Examining Durkheim's Model of Suicide on Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

Anoosheh, Sayed Mohammad; Oroskhan, Mohammed Hussein

doi:10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.83.31

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Examining Durkheim's Model of Suicide on Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

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Abstract:

The beginning of twentieth century experienced significant changes affecting different parts of society. Such considerable changes not only influenced the appearance of the society but also dramatically changed the social bonds gripping different kinds of people together. In this regard, Emile Durkheim as the father modern sociology thoroughly reexamined the previously settled notion of sociology and brought about a new perspective studying the social bonds. With regard to his two main principles namely mechanical solidary and organic solidarity, he justifies the relationships among the individual within the traditional and modern society. Nevertheless, he mentioned that out of few rare situations, the individual may commit a type of suicide which is totally the consequent effect of society on individual. Hence, through this study it is tried to reconsider Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" in the light of Durkheim's theory. In this case, it is revealed that while previously it was believed that the main character of the story is killed mercilessly by his friends and families, she has indeed committed altruistic suicide as the result of being so much integrated within the structure of the society.

Info:

Periodical:

International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences (Volume 83)

Pages:

31-38

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18052/www.scipress.com/ILSHS.83.31

Citation:

S. M. Anoosheh and M. H. Oroskhan, "Examining Durkheim's Model of Suicide on Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"", International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, Vol. 83, pp. 31-38, 2018

Online since:

August 2018

Authors:

Sayed Mohammad Anoosheh, Mohammed Hussein Oroskhan

Keywords:

Altruistic Suicide, Mechanical Solidarity, Organic Solidarity, Shirley Jackson

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

References:

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470756133.ch1

[4] K. Thompson, Emile Durkheim, Routledge, London, (1993).

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2657479

[6] A. Charters, The story and its writer: an introduction to short fiction, Bedford/St. Martins, Boston, (2016).

[7] A.R. Coulthard, Jackson's the Lottery, The Explicator. 48(3) (1990) 226-228.

[8] S. Jackson, The Lottery, Penguin Books, London, (2014).

[9] A.A. Griffin, Jackson's THE LOTTERY. The Explicator. 58(1) (1999) 44-46.

[10] E. Durkheim, K. Thompson, Readings from Emile Durkheim, Routledge, London, (2005).

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