Shirley Jackson's very controversial story is considered by many to be a parable about the detached inhumanity of man to man. Indeed, this detachment in cruelty is most relevant today as the daily news almost certainly has a report every day of some child killing his parents or grandparents because they would not comply with his wishes, etc. And, when interviewed, the child calmly relates what he/she has done.
The dangers of indoctrination and conditioned, ritualized behavior are exemplified in the harrowing story told from such an objective point of view. When Bill Hutchinson blindly obeys Mr. Summers and opens his wife's slip of paper which revels the black mark, Mr. Summer summarily orders,
All right, folks," .... "Let's finish quickly." Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones....Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dungar. "Come on,'" she said. "Hurry up."
None of the horror of the act touches the people, who are so inured to it. Instead, they are worried about hurrying and the time. The reader can easily picture residents of a crowded city pausing only momentarily at the sight of violence to which they are inured, then hurrying to wherever they are going.
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