Pyschoanlaysis Criticism

IRLIANY

2225160007

16 SAS C

Final Test of Literary Criticism

Psychoanalysis Criticism: Family Representations in The Lottery by Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson first published The Lottery in print a few years after the end of World War II, specifically in 1948. As the readers were still shaken by the appalling World War II, then this work can be classified as a horror story no matter whether it was fact or mere fiction only. The magazine where this story appeared, New Yorker, declared that The Lottery was the best short story of the 20th century and generated hundred written responses than any others magazine short stories had ever published. And yes, she was very successful in making the readers confused and wondering where such lotteries were held that they could go and watch by themselves about this brutal ancient rite.

All of the bewilderments are rooted from the storyline that was written with various unexpected symbolism and themes. To be more specific, end of the story is the most surprising part. This storyline ends with the increasing shock and horror situation which surely raises many questions, speculations, and ambiguity afterwards for the readers. Not only the final part, Jackson can intelligently presented plentiful hint along the storyline and holds back the disclosure of what happened during the flow. She successfully set down the unexpected conflicts at the closing part such as inhumanity, brutality, capacity of ordinary citizens to do evil, and also the betrayal of neighbor by neighbor. Readers must feel the cohesion of the story in a way that is easily overlooked in the first reading. Without this understanding, the end of the story will feel much more like blind than twisting. 

The narration started by the author’s description about one situation on the special date of June 27th to conducts a traditional annual lottery and gathers many residents in the village square. Even though at the first agenda seemed lively for all participants, everything became clear gradually that no one wanted to win the lottery. This can be seen through the behavior of each character and their emotions. Along the storyline, author gave names from many families in the village who participated in this event and describes their habits which can definitely represent their opinions about this event. Tessie Hutchinson, one of the central characters, did not seem to care about the tradition until her family was picked. Then she protested that this lottery process was unfair. The story ends with the “Winner" who must be stoned to death by the remaining residents, including their own family members.

The plot of this short story brings up many crucial issues such as the juxtaposition of peace and violence, human nature, the power of tradition, and dystopian society and its conformity. But, this analysis will focus on one of the thickest issue in the storyline which is the representation of family structures. This issue relates to the process of organizing the lottery itself which was initially carried out around all of the families’ names in the village at the first round. The father as “head of household” usually draws on a marked slip of paper on behalf of all family members. When one of the families was picked, then all of that selected family units choose another piece of paper to see the one who is chosen within the family. This process indicates the strength of family issue regarding to the importance of family structures in this village.

The way Jackson narrated all families in The Lottery indicates how they actually worried and disagree of this annual tradition. It all can be seen based on the description in the beginning that all of the participant's reaction in the square seems to have quite jokes and they smiled rather than laughed. Surprisingly, the story closed with a contradictory situation that reversed their reaction to become more excited and very enthusiastic on the event. The changing actions of all participants are indeed confusing to the reader about what they truly think about this tradition. Therefore, Freud’s theory about psychoanalysis criticism can help revealing what are the true conflicts and internal feelings according to word by word from each characters behavior which was certainly caused by the interaction between conscious and unconsciousness mind. Since The Lottery is recounted in the third-person limited point of view that full of the author’s thought and perspective in observing other characters, then this story can be analyzed using psychoanalysis criticism theory by Sigmund Freud. 

Psychoanalysis theory is the most appropriate analytical approach to interpret The Lottery with family representations issue which is commonly used as a method to find out the hidden meaning or intent behind a literary text. According to Md. Mahroof Hossain in his article “Psychoanalytic Theory used in English Literature: A Descriptive Study” (2017), the authors and writers are influenced by the psychoanalytic concepts which are reflected in the characters of their works and also in their mind. Thus, this analysis focuses to analyze the primary thoughts of all characters based on behavior and motivations of the family in psychoanalytic lens towards the lottery tradition. Then, the concepts which were propounded by Sigmund Freud can be applied to discover what the main idea of each family representation against this inhumanity event behind The Lottery short story as written by Kathy (2015) with identifying the primacy of the unconscious and the iceberg theory of the psyche. 

In Freudian psychoanalysis, the human mind is divided into three levels which are conscious, preconscious, and unconscious mind. All of this divisions are represented as an iceberg which everything above the water represents conscious awareness and everything below the water represents preconscious and conscious mind (McLeod, 2009). Out of the three divisions, the primacy of the unconscious is the most important level to this analysis in order to investigate how all participants in the square feel anxiety, worried, desires and unresolved feelings towards the event. This internal conflict is clearly crucial as what Freud said about structural model of the mind comprising the entities id, ego, and superego (the psychic apparatus) that generates self-defense mechanisms. In short, this analysis will specifically identify id, ego, superego, and the common self defense mechanisms based on Psychologist World that related to what each family keep as their anxiety unconsciously in order to avoid knowing what they feel they cannot handle and find out the core thoughts as the final result. Therefore, the analysis begins sequentially according to the families that exist in The Lottery short story. 

1. The Hutchinson’s

The Hutchinson’s are the main attention of family name than the others that exist in The Lottery. This family consists of five members who are Bill as the head of household and Tessie who play a role as the housewife with three kids, Bill Jr, Nancy, and little Dave. Actually, there is one more child in this family namely Eva. Yet, she already got married with Don and need to follow her husband’s family name to join this event.

In the beginning, Tessie is the first Hutchinson who shows up in this story. She came late to this annual event and make statement that she forgot what day it was to Mrs. Delacroix who stood next to her in the back of the crowd. After making the statement, she also had plentiful jokes with many people in the square while getting through the crowd to reach her husband. This action represents her Id, to make fun of this event and everybody. She seems does not care toward the lottery and also make no physical signs of worried about what happened next which is totally different than the others behavior, she even laughs with others instead. Tessie sees this event as if it is an ordinary activity and speaks about everything as she pleases.

All of the humor faded until Mr. Summers, the official who conducted the lottery, mentioned her family name when Bill actually the one who got the marked slip of paper. Suddenly, Tessie shouts out to Mr. Summers that he did not give her husband time enough to take any paper he wanted and stated that it was not fair. According to this behavior, Tessie uses Denial as a self-defense against her fear, anxious, and apprehensive to be “the chosen one”. She repeats the word “unfair” for three times and tries convincing the audience to start all over again until the end of the story. As the top of her emotion, she brings up an excuse to involve Eva and Don as part of The Hutchinson’s and expects them to have their chance together. This action refers to Projection self-defense mechanism that can be seen based on her attempt to defend the ego from generating anxieties by using the excuse towards Don and Eva in order to maximizing her chance to live. 

The next Hutchinson shows after Tessie is Bill and his three children as the member of family that need to take one slip of paper again to select the “marked” one. Bill was only standing quiet and staring down at the paper in his hand as the fate that one member in his family will be stoned to death. In this process, his Ego gives the rational explanation besides of his anxiety to what will happen next. Hence, he shows his self-defense in Acceptance by answering Mr. Summers’ question about the number of his family correctly to represents “surrender”. In contrast, he stated “Shut up, Tessie” toward his wife’s argument about the unfair lottery process that intended to refuse the fact. So do the children, they know consciously the end of this process and in the high fear which can be seen based on their behavior. Nancy took the slip daintly, Billy with his red face, then Tessie who hesitated for a minute and looked around defiantly with set lips.

Surprisingly, Bill and his children acted so differently when finally found out that Tessie was the only one who has not opened the slip of paper which surely got the black spot inside of it. In the process, Bill forced the paper out of her hand and only held it up. He did not try begging for his wife to the villagers, but became one of the executors for his wife’s death instead. It is his Id that indicates his psychology which consciously signifies the desire to act out without considering his wife as the victim. So does Nancy and Billy who turn to beamed and laughed after opened their slips at the same time. They even are holding their slips of paper above their heads which represents proud.

By the changing feelings and behavior of The Hutchinson’s at the end of the story, it symbolizes how they actually are in high fear and have a peak of deep anxiety towards the lottery. Therefore, all of the anxious faded when this frightening and shocking situation happens to another person. As long as they do not become “the marked” one, they would never asked the situations or status quo as what Tessie did. It all can be proved by the self-defense that Tessie did in order to “started all over again” and perhaps the mark slip of paper will overwrite to the others family.

2. The Summers’

Joe Summers is the official who conducts the lottery and organizes the event neatly. The author made Joe as a jovial man and very good in managing all of this when he seemed very proper as talked interminably and humorously to the villagers. The depiction of this character actually represents Idealisation self-defense for Joe by emphasizing his positive besides of the negative issue as what people talked about his wife as a scold with no children.

Beside of Joe’s impression to the people, he substantively desired to get rid of this event in the society. The action can be seen based on his attempt to speak frequently to the villagers about making a new box. Every year after the lottery, Mr. Summers always begins talking again about a new box which clearly indicates his excuses for this event in rational terms such as the box is no longer show the original wood color, faded or strained so that need to make then new one. This Rationalisation is implicitly signifying the best way for him to be able to avoid the acceptance of the tradition that has to be done again next year.

In fact, this family try omitting the lottery implicitly according to Mr. Summers’ action as the official by changing the tradition that should held some ritual first before started the lottery instead of have jokes with everyone.

3. The Dunbar’s

Mrs. Janey Dunbar appears as the only woman who draws the lottery on behalf of Dunbar’s family since her husband got broken leg and not be able to make it this time. She is also becomes the one who has strong Superego when facing this event. Though she is in high fear and anxiety, she answered confidently that her son is still sixteen and the entire burden will be borne by her. In the same manner, she also told her son to go and tell her husband for who is the chosen one in order to protect him from witnesses this barbaric action.

At the end of the story, Mrs. Delacroix told her to be hurry in participating the murder of Mrs. Hutchinson. Janey’s Superego must be as hard as a rock that she had in both hands. The Superego seems give her the rational explanations according to norms and humanity. So instead of join in, she gasping for breath and told her to go ahead and will catch up behind which surely as an action to try avoiding taking part of the murder as well. From this, The Dunbar’s can be concluded as the family who disagree with this tradition and not willing to take part in murder.

4. The Watsons’

Jack Watson is a boy who old enough to draw the lottery for his mother and himself that year. He shows his fear and anxiety through the actions explicitly such as has his eyes nervously when answering Mr. Summers’ question and ducked his head when several voices in the crowd support him. This action represent his self-defense in Acceptance technique to live with the unwanted conditions and try accepting if fate could be overwrite him or his mother. So, The Watsons’ also one of the family who feel scared and in high fear when the name mentioned as one of the participant. Instead of doing some rejection action, they choose accepting the way it meant to be.

5. The Graves’

Mr. Harry Graves is the assistant for Mr. Summer when conducting the lottery and his wife is the one who told Mrs. Hutchinson that they were taking the same chance, as she deny the reality as the marked family. What Mrs. Graves stated to Mrs. Hutchinson is included to a behavior that refers to Acting Out self-defense. She tries to protect her skin and reduce anxiety by arguing the same chance that was taken for all of the participants. 

In short, The Graves’ is one of the family who accept and enthusiastic for the lottery. All can be clearly seen from how Mrs. Graves said to Mrs. Delacroix that time sure goes fast which means that it seems like yesterday they take part of murdering the marked one. Then, she moved into the front line when the stoning took place.

6. The Delacroix’s

Mrs. Delacroix is the first one who talked to Mrs. Hutchinson and laugh softly at the jokes she made in the back of the crowd. It shows her Id that does not really concern or worried towards the lottery. She also takes part of self-defense with Mrs. Graves to disproving Tessie’s arguments as she denies the fact to be the chosen one. She Acting Out from laughing softly with Tessie into the person who took a large stone she had to pick it up with both hands to hit her on head.

For this reason, The Delacroix’s also part of the villagers who enthusiast and hold with the tradition without any doubt. Even in the beginning of the story, Dickie Delacroix is one of the children who made a great pile of stones in the corner of the square that will later become a tool to murder Mrs. Hutchinson. 

7. The Adams’

At the first, Steve Adams and his wife talked to Old Man Warner that indicates how they are actually giving up on the lottery and in doubt to sympathize at this tradition. Both of them represents Rationalisation self-defense by saying a rational term that some North village story have already quit lotteries which become the main purpose for this village to also get rid of this tradition. However, their fear and anxiety are gone when finally find out that The Hutchinson’s is the family who got the marked slip of paper. From here on, their Id ultimately takes control based on what Steve Adams done as part of the front line people to kill Tessie together with Mrs. Graves.

8. The Martin’s

Mr. Martin and his oldest son, Baxter, are the only one who bravely come forward to assist Mr. Summers when he asked for help. Everybody is in hesitation and need to deal with their own anxiety to face this tradition. For instance, this family also agrees and follows the tradition without any doubt and questioning anything.

From all of the analysis above, it can be concluded that all of the family who are participate in this tradition basically worried and anxious to become “the marked one” which need to be stoned to death. They try to cover it up by some self-defense such as Humor or even Acceptance towards the lottery. Their Superego is still dominating the whole stuff at the first. Moreover, Mr. Summers and The Adams had given some rational terms to quit the lottery implicitly. But when the announcement for the marked slip of paper happens to another family, they Id directly take control of whole things and release them without any doubt and concerned who is the victim.