The Lottery In Babylon by Maria

Borges has a tendency to capture the binary of reality/fantasy in all of the works I have read by him thus far. One of the distinct ways he does this is to write about real things, places and people and then have fantastic things happen to those realistic things, places and people. A perfect example of this can be found in “The Lottery of Babylon.” First off, Borges titles this piece using words that one can identify with, namely, lottery and Babylon. The lottery is typically thought of as being a gambling game where there are winners and losers who are decided upon by ‘the luck of the draw’, in other words, by chance. The technical definition of the word lottery is, “any happening or process that is or appears to be determined by chance.” Similarly, the term “Babylon” refers to a real place – an ancient city that is known for its excessively luxurious reputation and wickedness. In fact, a definition of the term Babylon that I came across while doing some research said, “a city or place of great luxury, sensuality, and often vice and corruption." Clearly, Borges’ decision to title this piece of literature “The Lottery in Babylon” was not a random one.
The Lottery in Babylon toys with one’s perception of what is real and what isn’t. First, it is important to note that this story is told in the first person, meaning that right from the start, everything is told from one person’s point of view, in this case – from Borges’s point of view. When he first mentions the lottery he describes it as being something that he just accepts for what it is. In other words, he does not think about it, he does not question it; he just accepts it and believes in it. He compares this feeling to how he feels about natural things like his heart: “…the Lottery is a major element of reality…I have thought as little about it as about the conduct of the indecipherable gods or of my heart.” He explains that The Lottery began as just a simple game, played by commoners. As a reader, this is a realistic concept that one can identify with being that, in the reality of our world, the lottery is a game that people play. In this tale, due to the causality of the game, people who ‘lost’ would not always follow through with their consequences. Because of this, “The Company”, as Borges calls it, was forced to intervene and establish a stricter policy in terms of what would happen to the winners and the losers in order to keep the game fair for all.
As time went on, “The Lottery” shifted from being a free-for-all game played by commoners to something that was completely under the control of The Company. Simple consequences turned into horrible punishments and tangible rewards became more intense, intangible rewards. I believe that The Lottery represents chance and fate in one’s life whereas The Company represents government manipulation and power. In the beginning of the story it is clear that the Lottery was a simple activity that everyone was exposed to and which no one had control over – much like pure fate/chance. Then, at some point – without even realizing it - the story shifted. The meaning of lottery was completely different at the end of the story than it at the beginning. People became brainwashed into playing the lottery, thinking that their fate controled their result. However, what people did not realize was how much control The Company had on their consequences.
In so many ways this symbolizes the world we live in. For example, we live in a democracy and often believe that the things that happen to us are out of our control or are ‘meant to be.’ But, this story makes one question how much control over certain circumstances we really have? How much of what happens in our life happens by chance? How much of it do we believe is by chance because of what we’re told by our government? And, how much of it is really in our control.
In the middle of the story, Borges hints at the fact that The Company may have been getting out of control due to them having too much power: “Incredibly, there was talk of favoritism, of corruption.” Much like any situation when one person, board, or group of decision makers has too much power, favoritism and corruption occurs as a result. I think it is very interesting how Borges decided to use The Lottery to tell this story. Especially, because the lottery is something that could be so concrete and definite or not, depending on whose perspective your looking at it from. For example, an optimistic person may say that a lottery has an infinite amount of possible outcomes. In fact, Borges alludes to this concept when he says, “…in reality, the number of drawings is infinite. No decision is final; all branch into others.” On the other hand, one might look at a lottery as a trap – the outcome is decided before one even decides to play the game. There are always winners and always losers – which are predetermined by chance.
The overall theme of this story parallels the overall theme of Borges’s writing in general. As a reader one has two options - to go along with what Borges says and believe it, or to deny it. Similarly, ‘the people’ or commoners of this story have two options – to follow the destiny bestowed upon them based on their drawing and to believe that The Company is all-knowing and all-powerful, or to deny its existence and power. Here we see the powerful and reoccurring theme of Borges – the blending together of reality and fantasy.
Lastly, the title of this piece, as it includes the words lottery and babylon, encompass the meaning of all of the underlying themes - mainly corruption, chance, gambling winners, losers and how manipulation can make it difficult to decipher the difference between fallacy and truth.