Some individuals believe that the nature of morality is inherently subjective, as individuals perceive morality through the kaleidoscope of their own viewpoint. The short stories The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, The Geranium by Patricia Grace, The Lamb To The Slaughter by Roald Dahl, and Sweetheart Of The Song Tra Bong by Tim O'Brien explore the subjective nature of morality. This is revealed through exploring how tradition can blind us from discerning morality, and how decisions or actions can warp a person’s perception of morality. The Lottery and The Geranium argue that an ingrained ideal of tradition can collide with one’s subjective sense of morality. This is because tradition can cloak immoral behavior in the guise of virtue. In The Lottery, …show more content…
By the 1990s, society was beginning to recognise the moral flaws in blindly adhering to the patriarchal system; however, because Marney still follows this tradition, she has become disillusioned with life, which is evident when “she pulled the plug and watched the sink emptying, watched the water turning, heard it rushing in the drain.” We can see how Marney is resigned to her current life, showing her obedience until the end. Despite the confinement she experiences in a place she calls home, Marney feels compelled to conform to the traditional gender role of a submissive housewife, perpetuating the cycle of being a woman subjected to the dynamics of an abusive relationship. This ultimately links to how an immoral societal tradition can disguise itself in the form of morality. The villagers in The Lottery and Marney in The Geranium collectively show how an ingrained ideal derived from tradition can collide with morality while masking immorality. Both stories showcase how morality is not objective in its nature; it is rather subjective. In The Lottery, the black …show more content…
This is because a person's moral perception can change under the influence of their choices or behaviours. In The Lamb To The Slaughter, this ideal is projected through a traditional housewife, Mary, who awaits the arrival of her husband after completing endless in-house chores. This profiles Mary’s enjoyment of her role as a housewife and her entitlement to the domesticity of her lifestyle. Soon after her husband discloses his ongoing affair, Mary’s passive demeanour gives way to intrusive impulses, as depicted by, “When she walked across the room, she couldn't feel her feet touching the floor. She couldn't feel anything except a slight sickness. She did everything without thinking. She went downstairs to the freezer and took hold of the first object she found. She lifted it out, and looked at it.” Mary’s subjective moral overview shifts as she comes to believe that it is morally righteous to murder her husband and still uphold her status as his wife, rather than letting him leave and forfeiting her position. Mary had been fully committed to being moral until her husband’s immoral acts. This leads her to recognise that the notion of morality is a subjective facade imposed on her and how the response to immorality can be morally justifiable based off its subjective nature, regardless of its degree. This
Tradition is a central theme in Shirley Jackon's short story The Lottery. Images such as the black box and characters such as Old Man Warner, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. Hutchinson display to the reader not only the tenacity with which the townspeople cling to the tradition of the lottery, but also the wavering support of it by others. In just a few pages, Jackson manages to examine the sometimes long forgotten purpose of rituals, as well as the inevitable questioning of the necessity for such customs.
Jackson in her story, “The Lottery”, describes how society and villagers preserve the tradition of lottery without even knowing its origin. Hawthorne, in his story, “Young Goodman Brown” describes the presence of corruption and evil in the society. Both stories have common ideas such as corruption in our society, continuation of barbarous and unethical old traditions, and failure of people in handling those barbarous actions. Both stories have a common theme of evil and darkness but they are presented in different manners. This paper discusses similarities and differences in “The Lottery” and “Young Goodman Brown” by analyzing different literary elements. Jackson, in her story, questions beliefs of individuals, their actions, and blind faith towards old barbaric traditions by using an evil theme and symbolism. Hawthorne adopted a different approach to show presence of evil in our society by showing the inner struggle of the lead character.
One main theme in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is tradition nonetheless. Although tradition is most commonly thought to be somewhat of a social glue that holds families and communities together, Shirley Jackson reveals a whole new side consisting of the dangers following traditional practices. The lottery is normalized as being an early summer ritual that proves to be consistent and promising in a plentiful harvest, as mentioned by Old Man Warner. The real purpose of the lottery is never fully explained, but it is still conducted every year without suggestion of discontinuation. There proves to be a pattern of tendency to be trapped by tradition.
In The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson, the people of the village are consumed by a tradition. Every year in the month of June, they conduct a lottery to determine who will be stoned. The unjustified killing of a human being is widely viewed as an iniquitous act. Although surrounding communities have ceased the tradition of the lottery, this society continues the tradition. The idea of not practicing the tradition has been brought up numerous times within the community but “the subject was allowed to fade off ” (351). The community was conscience of the tradition being unethical but because it was a part of their heritage and believed to determine the success of their harvest, no one would do anything about the lottery. Once she is picked from the lottery, Tessie Hutchinson notices that the people are not conducting the lottery fairly and decides to stand up against the tradition. It can be inferred that women were not considered equal to the males of the village. Tessie—a woman— had the courage to stand against the tradition. Tessie understood that not all traditions are good. A tradition can be so engraved into an individual that they forget its purpose. In the story...
In conclusion, Jackson’s story is one warning of the dangers of blindly following tradition and the randomness of prosecution. The author indirectly hints to the true nature of the lottery through the use of objects, settings, and symbolism. The residents of the village learn from a young age to essentially disregard reasoning when carrying out the Lottery in order to preserve tradition. Throughout the story, the villagers do not dare cross the line of questioning the ritual because that is all they know. Just like in real life, most do not question the significance of tradition until it is often too late. The lottery is an extreme example of what can happen if traditions are not examined critically by new generations.
Tradition; it is the back bone of every culture and civilization. It is what keeps the beliefs, philosophies, and activities of societies alive, to be passed down from generation to generation. However not all traditions are practiced with pure intentions. Some activities become so routine, people don’t know a life outside of them. Societies become so accustomed to “tradition” that they will participate in pastimes without questioning the ethics or morals of the situation. Ultimately when tradition takes the place of a rationalizing mind the outcome can be incredibly dangerous. The role of tradition is an underlying theme in the short story The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, forcing readers to ask themselves “At what point do people set tradition aside and realize the thoughtlessness of their actions in their practices?”
Tradition is huge in small towns and families and allows for unity through shared values, stories, and goals from one generation to the next. Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” carries that theme of tradition. The story follows a small town that performs the tradition of holding an annual lottery in which the winner gets stoned to death. It (tradition) is valued amongst human societies around the world, but the refusal of the villagers in “The Lottery” to let go of a terrifying long-lasting tradition suggests the negative consequences of blindly following these traditions such as violence and hypocrisy.
Shirley Jackson’s “Lottery” satirically creates a society that puts the importance of tradition above even the life of the members of the community, as indicated by Old Man Warner’s response to Mr. Adams stating, “‘[O]ver in the north village they’re talking of giving up the lottery.’ Old Man Warner snorted. ‘Pack of crazy fools … Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them … There’s always been a lottery,’ he added petulantly” (413). Here Old Man Warner defends the tradition of their society, though notably without justifying the tradition. Rather, he focuses on the people of other villages and the tradition as self-evident, both logical fallacies. The first argument he makes in favor of continuing to have a lottery is an ad
The short story “ The Lottery ” the author Shirley Jackson uses symbolism and imagery to develop a theme the brings forth the evil and inhumane nature of tradition and the danger of when it’s carried out with ignorance.
In Shirley Jackson’s "The Lottery," what appears to be an ordinary day in a small town takes an evil turn when a woman is stoned to death after "winning" the town lottery. The lottery in this story reflects an old tradition of sacrificing a scapegoat in order to encourage the growth of crops. But this story is not about the past, for through the actions of the town, Jackson shows us many of the social ills that exist in our own lives.
Written by Shirley Jackson, “The Lottery” is a short story about a town that hosts an annual lottery that decides which person is stoned by the rest of the town. Jackson slowly and subtly builds the suspense throughout the story, only resolving the mystery surrounding the lottery at the very last moment, as the townspeople surround Tessie with their stones. The symbolism utilized helps demonstrate the overall significance of the story, such as the lottery itself. The lottery shows the way people desperately cling to old traditions, regardless of how damaging they may be. In addition, it can show how callous many will act while staring at a gruesome situation, until they become the victims. Jackson’s story presents the issue regarding the habit
We do not really ever wonder about some of the things that our grandparents and parents have taught us, but most likely, those things are traditions. Traditions are passed down from generation to generation and we never think twice about the traditions that we take part in. We do not know why we make up stories about a man who falls down your chimney every year, or a bunny that leaves eggs around the house. We take part in these traditions because we always have, and we do not have any reasons why not to. “The Lottery” is a great example of how people react to traditions. Shirley Jackson reveals in “The Lottery” that many people can be afraid to break the traditions that we have, no matter how bad they are, using indirect characterization, symbolism, and situational irony.
In "The Lottery" Shirley Jackson fills her story with many literary elements to mask the evil. The story demonstrates how it is in human nature to blindly follow traditions. Even if the people have no idea why they follow.
“The Lottery” is a story which shows the complexity and capability of human behavior. Something immoral, like stoning a person to death once a year, is a normal occurrence. The main character, Tessie Hutchinson, is the victim of the lottery. Tessie is a character with a number of seemingly good characteristics, yet her surrounding culture rejects these characteristics. The majority of the people in the village has opposite attitudes and beliefs in comparison to Tessie’s. These attitudes and beliefs reflect her personal desires which quickly struggle against the culture’s expectations. Tessie is unlike the other villagers; she is initially indifferent to the lottery indicating her desires are unrelated to the lottery. Upon winning the lottery, Tessie changes and her personal desires to survive and reject the lottery emerge in her selfishness and outspoken personality. These struggles against the village’s expectations are shown through the culture’s emphasis on tradition and small town ties.
Purpose: The purpose of this session was to set a framework for group members to realize that there are different stages of grieving and that the process can be complicated. Furthermore, during the session, it is hoped that they will also come to recognize that no two persons share the same path when grieving. However, there is still a common experience that some people share, which is the loss which can lead to feelings of low self-esteem. ‘This will be done through Impact therapy where they will be encouraged to be active, thinking, seeing and experiencing during the session activities’ (Jacobs Ed, Schimmel J. Christine 2013). Theme: