Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on the lottery by shirley jackson
Essay on the lottery by shirley jackson
Essay on the lottery by shirley jackson
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Essay on the lottery by shirley jackson
The theme is present to enable readers to understand the unthinkable rituals people follow in the society. Away from criticizing the very custom obscure right and wrong, the book becomes an avenue of analyzing the traditions, social, and gender divisions in the society. The book vividly illustrates how some families are fortunate while others are less fortunate in the society. The material explains how the emergence of paper money replaced the wood chips. Therefore, it led to the emanating of different classes in the society (Jackson 34). The writer uses the word paper in the book to illustrate the meaning of money symbolically. Additionally, the emblematic meaning explains how money led to the societal divisions. The material expounds how …show more content…
The theme clearly outlines the emanation of societal evils. Additionally, Shirley Jackson explains how lottery and cash meant a fortune to human beings. However, he further explains how the kismet was disturbing (Jackson 34). For instance, if a person encountered a bad fate, the situation was disturbing since unlucky meant losing money or wealth. Consequently, the loss of money or wealth meant the depreciation of class in the society. The author features the ancient village in the story. Moreover, he shows how civilization was slowly shaping. The writer explains how the community members were fond of performing rituals together with believing in mob psychology. He further explains how the ancient civilization transformed people in the society (Ming 320). For instance, the members conducted rituals in which the society evils were transferred to an individual or a group of unwanted people. Therefore, these symbolic rituals meant that the past unbecoming spirits evils were cleansed and the society was left with blessings. The author uses rituals as crucial communal events, which facilitated the communication between the community and the gods (Ming 311). Likewise, he compares the societal rites taken by the community with the Jewish …show more content…
The traditions involve the banishing of the lottery. Moreover, the members of society explain how they are afraid of getting rid of their old boxes because they had a traditional meaning to them. Through the theme of society and class, the town focuses on the old traditions, and they forget to implement the new policies that may enhance their economic growth. Therefore, the author uses the theme of social class and traditions to explain the doomed traditions in the town that hindered their progress. Most of the people in the town embraced the old traditions and those found acting contrary to the traditions were subjected to punishments. Most people in the book were punished because they were going against the town’s traditions. Additionally, those found guilty by the elders were compelled to offer a scapegoat for sacrifice reasons. The narrative, through the theme of society and class, is successful in portraying the society’s traditions and their repercussions on the society. Additionally, the theme of society and class is instrumental in explaining different criteria the town gave thanks to their gods. They usually praised their gods when their land was blessed, but they offered a sacrifice when the land was unproductive as a sign of pleasing their gods. Additionally, people who were reluctant in embracing the tradition of the town
Shirley Jacksons short story “The Lottery” is bout traditions and sacrifice. The people of their village followed the tradition even though they had to sacrifice greatly for them. In the story the village people all gathered for a lottery but if you got it someone in your family would die for the tradition but it blessed the crops. Traditions can be good or bad.
The title, “The Lottery” is significant because each villager’s life is at risk because there is no discrimination towards whom is chosen, nor is that person being punished for a crime. The story is about innocent victims involved in foolish traditions. Deaths of innocent people can be blamed on the culture a person is surrounded by. If we grow up in a society where violence is a usual occurrence, then it can be assumed that a person’s values are adapted to that style of living.
The story is set in a small village which has a general aura of merriness denoted by the use of positive words such as “sunny”, “warmth”, and “blossoming” (Jackson). Through the use of ordinary and friendly language, the author creates a simple and serene environment where children tend to break into “boisterous play” and women “exchange bits of gossip” (Jackson). Throughout the beginning there is a constant portrayal of a normal village life, where everyone knows everyone and family members have typical names. The specifics of the date and time of “The Lottery”, along with the friendly conversations exchanged between the villagers is misleading. It is not until the very end that the winner’s fate is discovered; death, by friends and family. This is the most significant irony in the entire story.
Shirley Jackson's, The Lottery, has raised questions in the back of every reader's mind towards the destructive yet blind rituals of mankind. A reflection of ourselves is what we see when looking through the pond of Jackson's mind. The Lottery clearly expressed Jackson's feelings concerning traditional rituals through her story, opened the eyes of its readers to properly classify and question some of today's traditions as cruel, and allowed room to foretell the outcome of these unusual traditions. Jackson's feelings towards the misuse of tradition as an excuse to cause harm have triggered her creativity for the creation of The Lottery. Jackson obviously saw examples of this misuse of tradition and ingeniously placed it into an exaggerated situation to let us see how barbaric our actions are. The townspeople, in the story, all come together for the annual lottery; however, in an interesting twist, those participating stone the winner to death. Everyone in the story seems horribly uncivilized yet they can easily be compared to today's society. Perhaps Jackson was suggesting the coldness and lack of compassion the human race can exhibit in situations regarding tradition and values. The People who were stoned to death represented values and good being as the townspeople, who represented society, cold-heartedly destroyed them ( Jackson 79 ). Immediately after reading The Lottery, one can compare the ritual, in the story, to some of today's barbaric traditions in a new point of v...
Another theme is sex roles which is evident in the subordination of the women throughout the story. The first place that this subordination is evident is when examining the power structure of the village, the hierarchy in which Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves are at the top. One of the only reasons that Summers is held up as this authority is because he has the time that is vested because he does not devote that time to his “scold wife” (Jackson 2). Another example of this is the subordination of Tessie by her husband while she tries to defend him from stoning. Though she is trying to defend his life, Bill shows he is still the dominating force and puts himself above Tessie before he is killed (Jackson 3).
This article discusses how different society around the world have a particular style that is only unique to them and valuable. Nacireman society is one of those societies who has some unique style when it comes to body ritual. Nacireman, which are a group in North America are known for their body ritual activities. The society, in general, believes that ritual and ceremony are the only way to prevent weakness and disease of the society since they believe that human body is ugly. For the purpose of the ceremony, every household devoted one or more shrines and some wealthy individuals have a number of shrines in their house. The ceremony associated with rituals are private and secret and only discussed with children when they introduced into the ceremony. The shrine room is walled either with stone or wattle, depends on their wealth and the central point of the shrine is a box which kept the charms and magical medicines. The medicine men assist with the ingredients and write them down using an ancient and secret language that the medicine men only understand. The medicine men rewarded with gifts for his assistance. The household keeps the charm even after it has served its purpose and put them in the charm box. Every family member of a household bows his head into this small font under the charm box when entering the shrine room before the charm box. The family practices some spiritual activities such as mixing different kinds of holy water and it follows by the ablution. The holy -mouth men in Nacirema society are much respected next to the medicine men. The holy-mouth-men opens and enlarges any holes
The ritual in this story is a lottery where everyone in the town gathers to pick a piece of paper out of a black box. The black box that has been passed down from a long line of ancestors, it is symbolic because it represents death. One member from each family in the village comes up and picks a piece of paper from the black box. One of the pieces of papers is marked with a black dot and whichever family gets the paper with the black dot has to put the paper back. Then the whole family gets to pick again and whoever gets the black dot will be stoned to death as a sacrifice. In “The Lottery” death is symbolized using the color black; the black box, the black dot and the rituals of stoning one to death all represent death. Old man Warner would say “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon”. This quote symbolizes death, meaning that if someone is sacrificed, the crops will be plentiful. The towns’ people do not want to change the ways of their ancestors’ rituals, as they have been listening to the oldest man in the town talk about how it would change the ways of
Mohandas Gandhi once said , “A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.” There was a story about a lottery that took place in a small town where all the townspeople had a certain event that happens every summer which kept everything stable as long as they stuck to tradition and their culture. The two main people that run this event during the summer are Mr.Summers and Mr.Graves; they influenced many inhumanity actions that occurred throughout the town. In the story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson illustrates the issues associated with mankind's tendency to follow tradition without question, with her use of tone and symbolism you're able to see the different ways in which this society can be so oblivious
Most people follow traditions for many reasons, but some do not continue to follow the tradition if they forget why in the first place. However, some people like the townsfolk in Shirley Jackson’s, “The Lottery” proceed to blindly follow their tradition. In other words, instead of them having a purpose for their tradition, the lottery, they continue to have the lottery each year because it is normal. The townspeople now see the lottery as a very casual event rather than a tradition. They no longer focus on the purpose, instead they just do it. In “The Lottery”, the people of the town gather together to have a drawing. After one man is chosen then his family must come to draw to see who gets stoned (292, 295). The people do not realize the danger they are in or see the wrongs they commit. Shirley Jackson uses dialogue, irony, and
The villagers don’t care about the black box or the ritual, but they do care about the stones which signify murder. In “The Lottery”, each villager cares about his or her own individual survival, even if it means stoning one’s own family. An example of a family can be seen through Hutchinson family and their daughter Tessie, who got stoned. They’ve done this for so long, they don’t question how sinful it is. It just seems like the ordinary thing to do for them. That behavior can be proved by “… the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o’clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner (Jackson 278).” The quote demonstrates that the villagers can murder someone, then casually continue on with their daily lives. They can do that action without thinking they did anything wrong. “The Lottery” encourages the villagers to have egotistical
“Mankind must remember that peace is not God’s gift to His creatures, it is our gift to each other” (Wiesel). Elie Wiesel said this profound statement while giving his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech. Shirley Jackson is a writer that composed the 1948 piece “The Lottery”, in which she conveys the message that following traditions blindly is dangerous. The beliefs of both of these writers are very similar when talking about violent behavior. Based on her piece “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson would probably respond to Elie Wiesel’s quote by saying that it can sometimes be difficult for people to give peace, but that it is important for them to know that it is their responsibility to do so by learning from the past.
The people of a small village in New england practiced a very deadly tradition. Every year they would participate in what was called the lottery, Every adult would randomly select a white piece of paper from an old black box and hope that it was not marked with a black dot, for there was no money at the end of this lottery rather death awaited the unlucky drawer. The victim would be stoned by everyone in the village until they died. This tradition had been carried out for years, generation after generation countless people would be wrongfully stoned to death and the only explanation for this inhumane activity was “It 's what we’ve always done”. “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago … no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box” (Jackson), It was almost as if the people of this village were afraid of change, afraid that is would somehow disturbed the atmosphere and upset their great ancestors, it was almost as if the lottery was their sacrificial offering to maintain peace within themselves. The idea of groupthink was missing in the story, no form of communication was made concerning this absurd tradition, those who tried to bring it were disregarded, this supports the dictatorship side of groupthink, the one where only one person (the mayor) would speak and everyone else would obey without
The concept of family is completely changed during the lottery. The villagers randomly persecute individuals, all because they have the marked slip of paper, and the lottery is a tradition that shows how blindly following a tradition can be dangerous, possibly
As species we are all born human, yet the journey we take on the passage of life defines us as individuals. Our lives are an array of moments of secular and spiritual change. Regardless of their importance, in both contexts, these occurrences represent a transition from one stage of life to another. People formalized these important moments of physical or social change by ritualization, or also known as ‘rite of passage’. The rites of passage play an important role in society. They are an efficient tool in restoring and maintaining balance within the social environment. At the same time, through rituals, they lead the initiate to social transformation. Rites of passage characteristically give assurance of mastery of the new roles and often include instruction in the new roles.
“The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1948. The story takes place in a village square of a town on June 27th. The author does not use much emotion in the writing to show how the barbaric act that is going on is look at as normal. This story is about a town that has a lottery once a year to choose who should be sacrificed, so that the town will have a plentiful year for growing crops. Jackson has many messages about human nature in this short story. The most important message she conveys is how cruel and violent people can be to one another. Another very significant message she conveys is how custom and tradition can hold great power over people. Jackson also conveys the message of how men treat women as objects.