Society and societal occurrences, in general, are the ink upon which various writers draw their inspiration for works that may get adored for their grounded nature and tackle many issues that one can easily relate to or infer as a societal occurrence. Hence, having life and life’s occurrences as a primary inspiration enables many literary works to be weaving fabrics of storylines that share several attributes. Consequently, through an in-depth look into various works, one can draw parallels between particular works that make for a fascinating discussion as they share in the fundamental trait of having its writers expose various life happening, such as the ethical challenges faced by individuals in given situations. In this case, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis has the protagonist Gregor in a great position of having turned into the monstrosity of an adult-sized bug which sets forth challenges in the impacted salesmanship job and the challenges of acceptance and care by his family and community members (Kafka). On the other hand, Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery equally establishes a community practice and occurrence which would be difficult to imagine and enormously harsh if it happened in actuality.
The Lottery‘s plot revolves around the small townspeople meeting annually to conduct balloting in which the winner of the drawn dotted paper is the determinant of the individual who would lose their life to stoning by the community members (Jackson). Both readings have various parallels which lean heavily on exposing dark societal occurrences and how the compromised morality that individuals possess may give way to dark actions and occurrences. In essence, The Lottery and The Metamorphosis are expository on misfortune as triggering alienation and unsettling the harmony of life to which one’s community and family weaken in their duty of care and protection and consequently have the subject party the subject to the empowered community’s violence and cruel treatment.
Despite the non-discriminatory nature of misfortune, The Lottery and The Metamorphosis, its occurrence causes disturbance in familial and societal dynamics. In The Lottery, there is a consensus by the townspeople that any individual who draws up a dotted paper has unfortunately been randomly chosen as the individual who would face stoning. Moreover, through other times, the townspeople carry about with their affairs and daily engagements in harmony. However, in the instance that Bill Hutchinson, who had arrived late to the annual ballot, draws out the dotted paper, Mrs Hutchinson is distressed and seeks to draw the empathy of the community members that the process is flawed and that her husband’s lateness compromised his situation on the ballot picking. However, Mrs Hutchinson’s pleas fell on deaf ears as they approached the ritual just like any other that the Hutchinsons had also been participants in through the years (Jackson). In essence, through the misfortune that befalls the Hutchinson family, the family is the focal point of scrutiny by the community members who alienate the family significantly.
Mr Hutchinson is the most alienated figure as he is to be stoned, which the community members are to do in unison. The random ballot selection dictates a change from having a community with a typically very healthy dynamic to one alienating to the subject individual befallen by the misfortune. On the other hand, one’s family members and not the community can be the first parties to express alienating tendencies toward an individual suffering misfortune. For instance, Gregor in The Metamorphosis is suffering the misfortune of turning into a horror, whereby his family is naturally positioned to anchor love and care through the moment of hardship. Moreover, it is necessary that Gregor’s family works through monumental necessity to overlook his appearance and keep in mind who they knew and saw before the metamorphosis. However, Gregor attains the realization that even his sister finds him intolerable, “From this, he realized that his appearance was still constantly intolerable to her and must remain intolerable in future…” (Kafka, P 49). Gregor attains the realization that who he is and is as an individual is underappreciated in light of the dominant occurrence of his altered physical presence.
The Lottery and The Metamorphosis highlight how integral it is to be happy, which only arises from having established a positive relationship with others as a natural inclination by people. However, in the instances where there is discord between the self and others, such as with friends and community members, that is triggered by the misfortune as exhibited in both stories. Consequently, the trouble in identifying with one’s family and community is an excellent source of unhappiness as the relationship one typically enjoys with the community and family crumbles (Hobday 12). In essence, the occurrence of misfortune in one’s life can be regarded as an unfortunate and random occurrence but one that is bound to alter the life of the unfortunate subject monumentally. Through misfortune, the community has an easy time turning its back on the pleas of the suffering and one’s family- even with the love and care shared through the years, still falters in the moment of misfortune whereby the primary agenda is to alienate the subject individual.
A more ethically desirable occurrence is one in which individuals stick by each other through thick and thin, but the harsher reality indicates a low tolerance to be associated with misfortune. Gregor reiterates that despite his new situation of being a hideous being, his being a family member is all the criteria needed to ensure that he is cared for and loved regardless of the circumstances. “Gregor was a member of the family, something one should not treat as an enemy, and that it was, on the contrary, a requirement of family duty to suppress one’s aversion and to endure—nothing else, just endure” (Kafka, P 66). Gregor states that the most desirable fate concerning his circumstances is a peaceful acceptance by his family to endure the circumstances and to always be by his side.
The Lottery tackles the same predicament of the necessity of enduring misfortune but at the community level. “Tessie Hutchinson was in the centre of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her” (Jackson, P 13). Tessie Hutchinson’s realization of her husband’s impending death after the ballot makes her have an elevated sense of right and wrong and the brutal nature of the community stoning. Despite Tessie’s pleas, the community members have numbed themselves to the community ritual level and thereby have such a low level of tolerance that they are overwhelmingly motivated to get over with the practice as has been the tradition. Both community and family members’ shockingly low tolerance levels for individuals’ misfortune highlight the lack of social justice.
The fundamental action of pursuing and preserving flourishing humans highlights social justice. In essence, under social justice, there is an understanding that every individual in the right situations and with the proper support and tools can grasp and be the best versions of themselves. Moreover, as a society, there is a need to understand that social justice in its most basic form is fostered by the relationship among individuals whereby individuals have the interest and needs of others at heart (Williams). However, the highlighted instances in the stories highlight the commencing of the misfortune as having one’s community and family members overlooking the needs and want of the concerned subject and thereby not tolerating the affected members. Hence, in the boldest ways and instances, The Metamorphosis and The Lottery highlight in the boldest ways and instances that suffering misfortune should never be a stamp of one’s diminished humanity and is an occasion of needing other individuals to step up and stand by the individual in question.
In instances where community and family members feel at a critical juncture in their interaction with the individual suffering misfortune, they establish cruel treatment and violence as an easy go-to fostered by the strength of the masses. Shirley, a member of the town, goes about the ritual like any other occasion as she is indifferent to Mr Hutchinson’s plight, such as quickly arranging stones ready for the stoning process (Jackson. In essence, Shirley, just like other members of the community, has the perception that her involvement is negligible as it is a participatory community event and thereby will not have her consciousness tainted with murder as it would be the case that it would be committed by one individual (Finkel et al., P 144). On the other hand, the approach to individuals identified as bringing and having misfortune can take less drastic measures in the form of cruelty and banishment of the concerned individual.
For instance, Gregor had earlier been privileged to have great support from his sister through the early instances of having transformed into the creature. However, over time, perseverance turns to resentment and the resolution of eliminating the problematic individual. “I will not utter my brother’s name in front of this monster, and thus I say only that we must try to get rid of it. We have tried what is humanly possible to take care of it and to be patient. I believe no one can criticize us in the slightest” (Kafka, P 84). Gregor’s sister has come to be indifferent to the creature that she is to regard as her brother, whereby she expresses that the family had done all that it can, but they are in their rights to give up and abandon the process of taking care of and sheltering Gregor. As a society, when individuals are pushed to the wall in terms of what is expected of their performance, having a weak or twisted belief of right and wrong establishes cracks in one’s character to reveal the true face of frustration and resolution to rid oneself of the burden at hand through rough measures. Consequently, in such instances, the unity amongst the individuals who feel aggrieved lightens the challenge of putting corrective measures to rid themselves of the misfortune individual, as is the case with Hutchinson and Gregory.
In its best essence, creative writing is having the writers express their observations of life’s happenings and package them neatly into given plots and characters whose world is as accurate as ours in terms of the unfolding of the events. Moreover, the unfolding events in the plotlines, the interactions between the characters in action and conversation, and the broader societal and community happenings within these storylines highlight the authors’ intention of exposing and covering various themes and topics in giving light to the audience. The Metamorphosis and The Lottery reveal that misfortune is a primary basis of one being set aside by community and family members. Through the happenings of misfortune, one essentially attains a mark of being befallen by the unfortunate event, which is the most prominent message to them to consciously alter their interaction with the said individual and thereby alienate the figure.
Consequently, the community and family members are more perceptive of one’s misfortune and the inconveniences it causes, and they establish a very low tolerance for the suffering individual. In essence, through being a victim of misfortune, one’s family and community regard the individual’s fate as at the point of no return to pre-misfortune position and thereby regard them as a lost cause for any efforts to being friendly or gentle towards these individuals as exposes in The Metamorphosis and The Lottery. Lastly, violence to the subject individual is traditionally the go-to process of a shortcut that goes through the individual suffering misfortune to reclaim an older and better life. Despite the grimness linked with coming to the resolution that the family and community members should rid themselves of the misfortune, it becomes an easier burden to bear and affect as they assume the mob psychology of being violent towards an alienated community member.
Works Cited
Finkel, Steven, et al. “Community Violence and Support for Violent Extremism: Evidence from the Sahel.” Political Psychology, vol. 42, no. 1, 2020, pp. 143-161.
Hobday, Alexander. Alienation and Dwelling: The Pursuit of Happiness in Late Eighteenth-Century Literature. 2022. University of Cambridge , PhD dissertation.
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. pp. 1-13.
Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Planet PDF.
Williams, Christopher R. “Compassion, Suffering and the Self.” Current Sociology, vol. 56, no. 1, 2008, pp. 5–24., Web.