Paraphernalia In The Lottery

The Lottery

In the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, is about an unusual lottery that one would not expect. This lottery leads to an annual sacrifice to keep the village from turning into chaos. But over the years many of the rituals have been forgotten. The one this that hasn’t been forgotten is using stones to murder people and this will always stay a tradition. This show that people wont stray from tradition and a way Jackson shows this without giving out the meaning of the story is by telling is in thirds person.

In this lottery a family member (preferably a male), would pick out a peace of paper from the black box, that has been won out, and whoever happens to have a black dot on the paper, would generally have to have a raffle

between their family. In this case, the Hutchinsons’ were chosen to do a lottery between them. Now the same concept applies to the family. The unfortunate, who pulls out a paper that has a black dot, will be stoned by the entire town, which happens to be Tessie. At this point, Mr. Adams starts to point out to Mr. Summers that other towns are stopping or planning to stop this ridiculous tradition. But of course, the people who aren’t getting stoned think that the lottery tradition should continue, otherwise the town could become a holy mess.
Eventually this tradition of stoning villagers happens every year, things are never the same.

For example Shirley Jackson states,

“The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago… by now it was no longer completely black but splintered badly…”(Jackson 142). “At one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort…There had been a ritual salute addressing each person who came up to draw from the box”(Jackson 143).

None of this is done anymore, but the villagers continue to believe that “The Lottery,” every year will keep them in place. The people who think like this are especially the older generation, such as Old Man Warner, “the oldest man in town”(Jackson 142). This may give readers a sense that the villagers will always continue this tradition, no matter how pointless it is becoming through the years. The newer generation is beginning to understand that there is no point in the lottery anymore, since every year something is lost, broken, or changed. Jackson states this by saying that, “The original paraphernalia for the lottery had been lost long ago”(Jackson 141). Of course the younger kids are being taught that a sacrifice of killing people every summer is okay. This is why the tradition never really

fades.
A way that Jackson builds up the whole story without giving up the true meaning of the lottery is by using third person point of view throughout the story.

This method of telling the story could get confusing, because it doesn’t give any information on what the lottery really is about; so this generally makes people think that winning the lottery could be good, but yet gives confusion because how Jackson states that the children put stones in their pockets before the gathering (Jackson 141). This builds up suspense in readers by only giving little parts of information throughout the conversations and actions that the villagers have without revealing what the lottery is

about.
Third person point of view helps explain the tradition in the story because it gives a different meaning or it would have given a boring sensation if it were written in 1st person. If it were written in 1st person, a villager would have told the story, and this would’ve revealed what the lottery is about throughout the beginning of the story. This is something Jackson didn’t want because she wanted readers to have that feeling of wanting more. Also writing it in 1st person, this story would have more detail and emotion, which would make the story longer than intended. This could cause readers to give up reading the story because they would already know what the story would be about, just by reading the first sections. But yet Jackson does end up being a little omniscient to give out information to the readers, which is only something that the villagers would know. Jackson give an example of this by stating, “There was a proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery: at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery…”(Jackson 142). This shows that the little use of omniscience that Jackson uses in the story, but yet it does not deviate from it, which helps give readers little bits of information to help give a little sense of what’s going on in the story and what their tradition really is.
This shows that the village continues with their tradition, even if changes occur every year. The narrator did a good job of keeping readers interested throughout the entire story by just giving little bits of information that would help get an idea of what was going on in the village. The 3rd person point of view is obviously an effective way to keep people thinking and continue reading. This helps to keep suspense to make things interesting and wanting more without giving away the full meaning of the story till the end.