The Lottery

            From reading the story The Lottery, I find that it is not the individual that corrupts society but society that corrupts the individual. The pressures of society of the individual can cause a person to act totally out of character. People are easily swayed and often like having others make decisions for them. Society can force the individual into things just from the fear of being an outcast.
             Peer pressures and pressures of the normalities of society have a tremendous impact on the individual. In The Lottery it was a tradition to have these annual stonings and no one ever questioned the matter. The only one who didn't like the idea was the one being stoned. Mrs. Hutchinson was very happy to be at the lottery drawing until it was her family that won the drawing. She even hurried from her daily work just to take part in the ritual. This society seemed to be a fairly peaceful place where murder would not be tolerated. It is only when everyone agrees on it that it is alright. Individuals are not born with these ideas of what they consider right and wrong, they are pressured upon them. In one place, capital punishment may be a normality but in another it is not allowed. The people agree with it because it is what they have always known and it is hard for them to see it any other way. .
             People are impressionable and can easily be made to think or act in a certain way. In The Lottery some people may have really liked Mrs. Hutchinson but as soon as it was decided that she was the one to be stoned, they didn't hesitate to kill her. Even Mrs. Hutchinson's son, Davy, had stones to throw at her. It doesn't matter who it will be, as soon as it is decided, whether it is a friend or not, the people will stone them. The People would not like to make this kind of decision themselves, so instead they leave it up to fate.
             Even if someone does not agree with one of the ways of society, they still may not speak up for fear of being different.