Utilitarianism by definition is “The creed which accepts as the foundation of morals “utility” or the “greatest happiness principle” holds that actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness; wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness(Mill 118). He also states that, “By happiness is intended pleasure and the absence of pain; by unhappiness, pain, and the privation of pleasure”(Mill 119). Our actions are in proportion to lead to happiness, and if it does not lead to happiness it is wrong, Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” challenges and supports the tenets of this philosophy.
Within utilitarianism, Mill's describes happiness is being “pleasure and freedom from pain”(Mills), and some pleasures are better than…show more content… Within the lottery people, may have not necessarily said they were against the lottery happening, but you can tell underneath all of that they were more scared of breaking the tradition of something that made the village, and the “pioneers” of the lottery happy. In Tom O’Brien’s, On the Rainy River, the main character was faced with the fact that the war was going on and how he was against being drafted in the war, “It was moral split. I couldn’t make up my mind. I feared the war, yes, but I also feared exile”(O’Brien 42). Just like in the story, many of the people had made comments about how some of the other villages had stopped partaking in the lottery, but were still not speaking up about changing it. You can tell from the tone of the story the mood around, and the atmosphere that the people were almost sumber about what was going on but still participated in it, “..and their jokes were quiet and they smiled rather than laughed”(Jackson 1). The story challenges the fact that, is it right to keep this tradition of killing off a single member of a family each year to keep the village thriving, or is killing someone not going to create happiness by keeping a tradition that has been in
