(Image from: Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery": The Authorized Graphic Adaptation)
The sentence in question: “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.
What is fair? While the tradition and values of the community are sickening, the process itself is fair in my eyes. Granted, the society follows a heavily patriarchal system: women go with whoever’s name they adopt, men are delegated as head of the family (or whoever is the next male inline). However, everyone, no matter what age or gender, counts as one “entry.”
The “winner” of the Lottery is randomly drawn twice. The first time is to pick the family, the second time is to pick the specific member. This system accounts for the fact that every household’s size is different. You aren’t punished for having many children under one family. The Lottery could have left it at the random individual or allowing a family head to decide who to send off, but the double draw takes any version of “unfairness” out.
Normally, we say a random draw is fair. Everything is left up to chance, however, the process has flaws. Suddenly, the order in which you draw is unfair. Once you’re chosen, it’s now unfair. The chance of being chosen varies from family to family. Was it wrong of Mrs. Hutchinson to turn on her family by trying to get her daughters in the family draw? Screaming about how “it isn’t fair” is a contradiction to her own attempts of escape (making her daughters count twice: once for their husbands’ families and once for their own). I also find it bogus that you are exempt from the lottery if you are injured. So, shouldn’t everyone just have a broken leg on that day?
We’re shown two important things: the danger of blindly following tradition and the randomness of persecution. What I truly deem unfair is the fact you must participate in the lottery even if you don’t want to. It isn’t fair that one tradition can destroy your life. It isn’t right that a single tradition can break the bond of family and turn your nice neighbor into an emotionless killer. If they’re locked into this society against their will, they’re stuck appeasing a system that destroys all forms of community. There’s also no reason for the “winner” to be targeted other than the fact she drew the black dot. Assuming she hasn’t committed any crime apart from being late, she’s just a normal housewife and mother. Perhaps that's just my opinion. It seems that fairness is in the eye of the beholder so we'll never know what's truly fair.
Side note: Maybe this idea is too gruesome, but if they really wanted everything to be “fair”, shouldn’t they have just done a coin flip for each person?
