Old Man Warner's Message In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson does an amazing job at telling a brilliant, but twisted short story. It starts off with the celebration of the village’s annual event, the lottery. Families are all gathering at the town square preparing for the event to begin. The black box is finally brought out, and every member of each family's names are put into the box. One by one, families are called up to draw a paper from the box. Everyone is anxiously waiting for someone to open a paper with a black dot on it. As one family is drawing, the wife accuses the host of not allowing her husband enough time to choose the paper of his choice. The family all put their papers back in the box and redraw, and the wife opens her paper to find she has the black dot. Suddenly, the

story takes a major turn, and everyone begins stoning the wife to death. The story ends abruptly, and quite maliciously. Although it is not clear in the beginning, readers can infer that the annual tradition is not as innocent and harmless as it seems by the resolution of the story. Jackson uses elements such as setting, character, and symbolism to express the theme of the importance of tradition in small towns in “The Lottery”.
One element that plays an important role in the story of describing the theme is setting. The setting of the story is described in the intro of the story, and it reads, “The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny…. The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock…” (Jackson 419). The lottery begins every June 27 at promptly ten in the morning, and is over by noon (Jackson 420). Just like any other tradition, such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, the lottery has its own special date, time, and place to be held, although, with an evil twist to it. Literary critic Summer Hayes states, “…the story, about an annual ritual of sacrifice in a small town and the dangers of blindly following tradition, is distilled to its brutal core.” (Hayes 1). This critique helps to strengthen the use of setting in the story by explaining that it is an annual ritual of following tradition wrongly, and not seeing the harm it is causing in a small town.
Another element discussed in “The Lottery” that contributes to the theme is character.

One character who really draws the attention of readers is Old Man Warner. Old Man Warner is the town’s wise man. Therefore, what he says must be true since he has been around for so long. Old Man Warner comments that, ““...There’s always been a lottery,” he added petulantly. “Bad enough to see young Joe Summer joking up there with everybody.” “Some places have already quit lotteries,” Mrs. Adams said. “Nothing but trouble in that,” Old Man Warner said stoutly. “Pack of young fools.”” (Jackson 432). This quote implies that they are very content on keeping tradition going, and although some may want to end it, elders tell otherwise. Literary critic Martha Cornog states, “The ritual’s origins are forgotten, and other towns have given it up, but these villagers keep the tradition out of habit…” (Cornog 2). This is very true, because villagers have had many opportunities to stop the tradition like the other villages, yet they continue it. The story goes on to tell that this is not Old Man Warner's first rodeo. Shirley Jackson suggests this by writing, ““Seventy-seventh year I been in the lottery,” Old Man Warner said as he went through the crowd. “Seventy-seventh time.”” (Jackson 423). He has been through so many lotteries that he has trouble wanting to stray from tradition like others have suggested. Some other characters who also suggested the theme is the children. The children are taught

at a young age that tradition is important through their parents. Readers can infer this through the text which reads, “The children assembled first, of course...Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones…” (Jackson 420). This excerpt describes how the children are all aware of what is to be done on the day of the lottery. They participate most likely not because they want to, but because they are taught by their parents of the importance of the lottery. Just like religious families are taught to follow certain rituals, the children are taught the importance of a town tradition. Along with character and irony, another important element is symbolism.
There are many objects that symbolize one thing or another in “The Lottery” that contribute to the story’s theme. Shirley Jackson really emphasizes two obvious objects: the black box which played a big part in the story, as well as the lottery itself. The black box symbolizes generations of the town's tradition. In Jackson’s short story, it says, “Mr. Summers spoke frequently to the villagers about making a new box, but no one liked to upset even as much as tradition as was represented by the black box. There was a story that the present box had been made with some pieces of the box that had preceded it…” (Jackson 420). This quote shows how the town refuses to break ritual just because it means they will lose a part of their town history. Another example of symbolism is the most obvious one: the lottery itself. The lottery symbolizes the towns motto, “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” (Jackson 423). Literary critic Martha Cornog supports this by saying, “…superstitious expectations for a better harvest, and paradoxical benefits of group cohesion despite a deadly outcome.” (Cornog 2). They consider stoning a person to death a good luck charm for their crops. Therefore, that is why they conduct the ritual every year, and it has become a tradition.
In conclusion, “The Lottery” is an ironic, and twisted story that has readers on their toes throughout the passage.

By the end of the stories, readers can infer the lottery is not a cruel game the village enjoys, but a sacrifice to bless themselves with good crops of corn. In conclusion, it is determined that the theme of this story is the importance of tradition to small towns. Children are taught at a young age how to prepare for the lottery, elderlies participate in the lottery only to complain about how important it is, and the town setting helps readers imagine what kind of time period the story occurs in. Authors are available to use vast amounts of literary elements in their stories. Although, only a few can be tied together to express the moral of their story. Setting, character, and symbolism are used to show the theme of the importance of traditions in Shirley Jackson’s “The

Lottery”.