Sep 23 2009
ARRRchetypes in The Lo-lo-lottery
While I was researching archetypes, I couldn’t help but notice one that fit Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” perfectly. The scapegoat archetype is centered on people believing that they can transfer all of their sin and wrong-doing to one person or one thing, and that person or thing is sacrificed and everyone’s sins are depleted. Jackson’s entire story revolves around the central plot of eliminating one person in the town’s “lottery”.
Archetype symbols/situations in the story could include the task archetype. This is when a group of characters are given a sort of task to carry out, and its accomplishment takes most of the entirety of the story. The task in “The Lottery” is the lottery, itself.
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