The Lottery

We are delighted to present this Trinity Forum Reading, featuring selections from Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Kay Haugaard’s “Suspending Moral Judgment: Students Who Refuse to Condemn the Unthinkable” with an introduction by Alonzo McDonald. 

Haugaard, a professor in Southern California, wrote her essay in response to a troubling classroom moment in which her students—when confronted with a fictional story involving horrifying evil—refused to make moral judgments. Haugaard documents her students’ increasing acceptance and indifference to the unthinkable and raises questions about society’s trajectory toward subjectivity today. This Reading urges us to pause and reflect on our own socio-political climate as we learn to navigate a world increasingly uncomfortable with moral absolutes.