The Perils of Indifference Vs. The Lottery

Horribly inhumane acts are not limited to those who are deranged, mentally ill, or terribly disturbed. The two pieces of literature “The Lottery” and “The Perils of Indifference” demonstrate how even the most ordinary of people have the capacity for hatred and appalling violence. The Perils of Indifference exhibits horrors of the past, and explores not only the human ability of slaughter and prejudice, but our tendencies for indifference. In this speech, Elie Wiesel emphasizes how in events such as the Holocaust, “indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor - never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten.” The attitude of indifference can easily be interpreted as a form of evilness, yet it, like many other evils, is demonstrated on a daily basis by average human beings, without a second thought.
The short story “The Lottery” also expresses the inhumanity that, ironically, goes hand in hand with humans, as a whole. Shirley Jackson tells a tale of a small town, who once a year, randomly choose a resident to stone to death. The story is written in a shocking context, as thought the reader should be surprised when it ends with the town turning on innocent Mrs. Hutchinson. But this is a story that has been told before. The genocide in Rwanda, the Holocaust, and other violent atrocities have all ended similarly, with humans senselessly killing humans, and nobody bothering to stop it. The fact that “It isn’t right, it isn’t fair” doesn’t seem to cross anyone’s minds except the victim’s, and until it does, the frightful manner in which humans have proven themselves to behave, will continue.