The Lottery' & Locke's Politics

John P. Irish considers through an infamous lottery.

- By John P. Irish. Illustrations by Miles Hyman

On June 26 1948 Shirley Jackson (1916-65) published what may be the most infamous short story in American literature. Called ‘The Lottery’, it was featured in The New Yorker, and at the time became one of the most controversial pieces ever printed, resulting in the magazine receiving more hate mail and subscription non-renewals than anything else up to that point in its history. Even Jackson’s mother shared her dislike for the story with her daughter, claiming that the younger generation was too obsessed with violence.

The story is about a fictional small town in America which conducts an annual ritual known as ‘the lottery’, whose purpose is to choose a human sacrifice to be stoned to death to ensure the community’s well-being and continued prosperity. I have used the story many times in my American Studies classes – I typically use it as a way of introducing post-WWII American society – but it only recently struck me that this story can also be used to teach certain aspects of Locke’s social contract theory, as found in his Two Treatises of Government.

John Locke (1632-1704) was an English philosopher and physician, and is considered to be one of the most influential thinkers of the Enlightenment. In fact, in 1689 he published two classic works which have each had a profound effect on the history of philosophy: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, which outlined his empiricist philosophy, and Two Treatises of Government, which outlined his political theory. The