| Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery," is one of the most commonly read and continually controversial American short stories. This study provides a bio-cultural explanation for its uncommon reception in 1948, and also looks at how readers respond to the story today. I argue that the variability of responses to the story is underappreciated, and that such variance may be accounted for with personality psychology. I contend that the infamous, "instant and cataclysmic" response in 1948 is accounted for by human beings' innate attentiveness to cost/benefit rationalizing in social contexts, and by an antiauthoritarian tendency of our evolved human nature. I also argue that the socio-political climate of mid-century America was especially conducive to reinforcing these inborn propensities. "The Lottery" is still taught today because it is an instructive launching pad for discussing American and individual social values; multiculturalism appears capable of tempering strong moral responses to the story. |
