June 27th was a beautiful day, sunny and warm. But to Tessie, it was her last day in the world because she won the lottery, unexpectedly, lottery of death.
Lottery was normally for winning money, why death? Well, it was a ritual in her village lasting for decades. Nobody knew exactly the origin. But a saying: “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” might interpret the primary desire of villagers for a better life. It was because of the stupid belief that the village still kept this ritual with a simpler procedure now than before, though many other places had already stopped it.
Not surprisingly, many kids were collecting stones and piling them at the corner of the square since early morning. It was one of the most important things to be done before the lottery. Mr. Summer, the host of the lottery, placed the black box on the stool standing in the center of the square with help of others. After all villagers gathered together, the lottery began. The process included two steps. First, every head of household, usually the man of a family, took a slip of paper from the black box. The paper was kept folded until all finished. When people unfolded the paper together, the one, on whose paper had a black dot, won. The second step was to choose a member in the winner family by the same procedure. All men, women and kids in a family would be counted and the final winner would be decided again based on the black dot. People were tense for sure, but didn’t it make the lottery much more exciting and thrilling?
This year, Tessie was the final winner. Although she shouted it was unfair, no one cared. The rule was the rule, the ritual was the ritual, and everybody had to abide by. What was the prize for the lottery? The prizes were stones; those had been collected by kids happily and joyfully. The villagers, including Tessie’s family and friends, would stone her without any mercy. This was the climax and the “fun” part of the lottery. Was she a holy sacrifice for the bliss of the whole village? Sometimes human nature was so blind that people took stupid beliefs as sacred doctrines. What a world!!!
Learning a language is truly learning a culture. Without much backgroud knowledge, I am not sure if I am able to totally understand the hidden significance of this story. However, since it was published during WWII, when people's lives and rights for living were failed to fairly valued, the author might want us to realize sometimes people did stupid things with a reasonable disguise.
I really felt bad after reading it. I know it happened in many cultures including Chinese culture. Hopefully, people are much more civilized than before.
Thank you.
來源: 尹文 於 08-01-04 19:25:55 [檔案] [博客] [舊帖] [轉至博客] [給我悄悄話]
回答: The Lottery 由 melly 於 2008-01-04 16:48:31
I guess that the literal meaning of lottery is to try one's lot by chance. So if one's lot is to become the bliss for the village, then it's "fair" to use a lottery to find out who.
In "civilized" eyes, it seems brutal, but superstition is always an inevitable part of any human culture, antiquated or modern. We can call it either cultural stupidity or one of the necessities of a belief system. One system might be more cruel than another. However, let's hope a modern society is going to have less and less of it.
This will be my weekend reading, but does the ambience in the story indicate that it was a French village. Just a thought, as the name Tessie sounds as it was a Frog's rustic story.
Thanks again, melly, for tips on a weekend reading.