Sacrifice in "The Lottery" and "The Rocking-Horse Winner"
This paper examines the theme of sacrifice as it appears in Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" and D.H. Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner," arguing that both authors use sacrifice to convey a message rooted in Christian values. Jackson portrays sacrifice as arbitrary, socially mandated, and antithetical to Christian teaching, depicting a community that has abandoned the Golden Rule in favor of ritualized violence. Lawrence, by contrast, presents sacrifice as a noble, love-driven act through the character of Paul, who gives his life for his indifferent mother. The paper contrasts freely given sacrifice with coerced sacrifice, and selflessness with materialism, to illuminate each author's distinct moral purpose.
- Introduction: Sacrifice as a Central Theme: Both stories use sacrifice to explore Christian values
- Sacrifice in Jackson's 'The Lottery': Random, mandatory sacrifice replaces Christian compassion
- Paul's Self-Sacrifice in Lawrence's 'The Rocking-Horse Winner': Paul dies willingly to satisfy his mother's materialism
- Contrasting Forms of Sacrifice: Noble self-sacrifice versus coerced communal killing
- The Authors' Diverging Purposes: Jackson critiques godless ritual; Lawrence mourns rejected love
- Conclusion: Christian sacrifice valued in Lawrence, absent in Jackson
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What makes this paper effective
- The thesis is clearly stated and consistently revisited: both stories use sacrifice to comment on Christian values, but from opposite angles — coerced versus freely given.
- Direct quotations from both primary texts are integrated naturally and used as evidence to support specific interpretive claims rather than as filler.
- The paper maintains a comparative framework throughout, moving between the two stories in a structured way that highlights meaningful contrast rather than treating each in isolation.
Key academic technique demonstrated
This paper demonstrates effective thematic comparison across two literary texts. Rather than summarizing each story separately, the writer identifies a shared thematic thread — sacrifice — and uses it as a lens to reveal how two authors reach opposing moral conclusions. The incorporation of secondary scholarship (Clayton, 1984) to support claims about Lawrence's intentions shows appropriate use of literary criticism alongside close reading of the primary texts.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a dual-text introduction that establishes the shared theme and the comparative thesis. It then treats each text individually before pivoting to contrast and synthesis. The two middle sections analyze how sacrifice functions differently in each story — as social compulsion in Jackson and as loving devotion in Lawrence. The final sections articulate each author's distinct moral purpose before a brief conclusion ties both threads together.
Introduction: Sacrifice as a Central Theme
The theme of sacrifice is integral to the author's purpose in both The Lottery by Shirley Jackson and The Rocking-Horse Winner by D.H. Lawrence. While the two authors use the idea of sacrifice in very different ways, its importance is clearly delineated in each work. Jackson and Lawrence approach the theme from separate angles and with two very distinct purposes in mind. This paper examines the theme of sacrifice in each short story and shows how it is used to convey the authors' underlying messages about the importance and value of Christian sacrifice.
Sacrifice in Jackson's 'The Lottery'
In Jackson's "The Lottery," sacrifice is arbitrary and random. Each year, an individual from the town is selected by lottery to be stoned. No reason is given for the tradition other than that it is a tradition and must therefore be followed. One has a sense that the village operates according to a rather anti-Christian creed: instead of "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," these villagers assert that all must throw stones regardless of guilt or innocence. Blood must be shed. Someone must be sacrificed.
Paul's Self-Sacrifice in Lawrence's 'The Rocking-Horse Winner'
In Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner," the child Paul sacrifices himself in order to please his mother, who is consumed by a materialistic and selfish mentality. Able to predict the winners of horse races by riding his rocking-horse to an imaginary victory, he collects vast sums of money and gives them to his mother in an attempt to fill the empty void inside her. At first, the money seems to work — but gradually it becomes clear that enough is never truly enough. The problem is that each "race" takes something from Paul's life, until finally he gives himself so completely to one last race that he loses his life entirely.
Contrasting Forms of Sacrifice
Paul's example of sacrifice — literally dying for his mother, who ironically fails to perceive the value of his gifts — stands in sharp contrast to the sacrifice depicted in Jackson's "The Lottery." In the village, none of the citizens are willing to embrace the kind of life-giving heroism displayed by Paul. Lawrence takes the theme of sacrifice and shows how noble an ideal it can be, and how brutally it can be abused by those who are shallow, like Paul's mother — people who take no time to appreciate or understand another's sacrifice. Jackson's characters are equally self-absorbed: they think only of themselves and pray with each lottery that they will not be the ones chosen.
Conclusion
Both Jackson's short story and Lawrence's examine the theme of sacrifice — but each does so in very different ways. Jackson's purpose is rooted in depicting a world utterly devoid of Christ's message. Lawrence's purpose is rooted in revealing the power of love and sacrifice — and the sadness of witnessing a soul that rejects the love and gift of another because it lives only to feed its materialistic appetite.
References
Clayton, J.J. (1984). D.H. Lawrence: Psychic wholeness through rebirth. The Massachusetts Review, 25(2), 200–221.
Jackson, S. (2011). The lottery. In Perrine's: Story and structure. Boston, MA.
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