1
Class
Professor
Date
Religious Extremism in “Imagine no Heaven” and “The Lottery”
Jackson’s and Rushdie’s short story and essay both illustrate the logical fallacy of
“appeal to tradition” as well as showing that the consequences of blind faith can be deadly. Both
encourage the reader to develop their own morality and to question authority. “The Lottery” tells
the story of a village that has a tradition of selecting a member of their community to be stoned
to death annually in the springtime. Rushdie’s essay encourages secular thought, and argues that
religion stunts people in terms of moral development, along with some negative consequences
for society.
Rushdie begins his essay by stating that humans begin their lives questioning the best
way to live and why they exist. He calls humanity a “notoriously inquisitive species” (Rushdie).
In contrast, the children in Jackson’s story begin to pile up rocks on their own, emulating the
behavior and rituals of the adults around them. “Bobby Martin ducked under his mother's
grasping hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones” (Jackson). It is the adults, and Tess
who loses the lottery in particular, who question but do not interfere with the lottery.
Both “The Lottery” and “Imagine No Heaven” focus on the negative consequences of
unquestioning tradition and faith. Rushdie notes that too many people are being born because of
religious strictures that speak out against birth control. Rushdie also notes that, much like the
person to be stoned in “The Lottery,” religious fanatics will target the defenseless and powerless.
He cites the example of Hindu fundamentalists targeting minority Muslims, American
fundamentalists targeting abortion doctors, and Iran targeting a Jewish minority (Rushdie).
, 2
Morality in “Imagine no Heaven” is not allowed to develop for the individual. “To my
mind, religion, even at its most sophisticated, essentially infantilizes our ethical selves by setting
infallible moral Arbiters and irredeemably immoral Tempters above us: the eternal parents, good
and bad, light and dark, of the supernatural realm” (Rushdie). In other words, this morality is
absolute. The assumption can be drawn that disagreement can cause the arguer to be branded
amoral or a heretic.
So too are the members of the village where the lottery is held judgmental of people who
question the lottery, or offer up alternatives to murdering a resident every year. Old Man Warner
comments that people in the north village who have given up the lottery are “crazy fools”
(Jackson). He defends using the lottery by worrying that all of civilization will unravel if they
abandon the tradition (people will give up agriculture and go back to living in caves), and also
that there is a supernatural consequence to not holding the lottery. This consequence is the failure
of the corn crop. This is an example of irony, because agriculture is a science and crop failure
can be explained by physical phenomena (drought).
Tess Hutchinson arrives late but is happy to be there, making jokes. However, when she
gets the piece of paper with the black dot, she first states that her husband’s time to select was
not fair, and finally that the entire process is not right before she is killed. Mr. Dunbar has
broken his leg, and the reader may think that he will be sympathetic to someone getting hurt, but
he is not. Delacroix, who was talking to Tess earlier, selects the largest rock.
In “The Lottery” there are a few breaks with tradition. The box does not contain wooden
pieces, but instead has pieces of paper. This is because the population has grown. There used to
be a ritual salute, but this has been forgotten, as well as tuneless chanting and a recital. There is
conversation and joking, which Old Man Warner also makes negative comments about. The box
Class
Professor
Date
Religious Extremism in “Imagine no Heaven” and “The Lottery”
Jackson’s and Rushdie’s short story and essay both illustrate the logical fallacy of
“appeal to tradition” as well as showing that the consequences of blind faith can be deadly. Both
encourage the reader to develop their own morality and to question authority. “The Lottery” tells
the story of a village that has a tradition of selecting a member of their community to be stoned
to death annually in the springtime. Rushdie’s essay encourages secular thought, and argues that
religion stunts people in terms of moral development, along with some negative consequences
for society.
Rushdie begins his essay by stating that humans begin their lives questioning the best
way to live and why they exist. He calls humanity a “notoriously inquisitive species” (Rushdie).
In contrast, the children in Jackson’s story begin to pile up rocks on their own, emulating the
behavior and rituals of the adults around them. “Bobby Martin ducked under his mother's
grasping hand and ran, laughing, back to the pile of stones” (Jackson). It is the adults, and Tess
who loses the lottery in particular, who question but do not interfere with the lottery.
Both “The Lottery” and “Imagine No Heaven” focus on the negative consequences of
unquestioning tradition and faith. Rushdie notes that too many people are being born because of
religious strictures that speak out against birth control. Rushdie also notes that, much like the
person to be stoned in “The Lottery,” religious fanatics will target the defenseless and powerless.
He cites the example of Hindu fundamentalists targeting minority Muslims, American
fundamentalists targeting abortion doctors, and Iran targeting a Jewish minority (Rushdie).
, 2
Morality in “Imagine no Heaven” is not allowed to develop for the individual. “To my
mind, religion, even at its most sophisticated, essentially infantilizes our ethical selves by setting
infallible moral Arbiters and irredeemably immoral Tempters above us: the eternal parents, good
and bad, light and dark, of the supernatural realm” (Rushdie). In other words, this morality is
absolute. The assumption can be drawn that disagreement can cause the arguer to be branded
amoral or a heretic.
So too are the members of the village where the lottery is held judgmental of people who
question the lottery, or offer up alternatives to murdering a resident every year. Old Man Warner
comments that people in the north village who have given up the lottery are “crazy fools”
(Jackson). He defends using the lottery by worrying that all of civilization will unravel if they
abandon the tradition (people will give up agriculture and go back to living in caves), and also
that there is a supernatural consequence to not holding the lottery. This consequence is the failure
of the corn crop. This is an example of irony, because agriculture is a science and crop failure
can be explained by physical phenomena (drought).
Tess Hutchinson arrives late but is happy to be there, making jokes. However, when she
gets the piece of paper with the black dot, she first states that her husband’s time to select was
not fair, and finally that the entire process is not right before she is killed. Mr. Dunbar has
broken his leg, and the reader may think that he will be sympathetic to someone getting hurt, but
he is not. Delacroix, who was talking to Tess earlier, selects the largest rock.
In “The Lottery” there are a few breaks with tradition. The box does not contain wooden
pieces, but instead has pieces of paper. This is because the population has grown. There used to
be a ritual salute, but this has been forgotten, as well as tuneless chanting and a recital. There is
conversation and joking, which Old Man Warner also makes negative comments about. The box
