Corrupt communities are places in which people's morals are driven by and dependent on the ethics of the community. The Veldt by Ray Bradbury, The Lottery by
Shirley Jackson, and Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor all illustrate dark and corrupt communities. One’s ethics in these communities can be described as evil, and one’s actions are driven by hatred. Although the word “community” typically has a positive connotation to it, these stories illustrate communities as being dark and corrupt which can be seen through the manipulation of people, the hatred of individuals and systems, and the betrayal of friends and families. In these stories by Bradbury and O’Connor, people are being manipulated in sinister and unexpected ways. Hulga,…show more content… She risked her life for her loved one and is stabbed in the back when
“Bill Hutchinson [goes] over to his wife and forc[es] the slip of paper from her hand
(Jackson 28).” She is betrayed by her husband and children who participate in her stoning. Children are quite malicious in The Lottery and The Veldt. In both stories, children participate in the killing of family members without a sense of remorse. “A cup of tea?” Wendy asks Mr. McClean after forcing her parents into the nursery with the intention of killing them (Bradbury 10). The children's society has given them everything that they could ever want and because of this, their parents have become obsolete.
The betrayal of friends and family are the product of a corrupt society, in which one’s morals mean nothing. People are manipulated, systems and individuals are hated, and friends and families are betrayed in these stories that illustrate communities as being dark and corrupt. The message that these authors are conveying is that it is human nature to be deceitful, and hateful, and evil. As the human race advances and technology takes over, one’s primal instinct of self preservation and to survive will never fade. The human race will always be able to destroy
