Examples Of Acceptance In Literature

899 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Social norms and their consequences on society

The concept of acceptance can be a touchy thing in society. Being accepted by others can also be very difficult in today’s world, whether it is the bully in the hallway or a national controversies people just do not fit in. People need to somehow figure out a way together and stop all of the meaningless bickering between one another. People also need to learn why this is happening and take action. Society also has a hard time accepting new ideas and ways of doing things. There are many pieces of literature that help us understand the idea of acceptance. Here are three pieces that can be used as a great example of acceptance, “Texas v. Johnson”, “ My So Called Enemy”, and “The Lottery”. “Texas v. Johnson” by William J. Brennan is a document …show more content…

Every June an unnamed town has a “lottery”. During this annual event every family in the town has the opportunity to draw a white sheet of paper. Whoever gets a paper with a black circle in the center of it wins the lottery. However the family doesn't get money, a new house, or even a new car. They get the privilege of being stoned to death by the other townsfolk. Whichever family wins, each member of that family gets to draw again. Then whoever gets the black dot is the winner. They do this because the believe if they give a sacrifice they will have a plentiful harvest. Many other towns have given up tradition because it is practically murder! However many people believe that it need to remain a tradition. “There's always been a lottery" (Jackson 31). Old Man Warner exclaimed. Then Mrs. Adams counters with "Some places have already quit lotteries," ... "Nothing but trouble in that," Old Man Warner said stoutly. "Pack of young fools." (31). Mr. Warner, like many elders do not like change. Especially if it is a tradition or annual event. People need to be open to new ideas to improve society and the overall quality of life. If people like Warner could accept that the world is constantly changing and advancing to new ways and solutions everyone would get along much

Show More
Related

  • Kurt Vonnegut’s Harrison Bergeron and Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    1641 Words  | 4 Pages

    The short story ‘The Lottery’ reveals a village of 300 that assemble for a lottery on June 27th every year. The lottery has been held this day for years and years, and has become a classic tradition. The lottery itself is holy to much of its residents, like Mr. Watson, who states that the village in the north is a pack of young crazy fools for removing the lottery. “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanti...

    Read More

  • The Dangers Of Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    846 Words  | 2 Pages

    As old man Warner said, "There 's always been a lottery” (Jackson 4). This shows that the villagers have a lack of ability to change over time. No person in the town would stand up and say that this violent ritual was absurd, making them all out to be hypocrites just as Tessie was. Instead of doing so, one villager, Mr. Adams, comments that other towns around them were giving up the lottery, as if to suggest their town should do so as well. In reply old man Warner said, "Pack of crazy fools” (Jackson 4), and then, "Listening to the young folks, nothings good enough for them” (Jackson 4). Old man Warner can in a sense be seen as a symbol of the town and their lack of change. He disapproves of anything that isn’t what he views as a traditional social practice. Old man Warner’s quick defense of the lottery implies that he sees change as an attack on himself and his beliefs. Blindly following tradition can cause the rejection of non-conformity in a society, even those traditions that are full of

    Read More

  • Characterism And Criticism In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

    1539 Words  | 4 Pages

    The story “The Lottery” is set in a residential area in the United States of America where a summer convention is being visualized. In her story Lottery, Old Man Warner demands and discusses the characteristics of resigning the custom to the present era, which he describes as a pack of youthful fools. He additionally uncovers that the lottery is,

    Read More

  • Tradition In Shirley Jackson's Lottery

    2110 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Shirley Johnson's The Lottery

    287 Words  | 1 Pages

    In “The Lottery” one of the famous Shirley Johnson’s stories has captured the readers worldwide. However, numerous people were unable to solve this puzzling question that has readers wondering for years. “Why forcing to stick with original tradition has been wrong and if people would love to break that tradition or not?” and it’s that same question that remains unsolved, until now. This story shows a quantity of significant clues that might enlighten us on why that’s the cause. These 3 significant clues could be this as follows: traditions alter over time, people occasionally don’t notice the alterations, and ignorance is death. The tradition that the town’s people were doing in this story has been wrong and it has been awfully cruel considering

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Connotation In The Lottery, By Shirley Jackson

    1045 Words  | 3 Pages

    Typically, when someone thinks of a lottery they think of something positive and exciting but contrary to this idea in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery”, the connotation has an entirely different meaning. As the story begins, readers lean towards the belief that the town in which Jackson depicts is filled with happiness and joy. “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green” (Jackson 247) We soon realize that this notion is far from the truth. As the townspeople gather in the square for the annual lottery, which sole purpose is to stone someone to death by randomly pulling a paper out of a black box with a black dot on it, it is learned

    Read More

  • The Morality Of Old Tradition In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    The point is if Old Warner were to be questioned as to what the purpose of the draw is being made he would surely have no idea. Individuals clinging to bloody traditions and barbaric practices, who thinks that things should be done in the same way that they were done for a long time ago, we can find today in any place, there are many and many Warner scattered around the world but, after all, more cynical than he, because they only accept the rules of the game in the areas of their lives that interest them, participate willingly in the drawings where they do not run the risk of being them.Quotes from the story like “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born. Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box.”(1) showing that the villagers don’t want to change anything and “Although the villagers had forgotten the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones.”(2) That they still follow it even when they know what is happening even enjoy it.The development of the draw is interpreted as an image of the structure of society: individual, family, people. Tradition comes from the people, families respect it, and individuals do not rebel against it. It should not be overlooked that women here have little to say the detail of Mrs. Hutchinson who arrives late because she does not want to leave the dishes unwashed be an active part. Another part of the story is Mr. Graves does not have a single dialogue line, but he is still head of the lottery. He doesn’t care what results could be, he just wants the tradition to be

    Read More

  • An Analysis of The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson

    390 Words  | 1 Pages

    In "The Lottery," by Shirley Jackson, there are a series of traditions the story revolves around. The characters in the story don't seem to follow their traditions anymore. The story begins by explaining how the lottery works. The lottery takes place in many other towns. In this town it takes place on June 27 of every year. Everyone within town would gather at the town square, no matter what age. The black box is brought out and each head of the household pulls a small paper out of it. Only one of the papers will not be blank, it will have a black-penciled spot that is put on by the owner of the coal company. The black spot will send someone, from the family who chose it, to death. This is decided by a draw. The family member who pulls out the spotted paper will be stoned to death. After a long period of time, people forget the traditions by slowly disregarding as the years pass.

    Read More

  • The Lottery, by Shirley Jackson

    1160 Words  | 3 Pages

    In every village it is always difficult to try and change they ways of the people. What one village sees as wrong, another may see as right. Some of the villagers may be stubborn enough to not change traditions that physically affect a person. Mr. Joe Summers is a man who ran the coal business for the village. He was a man who had time for civic activities, but no one really liked him. The reason as to why no one liked him was because “[H]e had no children, and his wife was a scold” (Jackson ). Mr. Summers had the privilege of carrying the revered wooden black box. Along side of Mr. Summers stood another man by the name of Mr. Harry Graves. Mr. Graves was the man who helped, Mr. Summers, make the slips of paper that would be used in the lottery, and he took the three-legged stool to the site of the lottery; which is where the black box was supposed to rest on. “Every year, after the lottery, Mr. Summers began talking again about a new box, but every year the subject was allowed to fade off without anything's being done” (Jackson ). The box was never changed because no one wa...

    Read More

  • traditions

    595 Words  | 2 Pages

    The story recounts a tradition that began by the original settlers of this small town. Jackson demonstrates that the passage of time results in a great deal of change to this tradition. The reader knows Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, is attending the lottery for the seventy-seventh year. Most of the current residents have a difficult time recalling the original specifics of the rituals surrounding the lottery. “Because so much of the ritual had been forgotten or discarded,...

    Read More

  • The Lottery

    535 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Examine Traditions In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

    349 Words  | 1 Pages

    Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” tells the story of a tradition passed on from one generation to the next that has allowed ritual murder to become a part of the town’s history. “The Lottery” shows that these traditions have the ability to destroy a society. “The Lottery” exhibits the dangers of blindly following unexamined traditions. The perils of blindly following unexamined rituals are demonstrated when the people gather in the square while the children gather stones, when Bill Hutchinson willingly gives up his wife without a second thought, and when Tessie Hutchinson is stoned. The first example of the danger of blindly following unexamined traditions is the mob mentality shown by the people who gather in the square while the children collect stones.

    Read More

  • The US War on Drugs in Latin America

    3419 Words  | 7 Pages

    McDermott, Jeremy. “US Targets Colombian Rebels as War against Terrorism Escalates.” Scottsman.com. February 10, 2002.

    Read More

  • Comparing The Lottery And The Story Of An Hour

    554 Words  | 2 Pages

    It seems that none of the villagers really knows why this ritual is done, or how it began. The only hint of why it may be done is by Old Man Warner when he says, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon” implying that it may have started with the belief that sacrificing would bring a successful harvesting season. Most, if not all, villagers have a sort of monotonous attitude towards this day and its events. Knowing that someone is about to be chosen at random to be stoned to de...

    Read More

  • Why Is The Lottery By Shirley Jackson Wrong

    1371 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story is told from a third person perspective, making the gruesome ending unforeseeable and creating a bigger focus on the traditional reasoning behind the unfortunate death of Tessie Hutchinson. There is a heavy description of the rituals that are still in place and also attention is placed on the parts of the ritual that have been forgotten. The narrator explains, "The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago, and the black box now resting on the stool had been put into use even before Old Man Warner, the oldest man in town, was born"(The Lottery). This account describes how ritual of the traditional stoning of a member of the town was lost to time. The narrator further states that, "Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box" (The Lottery). This is the statement that underlies the moral of the story. The fact that society is more worried about upsetting tradition, than upholding a high moral practice, that is fair and justifiable to all. Jackson’s argument of senseless tradition is reiterated through the conversations held by the townspeople. In a conversation held between Mr. Adams and Old Man Warner, Mr. Adams brings up the fact that other towns have given up the lottery. Old Man Warner replies by describing the other towns as a, “Pack of crazy fools” (The Lottery) Old Man Warner further claims, “There’s always been a lottery”(The Lottery) Old Man Warner’s proclamations are taken by the younger members of the town as a good enough reason to uphold such a horrid tradition

    Read More

More about Examples Of Acceptance In Literature

Open Document