Bogert, Edna. “Censorship and ‘The Lottery.’” The English Journal, vol. 74, no. 1, 1985, pp. 45–47. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/816508.
This article provides a rather fascinating historical comparison between the ignorant villagers of “The Lottery” and the citizens of Germany who agreed blindly with even the most horrific parts of Hitler’s regime. By relating the “mindless and unchallenged control” of Hitler and his Nazi regime of persecution and scapegoating, Bogert argues that “The Lottery”, “written against this background,” is highlighting the folly of blind following. Whether it is your political leader or your village tradition that recommends the murder of a person or the genocide of a people, Bogert writes that Jackson’s short horror story examines the consequences of such unchallenged control.
Bogert argues that Jackson’s story, by its shocking ending, is meant to shock us out of our stupor of blind faith in tradition and show us that traditions “ought to be re-examined from time to time.” Her argument rests of the fact that the lottery in Jackson’s short story is not necessary or backed by any reason except that of “tradition.” Bogert concludes her article with a warning to Americans to reconsider our traditions not simply “forcibly preserve them.”
Her article also provides some interesting comparison of various literary critics’ takes on the merit of Jackson’s story from a purely structural literary standpoint.
Freimuth, Vicki S., and Kathleen Jamieson. “‘The Lottery’: An Empirical Analysis of Its Impact.” Research in the Teaching of English, vol. 11, no. 3, 1977, pp. 235–243. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40170828.
This article gives a background about the short-story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. This background is mostly for people who did not read the short-story and is basically a summary of the plot of the story and also it gives a background of a short film about the short-story. This film is titled “A Discussion of Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Lottery’.” This film was produced by Humanities Program for High School and College, Encyclopedia Britannica Corporation this was to help the students to understand more about the story. This article provides historical criticism lens. This article was written by Vicki S. Freimuth and Kathleen Jamieson and it was published by National Council of Teachers of English. In the article, Freimuth and Jamieson argued that how the film was ban, why it was ban and how it impact the high school students. These two did an observation on both sides of the debates. This debate was held in Maryland high school. The debate was the Board of Education vs. the school. This debate occurs because of colored and the violent that was in the context. Both Freimuth and Jamieson had done an observation on these issue by the students and how they felt when they saw the short film. They both said that this was on a bias based because each students answer how they felt and if the film help them understand more. The study that Freimuth and Jamison was to resolve the issue of why the film was banned and in each section there is a question about each observation.