Who Is Shirley Jackson's Down With Capitalism?

Down with Capitalism? “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, recounts a ritualistic sacrifice in a rural village. The narrative begins ambiguously with children collecting stones (later used in the stoning of a member of the village), a description of the lottery, and the gather of villagers “between the post office and the bank” (Jackson 638). The characters are relatively one-dimensional, without personality traits and characterized only by names. The lottery commences at 10 o’clock on June 27. During the first round, the men of the village select, from a black box, pieces of paper. The paper is either blank or marked with a black dot. Bill Hutchinson chooses the paper with the black dot. During the second round, the papers are again placed
To support the argument, he states the “three most powerful men [Summers, Graves, and Martin] who control the town, economically as well as politically, also happen to administer the lottery” (Kosenko 2). This idea of class-struggle, in a capitalist society, where the wealthier control the society permeates “The Lottery.” To support the patriarchal argument, Kosenko points out “Women…have a distinctly subordinate position in the socio-economic hierarchy of the village” (Kosenko 3). Kosenko’s ideas are speculative; however, due to Kosenko’s in-depth presentation, I tend to agree. While Kosenko does not reveal the political/economic he subscribes to, he makes Marxist statements, such as the following, “The lottery functions…to terrorize the village into accepting, in the name of work and democracy, the inequitable social division of labor and power on which its social order depends” (Kosenko 5) and speculates as to whether or not Jackson was a Marxist. “The Lottery” is not blatantly anti-capitalism, but it is a critical examination of society that appears, at least at face value, to adhere to a policy of