The Immoral Acts in James Thurbers The Most Dangerous Game and Shirley Jacksons The Lottery

Both in James Thurber's "The Most Dangerous Game" and in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", there are immoral things taking place. In "The Most Dangerous Game", Rainsford takes place in grueling game of human hunting between himself and the man who owns a beast named Ivan and hunts people for the joy of it, General Zaroff. However, in "The Lottery", the main character, Tessie, gets stoned to death due to a traditional drawing that the whole village participates in to see who is going to be sacrificed. Most modern day humans would think that these acts are immoral. Rainsford does not care about the animals that he is hunting. As they were on a boat off of the coast of Ship-Wreck island, Rainsford stated, "Who cares how the jaguar feels?" (216).

If Rainsford was a good person, he would care how the animal feels as well as not be so self centered and cocky. This shows some of the immorality in Rainsford. If one was asked to hunt other humans how would one respond? One might respond in many ways. On example might me shame and disgust. Another might be shock and awe and start to question if the person who asked the question is immoral or crazy. But here is how the conversation went between Zaroff and Rainsford went when Rainsford was asked if he would want to hunt other humans. "But no animal can reason," objected Rainsford. "My dear fellow," said the general, "there is one that can." " But you can't mean-" gasped Rainsford. (224).Rainsford thinks it is wrong to hunt humans and does not want to take part in any sort of way in Zaroff's "game". This adds to the immortality of hunting humans as well as to the immoral part as a whole. But in the end, Rainsford must hunt humans. The choice is either be beaten with a whip or to play the game of human hunting. In reality, he only has one choice. One would at least want to pick the choice that they are able to win. When it is all said and done, Rainsford picks the choice that he has an opportunity to win and outsmart his opponent, General Zaroff. But to his avail, he wins the game by outsmarting and out thinking General Zaroff.

On the other hand, in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery", Tessie Hutchinson plays the traditional lottery. This traditional lottery involves one person out of 300 getting sacrificed by a stoning. Many people believe that sacrificing is immoral. But in a village where it has been a long tradition, nobody cares that it is wrong or immoral because it has been going on for a long time and it is their "tradition*. But unfortunately for Tessie, she won the lottery. After all, this is a tradition for the village and it is a ritual where one unlucky soul must draw that black dot on that piece of paper and be sacrificed by a stoning by the entire village, including her own family. When Tessie won the lottery, she didn't care about tradition anymore, she did not want to play or take part in any way shape or form. She wasn't concerned about how long this has been going on or how traditional it is, but she was rather more concerned about he own well being. "It isn't fair it isn't right," Mrs Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her. (745).

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When one was drawn to get stoned and die, they wouldn't want to play, they would forget all the traditions too, just as Tessie did. But when one is drawn, they have no choice but to get stoned by the whole village. They have no choice, no say, and no way out. Although the Hutchinson family tried to cover up the black dot on the piece of paper that Tessie had drawn, they couldn't cover it up long enough before the whole town started to look at the Hutchinson family. "Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones." (745).

This quote attests to how long this "tradition" has been going on. It also demonstrates that if one is chosen to get stoned to death, although it is unfortunate, they can not escape what they have been chosen for. Overall, both of these stories showed some type of immoral or wrong act. Wheather it was Zaroff and Rainsford going head to head in human hunting or Tessie Hutchinson getting stoned to death by the entire village as a sacrifice, these stories both include an unfortunate soul who can not escape what they have been chosen for. Technically, Rainsford, had a choice whether to be whipped or to hunt Zaroff, but in reality. he only had one choice. On the other hand, Tessie Hutchinson had no way out. When it is all said and done, both of these stories have wrong and immoral things.

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