From election to sacrifice Reflections on Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”

If Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” can be seen as a political pamphlet, it denounces injustice above all. Election by lot presents a chance event emptied of its meaning, relating to statistical probability rather than the invitation of destiny. This nihilism gives rise to a model of perfect injustice: it is abstract and empty, but in the hands of the group, and exercised against the individual. This injustice leads to a failed sacrifice, in which the chosen scapegoat, far from founding a culture, turns against it.