“All history has been a history of class struggles between dominated classes at various stages of social development” (Engels).The magazine The New Yorker published the short story that Jackson had written, in the magazine. The short story got a lot of mail through the magazine which was mostly hate mail against the short story. (Shirley Jackson).The short story has been printed in a dozen differently languages and according to sources it is possibly the most well known book of the 20th century. (Shirley Jackson). In the short story The Lottery, Jackson shows how positions of power are important to the characters that possess them and have consequences for other characters.
To begin with, their power help them get respect from their colleagues “The lottery was conducted –as were the square dances, the teen club, and the Halloween program –by Mr. Summers, who had time and energy to devote to civic activities.” (Jackson). This means to the other character that they are not as superior to Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves. Mr. Summers is the one in charge and focus on his job a lot because he has nothing to do with his time. He is also the one in charge so that way he knows that his job is secure and that the lottery really won’t affect him. “The Postmaster Mr. Graves, followed him, carrying a three-legged stool, and the stool was put in the center of the square and Mr. Summers set the black box down on it.” The title in front of Mr. Graves name shows that he is high up in the government and also in his job. This helps him get people attention because they respect the name title. The lottery works out in his favor most of the time.
Next, Marxist criticism and economics can go together in two ways. “Seems like there’s no time at all between lotteries anymore.”(Jackson). People are to worry about what they are going to get the next year in the lottery that they forget to have time by themselves and it is hard for them to live their life. Also having to worry about population and how they want to get the population down. “Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery.” (Jackson). This can fit into the economic aspect because of the reason that Old Man Warner has probably had a variety of jobs over those years. Also with the economics comes power. All the different jobs have different amounts of power that allow them to do certain things.
In the short story The Lottery, Jackson shows how positions of power are important to the characters that possess them and have consequences for other characters. This is a very important thing that people can learn to try and succeed to ones furthest potential.