The Theme of Groupthink in “The Sisterhood of the Night” and “The Lottery”
In “The Sisterhood of the Night” by Steven Millhauser and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, groupthink is a central theme that authors used to explain their main idea. Groupthink is a phenomenon in psychology occurring to individuals where their desire for conformity within their group results in a deviant outcome. This means that the members consider minimizing their conflict while trying to reach a consensus decision without evaluating the alternatives critically. “The Sisterhood of the Night” and “The Lottery” presents this concept in details with relevant examples trying to depict…show more content… As many people complain in the text, many girls gang up to go out and practice unspeakable sexual perversions. Men from the community are complaining of the same yet the participants are not able to realize the mistake they are doing. They gang up together to make faulty decisions due to pressure from other members leading to inadequacy in moral behavior (Kickstarter). Consequently, when the community realizes of the behavior of the people, the community take it as a joke. They never realize that the practice is a bad behavior that their teen-age girls are engaging. On a reflection, the author uses the theme of groupthink in making the reader realize complex things to do with sanctuary, unknown ability and privacy of other minds. The story is quite lovely with the twist of the community never realizing the intention of girls in what they are practicing (Millhauser).
Conclusively, the use of groupthink in the above named two stories is a clear indication of tactful explanation of the perception of the community. Considering that people gang up to practice something that affects their lives in the future, they never realize until it happens. To some extent, they always gang up to support the faulty decisions without realizing on the repercussions.
