Jacksons humane message might extend to remind the public of the vicious genocide, represented by the Holocaust, which many Americans feared to see, without being able to do anything to save the helpless civilians confined in the Nazi camps.Learn more DOI: 10.7575aiac.ijalel.v.7n.6p.28 Cite this publication Zaid Ibrahim Ismael 8.28 Al-Mansour University College Sabah Atallah Khalifa Ali 2.91 University of Baghdad Abstract Nowhere is American author Shirley Jacksons (1916-1965) social and political criticism is so intense than it is in her seminal fictional masterpiece The Lottery.Jackson severely denounces injustice through her emphasis on a bizarre social custom in a small American town, in which the winner of the lottery, untraditionally, receives a fatal prize.
![]() This study aims at investigating the authors social and political implications that lie behind the story, taking into account the historical era in which the story was published (the aftermath of the bloody World War II) and the fact that the victim is a woman who is silenced and forced to follow the tradition of the lottery. The paper mainly focuses on the writers interest in human rights issues, which can be violated even in civilized communities, like the one depicted in the story. The shocking ending, the researchers conclude, is Jacksons protest against dehumanization and violence. Shirley Jackson The Lottery For Free Advertisement AvailableDiscover the worlds research 17 million members 135 million publications 700k research projects Join for free Advertisement Available via license: CC BY Content may be subject to copyright. Key words: Violence, World War II, Holocaust, women, dehumanization, human rights INTRODUCTION Since its publication in The New Yorker in 1948, Shirley Jacksons The Lottery has been one of the most controversial stories ever written by an American author. The early readers of Jacksons story objected the gratuitous, violent conclusion, finding in it an oblique criticism of their society and an unrealistic portrayal of American life. As a result, many readers suspended their subscriptions in The New Yorker in protest against the story and Jackson was threatened with murder and was boycotted even by her parents. ![]() The victim-winner is randomly scapegoated for no obvious committed sin or crime. The bewildered public not only refused to believe the story, but they also demanded to know the place where these lotteries were held, and whether they could go there and watch (Friedman 34). Jackson, like any other professional writer, refused to elaborate on the implicit meaning of her story, even when the editor of the magazine asked her for a laconic explanation, as she herself recalled: Published by Australian International Academic Centre PTY.LTD. Copyright (c) the author(s). This study deals with the writer as an advocate of human rights and it explores her implied social and political protest against violence and inhumanity. The publication of the story coincided with the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, owing to the disastrous consequences of World War II, mass deaths, inhuman confinements, and the Holocaust. ![]() Jacksons story helps to create the specter of a holocaust in the United States (245). The readers were disgusted with the brutality of the villagers in stoning an innocent woman. They forgot the annihilation of thousands of innocent people by the atomic bomb.
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