular people who allow this barbaric game of chance to take place? Undeniably, we must assign accountability to the leaders and consign responsibility to the